Chapter 11

"Are you sure it's him?" Scylla asks.

"It's him."

I'm so pissed at Wade. I can't believe he is doing this to me. They remove the blinder from my face. I'm in a cave. It's filled with water. I have my fins. I am tied tightly to a rock. Wade is off to the side. He was the one who removed the blinder. His eyes glare at me for a second. I can't believe him. I want to scream at him. I want to be angry but I don't. I just stay quiet. I stay quiet because there is something there that is scaring the fuck out of me.

Scylla.

Scylla isn't in her human form. She is in the monster form.

"So you are what all this trouble is about?" Scylla asks me.

She circles me. 12 dangling feet, six long necks and a grisly head lined with triple rows of teeth. The teeth get closer bearing at me and causing me to shut my eyes.

"He's afraid."

"Open your eyes," Scylla says.

"No."

"Open your eyes..."

I finally open them reluctantly. The monster is gone. The woman is there. Somehow Scylla is able to breathe underwater with legs. She swims close to me.

"Do you know who I am?" Scylla asks me.

The face is still scary but nothing as terrifying as when she was a monster. I glare at her. It's hard to see her in the dark cave. The only light that really illuminates her is the light from my fins that have the illumination of a small lamp. My fins cast a light on her face and show just how excited she is to finally have me in her grasp.

"You're my aunt," I state.

"Bingo. Isn't that what they say on the dry land? Bingo?" she smiles, "Do you know what I want to do to you little one?"

"You want to kill me."

"2 for 2. I have a very smart nephew," she responds, "I have a very beautiful nephew as well. Just as beautiful as my sister. She looks just like you. You know. Did they tell you that all my sisters and I loved your father. But your father chose your mother."

I knew the story. I wasn't sure why she was giving me this revisionist history.

"Just kill me. This is what you wanted isn't it?"

"You deserve to die. You deserve to be punished. You and all your kind. Do you know the real reason why the gods sunk Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean in the first place? No. you don't know do you? They leave that part out of their stories. Don't they?"

I look over at Wade. Regardless of how upset he was I was shocked that he would let Scylla kill me. I was shocked that he wasn't stopping her. Wade just stands there seeming to have zoned out completely in this moment.

"Why was Atlantis sunken?"

"To stop the threat."

The threat?

"What threat?"

She doesn't answer me. It seems like Scylla isn't taking as much joy out of this as I thought she would. Her face looks serious and almost distraught as she puts her hand on my chest. She puts it right above my heart. Soon I notice her finger nails turning into these sharp claws almost like the teeth when she was in monster form. The hard fingernails dig deep into my skin. I can feel them piercing through my skin.

She was going to pull out my heart!

She was going to pull my heart out right out of my chest.

"WAIT!" Wade says.

Oh thank god. Wade was going to stop her. He was going to convince her. He had to. I can tell Scylla looking annoyed that he is stopping her.

"What is it?" she asks Wade.

"When you take his heart out of his chest, give it to me. I deserve it. This is payback for when he ripped my heart out," Wade replies.

I've never really seen Wade look so cold as when he says that. If there was ever love, that love is gone. Wade hated me with a passion after he found out what was going on with Blue. I can see it in his eyes.

Scylla turns back to me and says the weirdest thing once again.

"I find no joy in this."

I find no joy in this.

She was saying it over and over like it was something that she had to do. Slowly her finger nails dig through my heart and start ripping it out and my entire body is shaking. I feel like I am having some type of seizure or something from what she is doing.

But then I realize.

It isn't me.

The cave is shaking!

"What's going on?" Wade asks Scylla.

"Charybdis. My sister is being attacked outside of the cave."

"By who?"

"The only person with the power to attack her. The goddess has found us," Scylla states removing her hand from my chest, "Did anyone follow you here?"

"I didn't think so...I...well, I don't know. It's possible," Wade says.

Scylla looks irritated by Wade. Within a flash, I can see her transform back into her monster form and she is heading back outside of the cave. I can see how angry she looks. She is definitely pissed that someone has interrupted us.

"Watch him!" she says.

I can tell she is going to help her sister.

When she leaves there is silence for a moment. Wade swims up to me. His tail is longer than mine. His body floats in the water almost in a mesmerizing way when he gets up to me. Our eyes lock when he does it.

That's when he does something weird.

Wade starts to untie me!

"I'm so confused."

"You slept with my brother. I wanted you to know how it would feel to come so close to losing everything. I wanted to put you in the position that I was," Wade explains, "Now you know don't you, Krill? Now you know how it feels to have your heart ripped out...almost at least."

