Rising (36 page)

“
But…” Xanthus sounded like he was about to protest, but stopped himself.

Her father gave a knowing smile.
“You may accompany her on her visits if you wish.”

“Thank
you, Sire.”

“Um, F
ather… I was wondering. I mean, if I’m going to be on land for a while. Do you think you could…?” She paused, losing her nerve to ask for her greatest desire.

“Yes? What would you ask of me,
daughter?” Triton looked confused at her hesitation.

“
Sire,” Xanthus said, “I believe she would like to know if you could gift her with human legs.”

Sara braced for his response. He couldn’t possibly say
no, could he? Maybe there was more to it than waving a wand or casting a spell. Perhaps there were rules against giving a mermaid legs.

Triton
didn’t answer. He simply slammed his trident against the sandy sea floor. The water around them drained as if someone had pulled a plug. As the water receded, Sara found herself on the beach of a beautiful tropical island. As the last of the water withdrew from around them, she could hear Xanthus growling in pain. Then a strange new sensation distracted her. When she realized what it was, she gasped, amazed beyond words. She looked down and found herself standing on legs.

Xanthus rushed over in a panic.
“Sara, are you all right?”

“
Yes, I’m fine.” She beamed.

He grabbed her, horrified. “Are you sure? You’re not hurt?”

Sara shook her head.

“You think I would
cause my daughter pain?” Triton bellowed.

Xanthus turned toward her father.
“But why do
I
have to…”

“Your
type of change uses less of my power.” Triton shrugged. “Besides, you can handle it. In fact, I’m considering having you travel by Heitach and report to me monthly.”

Xanthus paled.

Triton laughed. “That was a joke, Dagonian.”

Xanthus breathed out a sigh of relief.

Sara
smiled as she pranced around, enjoying the sensation of the sand beneath her feet. Then she began to skip. It was all so amazing, a beautiful feeling. Her legs felt as if they’d always been a part of her. She could walk, run, skip.... She felt nimble, as if she could dance and twirl, maybe even cartwheel. She stopped herself before she tried that. She’d hate to break these new legs.

She
turned to Xanthus, who was talking to her father.

“She looks like she’s been on human feet her whole life
,” Xanthus remarked, amazed. “I don’t understand—it took me months to learn to walk.”

“Get used to
it, Dagonian,” her father replied. “She’s my daughter. I’m willing to use more of my power on her than I would on you.”

S
ara sprinted to her father. She wrapped her arms around him and pressed her face into his wide chest. “Thank you, Dad.” Her heart swelled to near bursting.

S
ara looked up to see the Guardian of the Sea with a tear in his eye when he responded. “You’re welcome, baby.”

Sara felt a
sharp tingle trace along and around her cheekbone in some unseen design. “What was that?” She touched her fingertip along the path.

“It is my mark
. To warn all who see it that you’re under my protection. No Dagonian or any other creature of the sea would dare harm you while you carry that mark. Just remember, it’s only seen in the water. On land you’re still vulnerable.”

Sara stepped away from her father’s embrace.

“Now,
” Triton said, “one more question before the evening falls. Do you want me to marry you both now or do you want to wait for a big wedding fit for the daughter of a sea king?”

“Well
, I don’t know.” Sara turned and approached Xanthus. He reached out and took her hand. “Would it be better to wait until after—you know. When I’m not fertile?” Sara whispered the last word so that only Xanthus heard her. She could feel her face burn.

“We already did.” Xanthus smiled. “And I can’t tell you what a relief it is.”

“So what is your answer, daughter?” Triton raised an eyebrow.

She and
Xanthus stepped into each other’s arms and answered in unison. “Now.”

Triton should have dropped Gael and his father on a sand dune in the middle of the Sahara Desert, but Sara made him swear to her that he wouldn’t kill them. And even though technically, it would have been the heat and baking sun that killed them, Triton knew his daughter wouldn’t see it that way, so he did the next best thing. He turned them into humans and left them stark naked on the Kansas plains, surrounded by hundreds of miles of dry, golden wheat fields.

They
deserved much worse, but a guilty conscience can make a god do things out of character. Actually, a guilty conscience
was
out of character for a god and lately, he seemed to have more than his ungodly share.

Triton’s
heart clenched as he thought of the tragic story that was his life. He could no longer blame his father and the Dagonians, although he’d tried for over two thousand years. Now he acknowledged that any other god would have done the same thing his father had done if they had been so severely disrespected and humiliated. And the Dagonians… Well, they were just following orders.

T
he destruction of his children had been his own fault. It had been his fault for not teaching them respect, for not giving them boundaries, for overindulging them. He’d seen how Sara had turned out—so selfless, humble, and kind. Under Nicole’s mothering, his daughter had flourished.

Triton fisted his fingers in his hair and crum
pled into himself at the pain that was still there when he thought of Nicole. It had been twenty years, but he could still taste her on his lips, feel the shape of her body in his arms. She was the beauty that nearly crushed a god into oblivion—the most amazing, exquisite, and perfectly maddening woman he’d ever met.

Triton had
blamed Aphrodite for his lapse in judgment, but if it
were
her magic that had caused the torrid love affair, why was he
still
tormented by the memory of the human girl? The magic should have faded long ago.

Regardless of where his feelings came from, h
e could no longer bury himself from the memory of them or the pain. Nicole was his daughter’s mother, the mother who had raised her. He could not continue to hide. He would have to confront her.

He
wished for a moment that he’d had the courage to ask Sara if her mother had found happiness with another man, but he couldn’t bear to ask. Some all-powerful god he was.

He
had to see her. He had to see if she was happy, see if she had found love. He dared not hope she could ever learn to love him again, learn to trust him again.

It took all the courage
Triton could muster to flash himself to Nicole’s home. He took in the view of her bright, yellow house and his heart sped up double time. Before he lost his courage, he stepped up to her front door. He was terrified. He remembered every detail of the day he had left, the day she had shredded his heart with her pleas that he not leave.

Now that he was back, what kind of welcome would he receive
? A loving one would be too much to ask. An angry reception would be what he deserved. A dispassionately civil one would be too much to bear.

By the gods, he was over
-analyzing this. With his heart pulsing under his ribs and his chest trembling with nervousness, he raised his fist and rapped on the door.

I'm a mom who writes books in her spare time: translation--I hide in the bathroom with my laptop and lock the door while the kids destroy the house and smear peanut butter on the walls. ;) I was born in Utah but lived in Salina, Kansas until I was 13 and in Garland, Texas until I was 18. I'm now back in Utah–"happy valley". I'm married to a wonderful husband, James, and we are currently raising 6 rambunctious children. My interests are reading, writing (of course), martial arts, visual arts, and spending time with family.

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