Ice
Copyright 2014 M.S Watson
Cover Image © Andrey Kiselev – Fotolia.com
Chapter One
‘The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.’
Ernest Hemingway
Thea stared out the window, clutching her sweaty hands. Jason looked over at his wife, narrowed his eyes and hissed something below his breath. It smelled of alcohol and hatred, whisked around the small space of the SUV. The vehicle revved over speed humps and came to an immediate halt at the pier.
Jason glared at his wife and leaned over to shove her door open. Cold, billowing air filled the vehicle and Thea braced against the chill. She shut her eyes, rain droplets catching on the tips of her eyelashes. Or maybe they were teardrops. Thea looked at her husband with resolve even as she shook violently.
‘Hurry up,’ he prompted in a harsh voice. ‘We’ve got to get to shelter before the hurricane hits!’ He shoved at Thea, pushing her from the warmth of the vehicle and into the pelting rain. She reached out in time to catch her daughters as he snatched them from the back seat and tossed them carelessly at her. She was surprised when the twin girls remained asleep, snoring softly. Rain and tears drenched her cheeks as she juggled the girls in her arms.
Just a week old.
‘I can’t do it,’ she whispered. She thought she would be able to do it so easily. She hated being a mother more than anything. Especially when the girls were the reason for her stretched skin and ruined relationship with her husband. But she couldn’t participate in murder.
‘If you don’t do it, I will leave you here to rot,’ Jason cautioned her. ‘It’s either me or the girls. Take your pick.’ His gaze sliced through her and she shuddered. He wouldn’t leave her there. If she didn’t do this, he would kill her and the girls. He revved the engine menacingly and she lowered her head.
‘I’ll … do it,’ she murmured, hating every word. Her feet threatened to fall out from under her as she pressed against the wind and felt Jason’s murderous gaze on her spine. It tingled as she dreaded the walk along the abandoned pier. The waves crashed onto the planks at the very end and she trembled as she approached them. Her two girls stirred in her arms, the louder of the two releasing a scream as hail began raining down on her exposed face. Thea attempted to cover her at least a little with her thick blanket, even though hail was the last thing she should be worrying about.
‘Hurry up Thea!’ Jason shouted from the car. Thea didn’t spare a backward glance. She had been suffering from post-natal depression and only now did it begin to clear. She wasn’t a murderer. Maybe if she just hid the girls somehow, she would be able to spare them until the waters cleared and people returned to the pier. Maybe being the Santa Monica Pier, she could detour around one of the buildings and find a protective alcove to hide the girls in.
She was almost to the end, watching the waves crash against the pier and high over the building at the end. She took her footfalls as slow as she dared, her eyes focused on her daughters. Their eyes were open now, identical in their light cyan colouring. They definitely didn’t get the beautiful colour from either her or their father. She smiled faintly as she met their gazes, the louder one crying while the other appeared to stare at her knowingly. She shuddered as footfalls hit the wood behind her.
‘Give them to me,’ Jason ordered as he snatched the crying girl from her. She yelled out as he sauntered toward the crashing waves and tossed the girl over, watching with satisfaction as she hit the water. She disappeared under the churning water, leaving the pier eerily silent as he reached for the second girl. Thea moved to the side, keeping her daughter from his reach.
He sneered. ‘Don’t make this difficult.’
Thea looked down at her child as her small hands clenched and released, searching for her sister. Jason took her distraction as an opportunity in order to snatch the child from her protective embrace. Neither girl had been named and never would as he tensed his muscles and the child was catapulted into the surf.
‘NO!’ Thea screamed, trying to claw her way to her drowning girls. She’d made a big mistake by thinking she should choose Jason. He was a maniac. She was too, but not a murderer. Jason grabbed her easily and swept her over his shoulder as though she weighed no more than a feather. Her fists pumped against his back, clawing at his shirt and drawing long trails of dark liquid.
‘I don’t have time for this crap,’ he muttered under his breath as he carried his screaming wife away from the pier.
∞
Poseidon stood upon his chariot and watched as he commanded the seas to do his bidding. Amphitrite approached his side, as beautiful as the day he had married her. Her striking curvaceous figure was clad in a white dress that blended with the sea foam by her feet and her pale skin would have easily burned in the faintest sunlight had she been a mortal. She narrowed her blue-grey eyes as she peered at the churning sea, tuning into the patterns and pockets of air.