"You are just letting me go?" I ask.

"I made sure a message was delivered to the Goddess whenI kidnapped you. I knew she was going to come."

I couldn't believe this. Wade had untied me. He just looks at me at that moment. Does he think I was going to thank him for doing this? He kidnapped me and put me in harm's way just to prove a fucking point? Wade was mental. There was something literally wrong with this guy.

"You are fucking playing games with my life!" I ask.

"JUST HOW YOU PLAYED GAMES WITH MINE!" Wade says, "Now you should get out of here before Scylla comes back. She won't hesitate to kill you as you can see. And take this with you..."

Wade swims to the other side of the cave. After a few seconds, he returns with the conch. He has it in his hands. He hands it to me and points towards another exit of the cave as though letting me know where to go.

"You're staying here?" I ask him.

"Yeah."

"Won't she be mad that you let me go?" I ask Wade.

"She'll kill me."

Wade says it in such a soft way. We are underwater and we are using echolocation to communicate but if we were on dry land this would be the same thing as a whisper. He seems gone almost. He isn't really herr. Wade has left his mind. Him bringing me here was the first part of him losing his mind.

"Wade come with me..." I respond.

"For what?" he asks.

"To live."

"There is no point. You hate me. I can tell how you look at me. I'm not the same Wade that you knew back then. I'm crazy. I've lost my mind. You know it and I know it. Blue knows it. It's clear as day. I have an obsession with our relationship that isn't healthy. No wonder Blue was able to take you away from me. It's too late for me. Go. Get away. And don't play with my brother's heart."

Wade swims away from me. It may have been some sort of bi-polar thing going on but I can see the sweetness still in Wade. He goes to the corner of the cave and curls up next to a rock. He just sits there in the dark cave.

I look over at the exit.

I should go.

I should get out of here before Scylla gets back.

But then I see Wade. I see Wade and I think about Blue. Regardless of how emotionally fucked up Wade was I still cared about him. I loved Blue. There was no way in hell I could let Blue lose his brother this way. There was no way in hell I could let that happen.

"Wade come on. You have to come back."

Wade turns at that moment shocked that I'm still in the cave.

"What the hell are you doing? You need to get out of here!"

"I'm not leaving without you. I'll just have to stay in here and die too once she gets back. I won't leave without you."

Wade looks over at me. He's confused.

"Don't fucking do this to Blue," Wade says.

It's a strange thing to say. He was worried about his brother Blue right now. Wade may have hated me but his love for Blue was still there.

"You don't do this to Blue. He'd miss you more than he'd miss me," I tell him.

Wade looks at me hard. I can tell he is panicking and thinking about what he should do.

He chooses life.

"Let's get out of here before she comes back."

We start swimming. I'm holding on tightly to him. He leads me to the other side of the cave where there is a small exit. He moves back and allows me to go first. As I make my way out of the exit I have this feeling.

I have this dark...menacing feeling.

Scylla!

The teeth grab onto Wade's tail. Wade is struggling to fight her off!. There are loud clicks from his echolocation as he struggles. She is killing him. It's clear as day she is trying to drag him back in for betraying her. I start swimming back and feel one of the large heads hit me hard into the cave wall.

There are loud clicks from his echolocation as he struggles. She is killing him. It's clear as day she is trying to drag him back in for betraying her. I start swimming back and feel one of the large heads hit me hard into the cave wall.

I almost lose consciousness!

I can see blood filling up the cave! It's Wade's blood. I have to do something and I have to do it fast.

What though?

I look over at the conch. This might be the only thing I can use. I look hard at the conch and then I blow it. I blow the conch as hard as I can as though it were a trumpet. I just knew to do that for some reaosn.

My body illuminates in white when the conch makes the most beautiful sound.. I can feel this electricity all over my body. I feel light. For a moment I don't feel human any longer. For a moment I know that I've become something more. There is a true power all around me.

Scylla has let go of Wade and he is staring at me. What does he see? I don't get why his eyes are so concerned with me and not the monster trying to kill him at that moment.

"Krill?" he asks.

It's almost as though he doesn't recognize me. What does he see?

Scylla seems to panic. She comes at me. The monster has all her three rows of teeth aiming for me ready to devour me completely. I raise my hand to her. My hand is glowing this bright white. Then there is light everywhere.

There is light and then there is darkness.

~

"Krill?"

"Krill?"

I wake up. I'm so confused.

I'm in a bed. I'm naked. What is even more confusing is that I'm not naked alone. Sebastian and Reign are laying next to me!

