Fathom

Chapter One




New York



The blistering heat from the sun’s rays made my skin tighten like leather stretched over a drum. I could do nothing but stare at Thayde’s lifeless body as the waves that lapped the beach jostled his arms at his sides. The part of his tail that wasn’t underwater had already started to crisp. Gathering his upper body in my arms, I stared down at his beautiful face before burying my head in his neck. A mournful scream escaped my throat.

“There’s nothing you could have done to prevent this.” The voice chimed, making the hair on the back of my neck rise. “He made his choice.”

I pressed my face into Thayde’s cold neck. He still had that wonderful smell that made me dizzy when I breathed him in. I was never going to have this again. Fear and helplessness racked me to my very soul and my arms automatically tightened around him.

“We must leave.” The voice instructed.

“No.” The fierceness in my voice surprised me.

“They are on their way,”

“I said no!” I shouted and looked up, but the beach was deserted save for a lone hermit crab who braved the mountains of sand I’d created from moving Thayde.

“Thayde,” I looked back to my love lying heavily in my arms. “I can’t do all this alone.”

Something tickled my leg. The crab was attempting to climb over it to get to Thayde. Holding the creature between my thumb and forefinger, I flung him into the sea.

“Baby,” I choked, but there was no use; he wasn’t coming back. He’d been dead for an hour. There was nothing more to do but give him back to the sea.

Setting him gently on the sand, I unfastened the necklace I’d given him from around his neck and held it tightly. I placed my right hand on his chest and took one last long look at my soul mate, trying to ingrain every inch of his face into my memory.

“Goodbye, my love,” I whispered, closing my eyes. Reaching forward, I kissed his forehead, instantly hearing the bubbles. My eyes shut tight as I felt them begin to form all over his body.

“Morgan,”

That was Thayde’s voice and I screamed, reaching out to stop him from leaving. But the bubbles had encased him completely and he vanished before my eyes.

“Thayde!”

“Morgan!”

“No! Please!” Horror gripped me. What had I done?

“Morgan, wake up baby!”

A dream? This was a dream?

“Open your eyes.”

It couldn’t be a dream - it was too real.

“Open your eyes,” His deep voice repeated and I obeyed, peering through my tears into Thayde’s worried face. I flew into his embrace.

“You had another nightmare,” he said as he rocked me back and forth. “It’s okay.”

Sobs racked my body, not allowing me to speak. Thayde said nothing more - he just held me in his strong arms and stroked my hair while I cried it out.

My dreams were so real I couldn’t separate them from when I was awake anymore. The nightmares had been plaguing my nights ever since The Blessing and they came so often that at times, I didn’t want to go to sleep. I missed having peaceful dreams.

Thayde’s steady heartbeat calmed me and the tears subsided. This was my fourth nightmare this week and I was sure Thayde was getting sick of being woken up in the middle of the night.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled into his chest.

“Baby, there’s nothing to be sorry about.”

“I woke you up again.”

“No, I was already up.”

Most likely, that wasn’t true, but I wasn’t going to argue with him. Thayde always won any argument we had and I was far too tired to disagree. My eyelids felt as if lead weights were attached to them, pulling them closed.

“Stay with me?” I muttered, slipping back into blackness.

“Always.”



Dear Diary,



Here I am, eighteen and the ruler of the merpeople. How do I handle all this? I told the last leader, Troen, I wasn’t up to it, but he seemed to think differently. I’m not ready, but here I am, suddenly thrust into a sort of celebrity I didn’t ask for. Most people my age would think “It’d be cool! I’d do anything I wanted!” but that thought alone would prove they weren’t ready either.

Don’t get me wrong - my life isn’t all doom and gloom, but things have changed drastically. It’s been a year since I visited sunny Florida to see my mom. My dad’s been dead a whole year. I’ve been a mermaid for a whole year. I’ve had new powers ever since Troen performed The Blessing and I’ve been having problems ever since.

My dreams are too real to be considered just dreams. I have been having this nagging feeling that Thayde is going to die and there’s nothing I can do about it. The worst of it is that I don’t feel like I have any control over my feelings or actions. It’s not too bad, yet. But how much worse can it get? To live with the feeling that you don’t have any control is terrifying.