The sand was soft under her feet, the wind a gentle breeze cold enough to make her shiver slightly in her light, white dress but not so chilly to bother her or to make her retreat and leave the shore, not when the mild water of the sea reached her ankles whenever she needed to warm up her body and her soul, brushing the tanned skin of her legs and the hem of her robe with the kindest of the touches.
Water was just water was the favorite line her older brother used to grumble under his breath whenever she commented aloud how the sea could almost sense her distress, lulling her troubled gaze and heart with the mesmerizing dancing of the waves where she liked to wander barefoot when she felt down, or angry, or sad, so to sense the sand flaking off under her feet and the soothing caress of the tide as she advanced to reach the backdrop, finding herself floating in the sea, her head beneath the waves, the world behind her back, the silence around and inside her.
And it was there, in the abyss, that she had always been able to hear it.
So low to be mistaken for the of lapping the waves, but so clear to make her almost believe that someone was actually calling her, down there, in the abyss.
That, someone, was calling her.
Just her name.
- Andromeda.
So great was the surprise to hear her name, there, out of the water, so clear and so real, to make Andromeda almost jump and fall into the sea, something her mother would not have liked, not at all. Not again. Not today.
But she did not care. Not at the moment. Not when the restlessness that had made her run away and reach the beach to find some kind of rest from the anger still made her heart beat too fast, a restlessness that returned back to her with a shiver of fright when she felt the unexpected touch on her forearm, what had prevented her to fall into the water.
And maybe, she would have screamed if she had not recognized the ruined skin of the fingertips that grazed her skin.
Because it had not been for the agility she clearly didn't possess, or the luck she had never had, or the afterthought she could have had that Andromeda had not fallen, ruining her dress.
She had been grabbed just in time by a hand. A male hand. Large. Callous. Rought.
Familiar.
A hand she covered with her own instinctively, freeing from her lungs a heavy sight that Andromeda, however, felt shattering as glass into her throat when the coldness of his hand seeped into her very bones, making her shake with worry and uneasiness, this time.
Because Kai's hand had always been cold, rough, like the hand of a sailor, but not so chilly.
Never so icy, like the hand of a dead man, an alarming thought that made her turn around with worried eyes that she opened wide in shock as her free hand reached Kai's shoulder to catch him, and the one she had on his strengthened the grip, to prevent him to fall on the ground, to his knees.
A fall she really avoided and had not simply imagined, her ankles now covered by the damp sand where she sunk when Kai's body bent on her like the crooked trunk of an old tree, her small body the only thing that separated him from the shore and the waves that now had reached her knees.
The tide had risen.
Andromeda registered that small detail mechanically, just as when you hear the door ring and wait for the obvious to come, but what was happening was not obvious, not at all.
Because the tide wasn't supposed to rise so soon, so abruptly, and Kai should not have been so cold.
So unresponsive.
It was not normal.
It was strange.
And it was beginning to scare her.
- Kai?
Her voice was a tiny whisper, a shaking puff of air she muffled against the wet shirt Kai was wearing and that now she was gripping tightly, just to keep him standing, and it was then, that her brain registered another strange detail.
Soaked.
Kai was completely sopping, just as he had just came out of the sea that she had been watching a moment before.
The sea she could feel now around her waist.
- Kai?
Her hands ripped the damp shirt when she tried to find something to grab, to cling to, her legs sunk in the sand, her body drowned in the sea, her mind displaced by the confusion of what was happening before hearing a thrill so sharp to pierce the night as a gunshot.
A sound Andromeda should not have found comforting or reassuring, but it was so, just as reassuring was her bother's worried voice through her phone when Andromeda managed to reach for her bra, taking with a shaking hand the robe where she had hidden her phone before getting away from the costume party.
Because, as angry as she had been before, she had always been a mature person despite her age, and even if running away in the night, alone, wasn't what a mature person would have done, bringing with her the phone to call in case of danger was indeed wise.
- Where the hell are you Meda?