THEY ARE NAKED AS WELL! I'm in the palace. There are empty clay containers of alcohol everywhere. On the floor, I notice there are nymphs and those sexy guards passed out all over. Everyone is naked and passed out.

"What happened?" I ask them, attempting to get up.

"You shouldn't get up," Reign says pulling me back down, "You had way too much to drink."

Drink?

I'm confused as hell.

"Stop babying him. He's a god," Sebastian states.

I'm confused as I look over at Sebastian.

"What are you talking about?" I ask him.

Reign and Sebastian look at one another. Reign seems a little bit serious, but Sebastian has this big ass smile on his face. I know that Sebastian is going to tell me like it is. He's always been the type to really tell me things like they were.

"You don't remember?" Reign asks.

"Remember what? Last thing I remembered I was being attacked by Scylla. Oh god SCYLLA!"

I look around forgetting where I am and thinking again about those three rows of teeth that were aiming towards me. How had I survived that?

"Oh don't worry about that. Supposedly you blew the conch and temporarily turned into a full blown god," Sebastian said, "Turned Scylla into sushi."

"Scylla's dead?" I ask.

"Yeah. You killed her with your bare hands and dragged her corpse all the way to Atlantis. You don't remember?" Reign asks, "You don't remember parading her through the streets?"

What the fuck?

"No..." I respond.

Reign shakes his head, "You got be fucking with me? Fuck, fuck, fuck. I knew you were acting different. I was just so glad that you were finally showing me attention again. FUCK!"

Reign is shaking my head.

"Reign...what's wrong?" I ask him.

Reign looks embarrassed about something. His face turns read. He gets off of the bed. He grabs some clothing and wears it. This doesn't look good but it couldn't be what I thought it was. Could it? I had no memory of anything.

"You were different last night...you were..." Reign shrugs.

I can't take this anymore. Reign was struggling way too much. I turn over to Sebastian. If there was one person who I knew would tell the truth it would definitely be Sebastian. Sebastian is smiling at me with the widest smile that I could imagine.

"Sebastian what happened last night?" I ask.

I'm scared to know the answer to it.

Sebastian smiles, "You killed Scylla, you scared Charybdis into hiding. Then you celebrated. It was amazing. You fucked me right in front of everyone. You just turned me around and took my ass right in front of the entire city. Raw. You flooded me. It was fucking amazing. I didn't even know you were that aggressive."

My mouth drops open. At first, I think Sebastian is telling some sort of fantastical kind of story but then I see Reign's face. Reign is mortified.

Sebastian is telling the truth. I just couldn't believe my ears.

"I did what?"

"You fucked me and demanded that everyone in Atlantis watch. Of course they did. You were a god. I mean you LOOKED like a god. Then there was the orgy that you started after..." Sebastian explains with a smile wider than I've ever seen him smile, "You started an orgy. All of Atlantis participated. Well almost everyone."

"Reign...please tell me this isn't true," I state.

Reign doesn't look back at me. He just stares at the ground, "I thought you were in your right mind."

"Ignore him. He loved it. Wade told us that you and Blue might have something going on. We thought we lost you forever. So when you grabbed Reign and kissed him in front of Blue, imagine how shocked we all were. Imagine how shocked we all were when you put Reign's dick in your mouth right in front of Blue. You swallowed his nut and you kissed me with it. The three of us spent all of last night fucking, sucking, doing creampies, snowballing and pearl necklaces. That wasn't even the worst."

"I've heard enough," I state getting up.

"You didn't hear about the bukkake. You ordered all those sexy guards to masturbate and ejaculate all over you. You made a game of it. Everyone took turns. You wanted as much nut on you as possible."

I can't take it.

I run out of the room. I'm actually disgusted with myself for the first time in my life jumping over naked bodies as I go. There was a time where this kind of wild sex would have been a fantasy for me but that time was long gone. I had done all of this in front of Blue.

I couldn't believe it.

I run outside of the room and start crying. The tears are flowing down so fucking fast that I think that I'm Wade for a moment.

I feel a hand touch my shoulder. I look and notice it's Reign.

"Don't FUCKING touch me!" I state.

"You have to believe I had no idea that you wouldn't remember any of it," Reign explains to me shaking his head.

"You think I'll all of a sudden just want to get all these fucking men to ejaculate on me if I was in my right mind?" I ask shaking my head.

Reign pauses.

"Well. Yeah. I kind of did. You can't blame me. I thought you were celebrating that you defeated your enemies. It's not like you are some saint before this."

"And you were OK with it Reign? You were OK with participating in this?" I ask him.

