Page 3 of Shattered Illusion

Well? Is it her?

My fingers fly across the screen, ready to tell him no when everything goes eerily silent around us.

“W-what’s going on?” her mother stutters, eyeing the lagoon in panic.

Shifting my attention back to the water, Bailey stares down at her feet in alarm, the horror on her face clear as day, even from the lagoon’s bank. Something is happening, but not something I have ever seen before. Shadows are slowly crawling up her legs, leaving black marks in their wake, but she’s too far out for me to make out clearly what they are.

The water around her ripples, then a shriek rips from between her delectable lips, and a shockwave of power blasts across the lagoon expanse, slams into me, and sends me flying through the air. One of the trees stops my trajectory hard, and a groan leaves me as I hit the grass on my hands and knees.

A curdled scream shatters the silence, followed by two splashes not far into the distance. Shaking out of my stupor,I see Bailey’s parents have thrown themselves into the lagoon, fighting their way to their daughter’s prone form, face down in the water. They fight to no avail, but the Gods hold them back as they’ve already dipped their toes into blessed water, and the only people who can enter more than once are supernatural, which they are not.

It takes more than one try to get to my feet, the power having knocked my equilibrium off, and once I finally have stable footing, I toss my phone and keys from my pocket and run toward the bank. My body is airborne for the second time in less than two minutes, but this time, I dive into the lagoon, and there is none of the resistance her parents are finding. The moment I touched the water, the Gods judged and found me worthy of being in the sacred purple depths.

The illusion of the water being waist-high disappeared the moment they found Bailey to be of supernatural bloodline, but her face-down drowning is not something that should have happened. As I get closer to her prone form, I can already see significant changes, marking her as other. Her once raven black hair is no more. In its place is a white so bright it rivals the snow covering the ground. Most people would pay thousands in a salon to achieve such a brilliant color. Her arms, shoulders, back, and legs are covered in black runes, looking like she had them tattooed on her body previously.

She’s fucking stunning, and I haven’t even seen if her eyes have changed color yet. I’m betting they have with all the other changes she’s gone through already. She’s also precisely who Axel is looking for.

The moment I reach her, I flip her onto her back and pull her into my arms. My large hand covers her chest, and I lean down, putting my ear to her nose, looking for any signs of breathing. Her body is deathly still, and that’s just not something I can live with.

Using my demi-god powers, I teleport us back to the bank, carefully lowering her to the ground. I don’t like using this power as it makes me slightly queasy, but at this point, I’ll do whatever I have to to save her.

Her parents crowd around me now that they’ve been released from the lagoon, but I throw up a shield so they don’t interfere. After all, it’s obvious they aren’t even her birth parents. I can already hear her heart breaking from that revelation, and she’s unconscious. They batter my shield as I tilt her head back and open her airways. This isn’t something my healing will fix, so it’s up to good ole’ human CPR.

More runes cover almost every inch of the front of her body, disappearing beneath the fabric of her bikini. Her face is clear of any markings, and there are no other changes to her appearance besides the noticeable, of course.

My fingers find the bottom of her breastbone, and I place the heel of my hand right above it, then slap my other hand on top, pumping five times. I quickly move up, pinch her nose, and slam my lips against hers, breathing twice into her mouth, then repeating my steps. Sorrow etches itself deep within my soul the longer she goes without breathing. After trying twenty times, I’m about to give up. There just isn’t anything more I can do for her.

Sitting back on my heels, I drag my hands through my wet hair and admit defeat. Her mother’s sobs penetrate the zone I put myself in, hoping to save her life, completely breaking the last vestiges I have around my heart. There was just something about Bailey that screamed at me that the world needed her. That I needed her. Granted, she hadn’t really spoken any words to me, but like recognizes like, just like soul recognizes soul. And there was no doubt in my mind that she was supposed to be important to me.

Tears break free from my eyes right as words whisper through my mind, telling me to try one more time. As much asI know it won’t help, I may as well give it one last go. My body moves on autopilot back to the position I was in before, and after five compressions, I fuse my mouth to hers, praying to my dad that he comes through for me this time and she doesn’t get taken away from me after just finding her.

This time, there is a quick intake of air, followed by the best sound in the world—Bailey coughing. I quickly roll her to the side as she starts to expel the water trapped in her lungs. Cries of happiness join Bailey’s retching, and then she stiffens in my arms. I don’t know if it’s because of me or them, but I continue to rub and pat her back, hoping to get it all out.

She may be an immortal supernatural now that the block on who she is has been removed, but she was still human and, therefore, vulnerable when she went down. After all, her hair was still black when the shockwave hit, meaning the block was still partially intact, rendering her mortal and easy to kill.

Bailey finally stops heaving and turns over in my arms. My breath gets caught in my lungs, and I choke when she opens her eyes. The green that once commanded her irises has bled away, revealing stunning bubblegum pink orbs. She truly is who we thought, as the pink is a telltale sign of her heritage. Nowadays, people purchase colored contacts to achieve the same look, but they always fall short because their natural color shines through.

Carefully, I smooth some of her hair from her forehead as I get lost in her eyes, and she reaches up and cups my cheek. A tiny spark zaps my face when her skin touches mine, telling me that she really is important to me in more ways than she will ever be able to comprehend. She breaks eye contact as her gaze moves to her hand, and her body stiffens in my arms once again.

Oh, shit. All hell is about to break loose.

She scrambles away from me, her back bumping into my still-erect shield. Her eyes shift back and forth over every inchof skin she can see, and when she looks back at me, her eyes fill with tears.

I don’t even know what to say or if there is anything I can say to make this situation better. After all, she just learned she is not human, and her parents aren’t even her biological ones.

“Everything will be okay, Bailey,” I murmur quietly, even though I know it’s a load of shit. Her life is about to get a hundred times harder, but I will be there every step of the way if she lets me.

“Please don’t lie to me like they obviously have been,” she gets out in a choked whisper. “Can you drop,” she waves her hand around, “this?”

I give her a sharp nod and drop my shield, causing her parents to hit the ground near her. She gets up on shaky legs, tosses me a grateful smile, and then takes off, running out of the clearing as fast as she can.

Definitely expected that to happen.

Climbing to my feet, I pull my power and dry myself off, then head back to where I dropped my stuff and scoop it up. Ten text messages from Axel are waiting for me, but I don’t bother to read them. I just shoot him what he wants to know.

Me

She’s the one.

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