Despite the anger that made Alec's voice less comforting and more appalling, Andromeda could recognize the concern in her brother's strained hiss, just as she could catch in the background the shout of her sister Alecta and the labored breath of Ferris in his attempt to keep up with his brothers, brothers she knew, were searching for her judging by the loud noise of overturned soil.
But even if she should have been touched by their concern despite her outburst, what Andromeda was feeling at the moment was panic. Fear. And the desperate need to have someone able to explain to her what was happening.
- How could you wander with this darkness, alone? I am the reckless sibling, How could you-
- I am at the beach and I…I – she croaked with all the voice she could find in the pit of her upside down stomach, huffing in her attempt to keep Kai standing and not let them both drown in the water as she tried to move towards the beach, keeping, at the same time, the phone against her ear – I need help. Kai isn't feeling well, and the tide is rising and I-
- What do you mean Kai? – shouted in the background Alecta, her usually sweet voice poisonous and dangerous like the hiss Alec released as their steps began to quicken and even Ferris's "no way" adviced her about how no one of them was thrilled by the idea of Kai's presence with her.
- I had already told you not to meet that strange man, Meda! You promised! And what do you mean by "the tide is rising?" Are you in the water again?
They were arguing among themselves about how stupid their usually wise little sister was, but Andromeda did not have the time to explain, to be polite, to apologize, not when Kai was like that.
Kai, a dangerous and sensitive topic she had learned not to bring up with her family, especially, with her family. Never again.
Not when for them she kept on being a simple-minded, naive dreamer who can be fooled easily by anyone, especially by bad people, and a strange man they had never met, with no background and the double of her age was obviously a bad person.
But they had never understood, and would have never understood how precious Kai's existence had always been for her.
And she was too desperate to bring him to safety to attempt to defend her position, to be mild.
- I need help brother! I don't know what is happening, and I am scared! Please!
Her heartfelt request for aid seemed to silence whatever rebuke her brothers were going to hurl at her, and for an instant she felt remorse and shame for her tiny whimper, for her trembling voice, for her frightened form, her, who, a few hours before, had claimed to be old enough to face the world alone.
To be able to do great things.
Great things? She scoffed to herself as she fell to her knees with Kai wrapped around her like a man lost in the storm, her hands still on his back and her eyes now filled with the tears that had broken her voice.
She wasn't even able to help a friend, how could she do great things?
- We are coming, Andromeda, stay still and don't hang up, keep talking to me. How is he now? Is he feeling better? How is the tide?
A little baffled for the change of his voice and his seriousness, Andromeda was late on answering right away, but when she finally returned to her senses, she tried to see how Kai was feeling.
His arms were around her as heavy as stones, but she could feel his heartbeat against her chest, and the feeble breath against her neck when she let his head rest on her shoulder, so to have a look around them, because they were alone, in the dark, and even if Irkalia wasn't a dangerous place, anything could happen.
- I don't know, he is cold, too cold brother. I am scared.
- Don't be scared, we are already there. Dad and mom are also with us. Are you two alone? Is someone else there with you?
Of course not was what Andromeda was going to say, but she decided to keep sealed in her mouth the instinctive answer to have a look around, just to be sure.
The moonlight was too dim to let her see clearly what was before her, but she knew her island as the palm of her hand, and she could see if something was out of place, and no, nothing was out of place.
She could see the dirt road that led to the small village, the sharp rock of the cliff that divided the sea into two, but no, they were alone. They were safe. They were-
Do not fear him.
Her sharp intake of breath did not go unnoticed judging by the storm of questions Alec tossed upon her when she lost her voice and the color on her face while Kai's voice, his low and stiff warning echoed in her mind and chest as a rope she felt tighten, and tighten and tighten around her heart and frightened soul, taking her breath away.
A hold she failed to loosen while Alec's voice began to shout her name with fear clear in his calls and her eyes, the only moving thing in her body focused on the black shadow she could now see few steps away from them, from her.
Apparently shapeless. Apparently unmoving.
Apparently not alive.