‘Something is not right,’ she murmured, her gaze fierce as she stared out. ‘Are they … infants?’ Poseidon peered out at the night before him, the waves blending with the dark of the sky. He focused his mind on the waters and found that there were two foreign bodies, thrashing in the waves. With a wave of his hand, he commanded his chariot to bring Amphitrite and himself closer, capturing two small infants within air pockets that danced through the waves. He calmed the waters slightly, using gentle currents to coax the children toward the Goddess and himself.
Amphitrite stepped forward, her bare feet shimmering where they touched the calmness of the water and she bent down to pick up the first child. Remarkably, the children appeared to be untouched by the waves. They should have drowned, sunk to the bottom of the sea but they hadn’t. Amphitrite smiled down at the child in her arms, her golden hair falling down either side of her face.
‘Humans,’ Poseidon sighed, lifting the second child from the sea. His face screwed up as he tried to put up with the loud screams emanating from the young girl. Upon hearing her sister’s distress, the girl in Amphitrite’s arms began to cry. Amphitrite began to sing, tapping into one of her few powers as a Goddess. She rocked the child back and forward, admiring the child’s innocent beauty as her eyes gradually closed. The girl with Poseidon also fell under Amphitrite’s magical voice and reluctantly drifted off to sleep.
‘What do you suppose they’re doing out here?’ she asked, turning to her husband with wide eyes. ‘They’re human infants. They’re too small and fragile.’ The girl in her arms stirred slightly, snuggling deeper into the warmth of her embrace. She tightened her arms around the small girl, feeling oddly protective of the child. Poseidon watched as she did so, feeling oddly protective as well. He looked down at the sleeping girl in his own arms.
‘We can’t very well leave them out in these waters,’ he said, curious as he observed the human girl. ‘I’m intrigued to understand what force kept them alive.’
Amphitrite looked at her husband and he sighed. He knew that expression, the one that said she wanted something no matter what he said. The one she knew would get her exactly what she wanted. She rocked the child in her arms and peered over at the girl in his arms.
‘I name her Lainie Nymphaea,’ she whispered, bending forward to place a kiss on the child’s soft forehead. The child stirred and for the first time, she didn’t cry. She stared up at the Goddess with incredibly wide eyes, transfixed by Amphitrite’s beauty. Amphitrite smiled at the child and looked at the other girl, resting in her embrace. ‘A daughter of the sea.’
She smiled at her husband. ‘I name this young beauty Iris Chassidy. As beautiful and pure as a mortal could ever hope to be.’ She kissed the forehead of Iris and watched as the two girls’ foreheads glowed slightly. Amphitrite’s magic was setting into their D.N.A. and casting a pro
tective and powerful bond between the girls and the sea.
‘Amphitrite,’ Poseidon said suddenly. ‘You know we cannot keep them with us. They are human. Mortal. We cannot risk it.’ The Goddess cast her gaze on him fiercely in a way that he rarely witnessed. Usually she bowed down to him when he used his authoritative tone of voice. Not this time. She cast him a thin smile that revealed to him her resolve on the issue.
‘I know very well that we cannot keep the girls,’ she chastised him. ‘I’m not silly. However, I do propose that we deliver them to a safe home close by the sea. A caring, deserving family will keep watch over them until they grow old enough to decide whether they would prefer to live on the land or venture into the sea.’ Her smile vanished. ‘I’m sure that one of your nymphs would be more than happy to educate the girls when they are of age.’
Poseidon disliked it when she spoke of his illicit relationships, especially when she wasn’t in one of her forgiving moods. Which right now, she obviously wasn’t. Her hair lifted from her shoulders as her temper rose and she had to work to control it when the children began to stir. Poseidon took that moment as an opportunity in order to reply to her suggestion.
‘I will see to it that they are unharmed and well learned when the time is right,’ he told her, his voice deep. She took him in and decided that he was at least telling her the truth - for once. She cast her gaze downward at the child.