"No. I was terrified, but at the same time I felt like I wanted you so bad that it didn't matter how I had you. Wade had attacked me and Sebastian before he left Atlantis. He tied us up and told us about Blue. He wanted us to know what you were up to. He also wanted us to tell your grandmother where she could find you. He kept saying he didn't want you dead but he wanted you to suffer. Once I found out that you were with Blue...I panicked."

"Blue...he saw all of this?"

Reign nods, "Yeah. Marina saw it all too. I didn't care because I wanted you so much. I figured you didn't care how Blue felt just like I stopped caring how Marina felt."

He was wrong. Reign may have finally stopped caring about how Marina felt but he was wrong about Blue. I cared so much about how he felt. This was killing me. This was scaring me worse than the monster.

"Where is he?" I ask.

"The lower levels. He's tending to his brother. Wade has been locked up in a cell by Amphitrite."

"I have to go see him."

"That's not a good idea."

He was wrong. That was the only idea at this point.

~

I get to the lower levels. There aren't even any guards. Hell they were probably all passed out from the huge orgy that I had at the palace celebrating Scylla's death. I still couldn't believe it even when I see Blue standing outside Wade's cage keeping him company. Wade looks beaten and bruised. I wondered what happened to him. Did I do that to Wade?

I feel like shit seeing how bruised up Wade looks. He barely seems like he knows what is going on. He has been beaten to a pulp.

I get close to him but I can feel the tension from Blue.

"Oh god...what's wrong with him?"

"Like you care..."

Blue doesn't look back at me. He's pissed. He's beyond pissed at me right now. He seems so opposed to me. He has closed off completely to me.

"Can I talk to you?" I ask, before adding, "In private."

"No point. The guards beat Wade so bad when they heard he kidnapped you. He has been going in and out of consciousness all through the night. Right now he's knocked out. Nothing will be able to wake him back up for a while."

Blue is so loyal. He won't leave his brother's side. I know he's loyal and maybe that's why I feel so bad about this. Blue would never have put me in this condition to let me watch him have sex with other people. I couldn't believe what I did.

"Blue I'm sorry. I had no idea what I was doing last night," I admit to him, "I don't remember anything..."

"Oh I know."

"You know?"

"Your grandmother told me you probably wouldn't remember."

Thank goodness. My grandmother was always a fan of my relationship with Blue. At least she knew good enough to have my back in this situation and warn him that I wouldn't remember anything when I came to myself. I feel so grateful to hear at that moment. I can't lose Blue. That is just something that I can't do.

"So you know the truth...right?"

"You think it matters?" Blue asks me, "How do you think it feels to know that the man I love was sitting around having this public sex with all these people. You were all over Atlantis. You were the biggest fucking slut yo. Random men came all over you last night. Do you know that?"

A slut.

This wasn't the first time Blue had called me that. This wasn't the first time he probably thought that of me. There was a difference now, though. Now we had admitted we loved each other. Now I really meant that I loved him.

I can't believe the first time that I do this I can't even remember.

"You hate me?" I ask, "I'm telling you I don't remember any of it. Blue. I can apologize a million times but I don't remember what I'm even apologizing for."

"I could never hate you."

"So you still want us to work out?" I ask.

Blue hesitates. He just gets quiet.

"I don't know honestly. Not after I saw the shit that I saw. Regardless of whether you remember or not. I can't take those memories back. I just have to think about it. I have to make my decision. I need...space."

"Away from me?"

I sound desperate. I sound stupid. I sound like an idiot. I don't care about that either. Right now all I know is that I have really disappointed myself more than ever.

"Away from you..." Blue says.

Wade wanted me to know how it felt to have my heart ripped out of my chest. He thought kidnapping me would and making Scylla threaten my life was going to do it. He'd accomplished his goal but not through Scylla. Seeing how Wade was rejecting me right now made this so much more real than I ever wanted it to be. Blue could barely even look at me the same anymore.

I was back to disgusting him.

I slowly start walking to the exit but then I stop. Something comes into my head. An idea. Something isn't making sense.

"Wait..." I state stopping.

"Krill I told you I'll need fucking space away from you. I don't want to fucking see you right now," Blue says, "I just can't..."

"I'll leave you alone. I just want to ask you something."

"What?"

"You said my grandmother knew that I wouldn't remember?"

"Yeah. She knew."

That was interesting.

"Did she say how she knew?"

"No. She told me that you wouldn't remember. She also said something else that I took more to heart. She said this was you. This was the real you. You were becoming yourself and once you had the trident and the conch together you'd become a full blown god. You'd become the guy from yesterday."