But when she saw him move, when she saw him look, the only thing she could do apart from widening her eyes and hold Kai in her trembling arms was rummaging in the pit of her stomach the voice she had failed to find before, but that now, with the lapping of the waves behind her and the desperate calling of her brothers to echo in her hear, allowed her to breath and, finally, to scream.
Eight hours before.
- A little higher.
Knitting her eyebrows in concentration, Andromeda tried to lift the lantern without falling from the chairs she was using as a ladder, a film of sweat to show how really she was trying to do her best with what her mother wanted, but as always, Calisto didn't seem to notice her effort or her discomfort.
- I said a little higher, Andromeda. Not all the people in the world are as short as you.
- And gas lanterns didn't exist until the nineteenth century– she mumbled under breath, but when her mother asked her to repeat herself she preferred to keep silent, no one was ever interested in what she said anyway, and, as her mother used to repeat, people didn't like a know-it-all.
A know-it-all.
Andromeda had never wanted to be a know-it-all, she just loved to learn what she didn't know to be able to do everything on her own.
Trivial things. Important things.
It never mattered to her. If there was something new to learn, if there was something she didn't know, then she was happy to learn it, it was simple like that.
Actually, she didn't even like to be at the center of attention.
She preferred to stay on the sidelines, just as she had been for most of the day before her mother had found her, and by founding her she really meant the act of finding someone who was hiding, and from what, her mother knew very well.
The costume party.
It was Irkalia's best attraction, something her mother had thought with the purpose of raising their income, a clever way to attract more tourist on the island and in their hotel, and as everything her mother did, it had been obviously perfect, fitting, moneymaking.
Dressing as Greek gods in a magical island full of legend, dancing all the night with the lapping of the sea to conduct their steps, drinking more than Baccus would ever have done.
Who would have not liked something like that?
No one.
No one except Andromeda.
Truly, she liked the first part, and even the second wasn't that bad, but the problem was the third.
Because, even if not all the tourist were bad people, most of them were rude, ignorant and, when drunk, incredibly troublesome and harmful, especially for old, precious and fragile arts, and Iraklia was full of them, and it did not help her concerned mind to stay at ease.
- Why do have you to be so small?
Even before Andromeda could have the time to let herself lose the balance for her mother's observation, there was a pair of gentle arms to prevent her to crash on the ground, making a fool of herself. Again.
- Because this way she is perfect to hug.
It was funny, seriously, how such a sweet sentence could come from a man so bulky and intimidatory, but Seoras had always been a man full of surprise, and kindness, the same kindness that had made her mother return back to the place she had left long ago.
- See? Perfect.
- See? Incest.
Andromeda was very quick on returning to her feet with a gentle smile for her step-father before Alec, her older brother, a sly fox as Alecta liked to address him, could mock her and his father's position, a joke Seoras didn't seem to like judging by the slap on the nape he gave to the eldest son.
- Don't joke about something like this Alec. I expect from you an appropriate behavior towards your little sister.
- And were you being appropriate for carrying her princess-like, old man?
Here it comes.
Andromeda braced herself when she caught the sly smile of her older brother.
He had done it on purpose, obviously it was on purpose, Alec loved to embarrass her, because, if there was something in which Seoras was a champion other than making people feel at ease with his easygoing attitude and kind sky blue eyes, it was obviously on expressing how much he loved his family, and, obviously the smallest of his daughter.
- She is a princess. My princess.
Blushing and running away had always been one of the few abilities Andromeda had ever had, not stumbling while doing it was, however, another thing she failed to accomplish, and she stumbled obviously, just how obvious was for her to stumble not against something, but someone, and to be more precise, against a soft chest that worsened her blush before a gentle hand could pat her head in a reassuring way.
- Could you stop this? You are embarrassing me and Andromeda.
- And me – piped the little child who was hiding behind the tall, blonde woman who had just entered the little hotel, a scowl on his tanned face – you should stop that. Let her be.