‘Iris and Lainie: daughters of the sea,’ she pondered. She looked at Poseidon suddenly with wide eyes and smiled. ‘I know the perfect place.’
Half an hour later, Poseidon and his wife were trudging up the Beaufort docks of North Carolina with the two girls asleep in their arms. The night was coming to a close and people would soon be waking. Amphitrite led the way, leaving Poseidon in suspense as he followed close behind. They hadn’t changed from their immortal clothing and had to stick to shadows in order to avoid being spotted by human eyes. Poseidon grumbled below his breath but his wife merely rolled her eyes and continued forward.
When they finally reached one of the waterfront homes, Amphitrite’s eyes scanned the numbers on each house. ‘What are we looking for?’ Poseidon demanded but she simply shushed him and continued looking. It had to be here somewhere …
There!
She quickened her pace with Poseidon close on her heels as she clambered up the short paved walkway and placed the seaweed casket containing Iris on the door mat. Beside her, Poseidon carefully placed Lainie down in her own thatched seaweed casket and stepped back with his wife. They stared down at the girls, smiling softly. These children would have a new lease on life.
‘The young couple here are infertile,’ Amphitrite explained, carefully avoiding the touch of her husband. ‘They have been trying for children for quite some time but it simply is impossible. Now they have the opportunity to take in these girls. I’ve noticed them for quite some time and have grown fond of their family. They are gentle and caring. They will make excellent parents.’
Poseidon stared at his wife with an awe-struck expression followed by grief and guilt. He regretted having cheated on her. After all, she had become his wife unwillingly and to cut her so much deeper, he had had numerous illicit relationships. He vowed then to look after the girls, seeing how important they were to his wife.
‘I promise we will give them the best life we can,’ he whispered to her. He turned to the twins and bent down. He placed a kiss on Lainie’s forehead, followed by Iris’. ‘To Lainie, I give thee a gift of persuasion, much like Amphitrite’s. And to Iris, I give thee a gift of time manipulation. You will be able to freeze time at will when you come of age.’
He rose to his feet beside his wife and placed his hand on her shoulder. ‘Eighteen years will take a long while to pass but we will visit from time to time to keep watch over them. But for now we must leave. Come now.’
Amphitrite’s eyes fell on the two girls as they slept and the porch light switched on overhead, stirring the children. She allowed her husband to drag her away from the children, her head lowered and her bottom lip jutting as she fought to keep herself from crying. She had given the girls a kiss on their foreheads, thereby giving them both a piece of herself. Now, leaving them behind, she couldn’t help but ache to take them with her. Poseidon tugged her toward the bushes.
‘Who’s out there?’ Amphitrite watched as the girls’ new father stepped onto the front porch, scanning the patio with his flash light. The children stirred under the deep tones of his voice, drawing his attention to them. He looked surprised as his wife approached from behind, placing a hand on his shoulder.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked tentatively. She peered around his broad shoulder and down at the children. Her platinum blonde hair fell around her as she bent down and stared at the seaweed baskets. Her fingertips traced the intricate details, the thatched pattern interwoven with starfish and shells. ‘This is … beautiful.’ Amphitrite blushed at the woman’s compliment. It’d been her handiwork.
‘Yeah, but creepy,’ her husband countered. ‘Who in their right mind would wrap their children in seaweed? Why not a blanket?’ The woman suppressed a sigh and rolled her eyes. She reached down and lifted Iris’ basket.
‘Well, we can’t very well leave them out here to get sick, now can we?’ she retorted, knowing that she was right. Her husband sighed and gathered Lainie’s basket.
‘I suppose you’re right,’ he muttered. ‘But in the morning, we’re going to the police and reporting this. I don’t want a law suit on my hands.’ Their chatter began to fade until they shut the door and it cut off completely. Poseidon looked at his wife softly and wiped away tears that she hadn’t realised were running down her cheeks.
Poseidon offered her a small smile. ‘Eighteen years will fly by,’ he assured her. ‘Then you will be reunited with them. I promise.’ She looked at him, the promise in his eyes and found that it was genuine.
‘How do you know?’ she whispered.
‘I’m the God of the sea,’ he replied. ‘I’m intuitive. I just know.’
Amphitrite hoped he was right.