Hearken (Daughters of the Sea Series) by Kristen Day Page B

beach spread out before us. I saw the targets from my vision, but I couldn’t spot Liam or his friends. Willow and Phoebe ran down the dune while Carmen and I took our time. I’d already slid down this thing once, and I wasn’t looking forward to doing it again. 
                  “I’m not going to need to exfoliate my feet for a year,” Carmen groaned. We finally made it to the flat sand of the beach, and she placed a hand on my shoulder for support as she inspected the bottom of her foot.
                  “Next time bring some shoes, grandma,” I mocked her. She was about to spit out a comeback when Phoebe’s frantic yell interrupted her.
                  “Willow! STOP!” Phoebe looked up the beach in horror as Willow glanced back at her curiously. In a split moment, time slowed and I pieced several things together. Willow was running amidst the handmade targets on the beach, Phoebe reached her arms out screaming, and Carmen squeezed my shoulder so hard I felt a bruise forming beneath the skin. When time began to move once again, Willow abruptly collapsed onto the sand; a silver trident embedded in her chest.
     

    Chapter 9
    Stasia
                 
                  “Willow, NO!” Carmen’s scream sounded far away to my ears as I stood frozen on the sand. I watched Carmen and Phoebe run to her side and willed my own feet to move. I painstakingly turned to see Liam, who had fallen to his knees in shock just up the beach. The two guys I’d seen with him in my vision were running towards Willow as well.  This couldn’t be happening.
                  With legs the weight of concrete blocks, I forced myself to walk towards the heart-wrenching scene unfolding before me. Phoebe held Willow’s limp body in her arms, while Carmen screamed her name over and over; desperately shaking her in an attempt to wake her up. The two Tritons were trying to pull the girls out of the way. The sand beneath me trembled with each step I took, and I felt an empty coldness where Willow’s once soothing essence had been. A roar began to build in my mind and I didn’t have to move any closer to know that the trident had killed her on impact. I felt it. I knew it. 
                  And so did Liam. He was dry heaving on the sand; clutching his stomach. I wanted to go to his side. I wanted to comfort Carmen and Phoebe. I wanted to do a lot of things, but the alien feeling creeping into my heart paralyzed me. A vindictive cloud of gratification seized my soul, releasing a wave of power throughout my essence and spreading a sinful grin across my face. My hand automatically reached up and grasped the now pulsating orb hanging around my neck. I felt the blood drain from my face when I heard a raspy, otherworldly voice in my head.
                  “ Drink from the essence from whence her body bleeds .”
                  “No!” I screamed more at myself than at Willow. Whose voice was that? What was wrong with me!? Where was the despair? The sadness? My best friend had just been killed in front of me and I was…smiling!? Forcing control over my hand, I clutched the orb and ripped the necklace from my neck; throwing it down on the sand at my feet. It continued to glow as I squeezed my eyes shut and balled up my fists. 
                  “NO!” A guttural shout coming from my throat silenced the entire beach. The waves began to boil, ripples of sand spread out from my feet as if I was suddenly standing on water, and a massive gust of wind swirled around us with the force of a hurricane. Phoebe and Carmen’s hair whipped around their faces as they stared up at me in horrified shock. I suppressed the poisonous feeling coursing through my veins and searched for the cool energy of my essence. As an internal struggle of power ensued, I turned on my heel and began to run.
                  I vaguely remembered the