- Stop what? – joked Alec with a smug smile, gaining another slap from his father before a firm hand grasped his shoulder.
- Alright, let's stop this. We have things to do, people to feed, no more interruption. I want all of you dressed and ready for tonight.
Calisto's speech had been enough to put everyone in their place, something no one could do given the temper of each siblings, but Seoras loved his wife dearly, and he did what she wanted from him without complaining, while the others were too scared of her to say a word in the matter.
Calisto was, after all, a fiery beautiful woman with an equally fiery temper no one wanted to face, but no one of them had ever received from the woman a hard word or a cruel reproach, no one except Andromeda.
Obviously. How could she not be the exception, every time?
She always was.
Her mother had always been particularly hard with her, and strict. Harsh. Unforgiving.
Whenever she failed, Calisto had been there to criticize her and her soft spirit.
Too naive.
Too dreamer.
Too lost in her own little world made of books, brushes and tools she used to fix the old, ruined things she had found in the sand, old item that smelled of legends, adventures she would have liked to have but couldn't.
An old jar. A ruined book.
It didn't mean what she found during her incursions on the island, Andromeda had always been able to fix it, keeping them safe in her room.
Her sanctuary.
Drawing. Painting. Molding the stone.
She liked to use her hand with every tool. A brush, a pencil, a scalpel, and sometimes, even a trowel.
Get dirty was fun, and she was not abashed of the condition of her dress. Of her hand.
Or at least, she didn't mind it when no one was looking at her, but Calisto's stern gaze made her well aware of how messy she appeared with her wrinkled dress, her childish pigtails and the fresh traces of clay to mark her cheeks and dirt her fingertips.
Her mother disapproved her hobby, the "trash" she brought back home, actually, she thought very little of her, of the things she could do, so little, that Andromeda knew what her mother would have said if she had ever tried to share with Calisto her dream to travel around the world to become a restorer and archeologist.
Because she wanted to be both the things, not just one, like normal people.
She wanted to be able to find and to fix what the past and men had forgotten, what she knew was important.
Because you could only learn from the past, and she wanted to learn everything she could.
Not that she would have liked to be a female Indiana Jones.
She had never been physically strong. Or agile.
Indiana Jones could keep the title as the brilliant and cooler archeology and history teacher, she would have been satisfied with just being brilliant, the cool part was something she didn't really need.
She was not inclined to bed whatever thing moved or bring death and destruction upon her and the world just for the fun of being reckless.
Think before acting was her motto.
So no archery for her. No sword fight. No vines to cling on.
Just her books and her tiny hands and tools to let her protect the treasure of a past no one wanted to preserve.
You?
That one would have been the first thing Calisto would have said to her with an incredulous look and a sarcastic tone.
Ah. And easily despondent. How could she forget another of her many qualities.
Really, she was very good at bringing herself down Andromeda reasoned with herself with a small smile, stepping towards the kitchen where she had left the old vase she was trying to fix before changing idea, reaching the door that led outside.
- Where are you going now?
The hand she had lifted to touch the knob stiffened when she heard Calisto's suspicious voice behind her, and Andromeda was really tempted to ignore her that time, but whatever she was going to say, the harsh words she felt rising in her throat rolled back when the image of her mother curled on her bed and the faraway sound of a woman's cry flashed on her mind, erasing the dejection of her voice and the tears in her eyes.
- I am going to the beach to find some seashell for my costume.
Such a lame excuse, because obviously, she wasn't even a good liar, actually, she wasn't good in many things, but her mother seemed content with just that, for once, and Andromeda was fine with it, everything was fine as long as she could be far away from her harsh word, away, where she had always failed to notice the concerned shadow that darkened her mother's eyes whenever she gave her back to her.
Because Andromeda had inherited from her mother more than she thought, just like the bad habit to turn a blind eye on what she thought to know, eyes Andromeda raised on the sea with a heavy sight when she reached the beach to search for seashells.
- That one was a long sigh my dear. Are you tired?
