Chapter five
Delphini
It’swarm.Likethesun is high in the sky, and I am laying on a sun bed on the stretch of private beach outside ofYiayia’svilla. Waves brush across the sand with ease, barely a breeze in the air. There isn’t a single thought swimming through my head. I am at peace.
A sigh, so easy and free, leaves my body and it’s like I am weightless. My skin tingles and my eyelids flutter open. I gasp hard enough to choke. Something, someone helps me roll into a recovery position and cough up lungfuls of water.
It’s dark. I am still warm, but there is no reason for it. There is no light, no windows, no breeze. I lay on my side in an endless darkness that doesn’t cease. My head isn’t swimming any more. My skin vibrates, my blood pounding through me until I feel nothing but rage pulsing through my veins. I clench my fist as scattered images and memories crash through my head.
“Yes, sweet one, burn with it,”a voice, or many voices, echo in the dark.
My eyes squeeze shut. It isn’t Miles or Audrey. The voices sound older and like they are struggling to form the right words as if English isn’t their first language.Fuck.What sort of situation did I wake up in? What did he do to me? The fear that mixes with my anger only focuses my thoughts until all there is Mile’s smug face. I come up on all fours, ready to fight, to kill anyone who gets in my face. As my wrist gives out, something wraps around me.
Thick, glowing appendages steady me, preventing me from face-planting into the black nothing. Suddenly, there are more of them around my wrists and ankles, supporting me until I am being pulled up and floating in the nothing. I jerk in their hold, and they give slightly, allowing me to move a few inches. My arms tingle, the urge to fight rushing through me. My limbs shake with fear and fury, my body winding tighter and tighter, preparing to shout, to die before I give in to whatever hell this is.
“Now be still,”the voices whisper in the dark, trying to soothe me.
My teeth grit together. “No.”
“Sweet one, I am here to offer you a choice. You may join us or remain in your watery grave.”
My blood runs cold at the ultimatum, at the wordremain. Am I already in my grave? Am I lost in some purgatory and at the whim of this monster? With the energy still rushing through me, my rage twists into terror. Sweat beads across my forehead, and my stomach rolls. I don’t want to die. I will not let them kill me. I. Will. Not. Lose.
“Who is ‘us’?”
“We are the dawn, we are the darkness, we are the future.”
With each pronouncement, lights spark in the dark, like a neon sign coming to life. Rushes of pink illuminate the space around me, the void I am trapped in. Masses of rising thick, blue tentacles surround me. I cannot see an end or beginning to them. I cannot see the body they’re attached to, but I see them pulse and twist around one another.
Sets of eyes blink into existence around me and multiply until there are sixteen pairs. The eyes spin and spin around the space until they are a blur and converge into one massive glowing sphere. The rounded iris is a deep shade of blue that reminds me of the Ionian Sea. Comfort and confusion keep my head bobbing, barely staying afloat in this ocean of insanity.
“We were at the birth of this planet’s life, and we will be here when it ends, when there is no land and the water rises until there is nothing but vast oceans.”
Tentacles wind up my body until I am cocooned in the warm, wet masses of them. I’m blinded by the pink glow. A familiar scent thickens in the air. My chest rises, my breathing harsher and harsher as horror sinks into my bones. I’m going to be crushed to death by some fruity-smelling monster that reminds me of home.
My limbs go numb, and all I can think is attack, thrust, lunge, the fencing mantra beating in my bloodstream like a last-ditch prayer to God. My good hand moves and wriggles until I can grasp onto one of the tentacles. I refuse to give up.
“You are not like the others, and yet you suffer their same pain,”the monster whispers.
“And what pain is that? Constriction? Smothering? Being crushed to death by a giant fucking octopus?”
“No, sweet one, the anger inside of you we have not seen for many, many generations. We do not need to encourage, nourish, or guide it into the darkness as we have with your sisters. No, the darkness in you has always been rippling right under the surface, waiting for us to claim you.”
My hand tightens around the tentacle, but the ones surrounding me do the same. A shuddering gasp leaves my lips as suckers graze my exposed chest and the hideous dress I’m wearing shifts even lower. The appendages around me freeze. Their grip on me no longer pulses. I look at the great eye before me and snarl as if I am some sort of wild animal as if that will scare it and cover up that noise.
“We offer you a choice, sweet one. Your destiny has split in two. Choose us and accept she who waits, whose soul rages and longs for yours, or choose death and let those who hurt you win.”
“What happens if I choose you?”
“Your soul, your body, your anger, it all becomes ours. We shall be your patron, providing you with boundless power for our mission. You will never know fear again, but you will leave behind everything that you know. You will be transformed into our perfect visage.”
“And what mission is that?” I start pushing against the tentacles again, my finger slipping over their smooth skin. I have to get away from this thing. Whatever hallucination this is, I am going to snap out of it. This can’t be happening to me.
“Be still.”The monster’s words rattle my teeth in my skull and tears slip down my cheek.
A tentacle, thinner and glowing much softer than the rest, rises up to my face. I can’t lean away from it. My hand bats it away, but it just wraps around my wrist, before touching the centre of my forehead.
Visions flood my mind. Monsters everywhere. Things that I only thought were myths walk through my thoughts like they belong there. Bathed in steam, I can see myself at the centre of them. There is a hungry look on my face as different monsters approach me. I’m not scared when one of them with sharp talons touches my cheek, I’m excited.