~

I can't get out of my head the fact that I had done all of those things. It scared me thinking that I would actually become like that full time. I would be the one holding these crazy orgies and doing all these weird sexual things. I didn't get it.

I have to go find my grandmother. I go to her quarters. As I walk in there are several guards off to the side guarding something. At first I don't know what it is but then I realize it was the conch. I was glad my grandmother had it. If I knew blowing that thing would turn me into what I was last night, even if just temporarily, I would have stayed away from it. If I had to sacrifice Blue for power I definitely wasn't willing to give that trade.

"The goddess will be just a minute. She is just finishing her meditations," a nymph says.

I nod at the nymph. I wait in the main area of her quarters. There is a strange smell in the room. I've smelled this smell before. I try to think where I've smelled this smell before but it doesn't come right to me.

"What is that smell?"

"It may just be the Ocean's tears. It's your grandmother's favorite flower..." the nymph says.

She points at the Ocean's tears. I remember the beautiful blue flowers next to the pretty pink ones. I remember the myth behind them. The flowers were the last remains of an ill-fated love brought back to be beautiful. I walk close to the flowers and sniff them. Where have I smelled these flowers before? Why was this so memorable?

"They are beautiful," I state.

"Be careful," the nymph says.

"Excuse me."

"They knock you out cold if you get the powder those flowers produce into your pores. Your entire body gets numb. Freezes your pulse even. Almost like your dead..."

Almost like your dead.

Almost like your dead?

Almost like Blue...that's where I smelled this! Yara had noticed a smell coming off of Blue. This was that smell. It was coming out of his pores. This was that smell.

Just at that moment my grandmother walks into the room. I want to talk to her about the flowers because I think it might tie into Blue somehow but I realize that my grandmother smells like sex when she comes out of her bedroom. She isn't alone. Reign's brother Atlas is with her. Atlas is adjusting his pants.

I'm shocked.

Atlas was married.

"What's...going on..." I state.

Atlas bows to me, smiles and walks out of the room. So much for meditations I guess.

My grandmother has a huge smile on her face, "Should you be judging me, especially with how you performed last night? You were an animal."

"You knew? Why didn't you stop me?" I ask my grandmother.

There is a pause. My grandmother seems to be in hard thought, "Why would I do that? It's natural. The people of Atlantis have always been very sexual creatures. You were being yourself."

"Is that what you told Blue?"

"I told him you'd become yourself. I was just trying to give him a fair warning," my grandmother explains, "I like Blue for you but he needs to know that you are a god. You make your own rules."

"You told him I need the trident and conch."

"Right."

"I don't have the trident and conch," I explain, "I'm not a god. We... just have the conch."

There is silence.

Something is wrong. Something is definitely wrong here. I look over at the conch. It's sitting there but there is something behind it as well. There is something in a locker behind the conch. It just sits there locked up. My grandmother's eyes are glaring at it.

Did we have the trident?

"Don't overreact," she says.

"It was you..."

"Don't overreact love," she says again.

"You've been wanting me to find the conch all this time. You've been wanting me to find the trident. You didn't sacrifice your immortality, did you? That was a lie...because Blue was never dead to begin with. He was knocked out using Ocean's tears..."

"It's a good thing I had my immortality as well. I battled Charybdis to get you back," she lets me know.

My grandmother smiles! She smiles as though I should thank her! Why? Why lead me on to think that she would save Blue for me?

Why would she lie to me this entire time?

My grandmother signals to her people. The nymphs and the guards all seem to know what was going on. Who else knew? Did all the people of Atlantis know what my grandmother was up to?

They open the locker and bring out the trident. I was right. My grandmother had the trident all along.

"You killed Yara!" I scream at the top of my lungs.

"She was trying to stop you," my grandmother said, "If my spies hadn't gotten to her first, who knew what she kind of trap she would have set for you. I couldn't let that happen."

"Stop me? STOP ME! She was trying to stop you."

My grandmother walks close to me with the trident. At first I think she is going to stab me with it, but she doesn't. She hands it to me. She hands me the trident and she hands me the conch. I can feel something happening to me at that moment. I can feel something wonderful and horrible happen to me.

The mortal Krill was gone and the god Krill was being born.

And now that I had my conch and trident I was here to stay.

"No love. The prophecy isn't about me. It's about you. You will repay the gods who sunk Atlantis to the bottom of the oceans. You will drown the dry land. You are the revenge of Atlantis."

To read the next chapter in advance go to www.crushedcrown.com