Fear and surprise should have been the first things to feel in hearing the deep voice behind her back, just like running away should have been the best thing to do in that kind of situation, but Andromeda didn't do any of that.
She simply let herself fall on the sand with another sigh, encircling her legs with an arm while sinking her chin on her knees and wait for the stranger to reach her.
And he reached her, actually, he even sat on her right, silently, without even moving a grain of sand.
How he could be so light, so relaxed despite his tall form was one the many mysteries that surrounded him, mysteries that Andromeda had never been able to uncover, not even after so many years.
- What happened?
Instead of answering him, Andromeda hid her face against her legs, her back a little stiff for the cold wind that began to blow above her heard, shaking the crane of chocolate curl that fell around her as a dark, heavy curtain.
But instead of feeling offended by her silence and rude response, what she felt falling on her head wasn't a heavy and harsh silence, but a cold hand that the man to her right had just placed on her hair, a gentle caress that almost bring her to tears.
Kai had always been able to read her mood and give her what she needed.
It was strange, really, as a man like him could read her so easily, and she wasn't talking only about his age or his wise eyes, no, she was talking about his ability to comfort her when she needed to be comforted, and to let her be when she needed to be left alone.
Andromeda didn't know how long she had been curled on herself, his hand on her head, unmoving, but when she decided to stand again, she could feel a slight pain in her knees, the sign that maybe, she had been like that for hours and that, unfortunately, it was time for her to go home.
She stretched in the sunlight, her eyes closed before the sun she knew, was drowning in the sea.
With her eyes still closed, she reached for the shore, kicking away her sandals to feel on her skin the smooth water that embraced her ankles as she bent on herself to search for the seashell in the warm water.
- Feeling better?
Blinking in the sunlight, Andromeda let Kai's deep voice sink into her soul, a rumble she always compared to the lapping of the waves of the sea.
Truly, Kai had always been similar to the sea with which she had shared most of her worries and tears.
Quiet. Gentle.
Sometimes wild. Sometimes deep. Sometimes far, but always, always able to comfort her.
To find her when she wanted to be found.
How he could do that, she had never known, but she had stopped asking herself anyway.
They had met on that same beach, with the same light, the same silence a long time ago.
She had been nine, a shy, clumsy little thing too destabilized from the news of a new dad, new brothers, and a new house to stand still and not running away on her own.
She had always had the bad habit of running away to give herself the time to recompose herself before returning to her mother with a smile.
But that time, instead of the silence and darkness of her room, she had found on the shore the lonely shape of a man with the bluest eyes she had never seen.
He had ignored her at first.
Cruel, maybe, leaving a little child to weep on her own, but he had never tried to reach for her, and maybe, it had been better that way, otherwise, Andromeda would have ran away in fright.
In fact, she had been the one to reach out.
It had happened after she had finished crying, when it had been time to go home, but when she had seen the same man standing where he had been, alone, she had decided to go to tell him to go home too.
Obviously it had been dangerous to approach a stranger with no one to help her on a deserted beach where everything could happen, but when he had ignored her call and her naive attempt to be noticed, Andromeda had become more focused and stubborn only as a child could be on sending him home.
Because it was late, and someone was probably waiting for him.
And, as strange as it could seem, he had been the one to be startled by her.
She had felt him stiffen when she had touched his leg to attract his attention, and when she had told him to go home too, then, he had watched her with so much wonder in his blue eyes to make her blush.
He had stared at her in silence for a couple of minutes without talking or moving, and she had done the same thing, worried that maybe he had not liked her intrusion and was probably going to shout at her.
But then, slowly, his gaze had softened, his shoulder had sagged, just as he had just let go of a heavy burden, and despite her worry, he had not shouted at her, he had simply placed a gentle hand on her head, asking for her name, a name Andromeda had obviously given him with a smile before going home, asking him to go home too.
And she had hoped to meet him again, and they had done it. They had met the next day, and the day next to it.
Always on the same beach, always with the same sun and always at the same time.
Actually, very few things had changed since then.
Her age.
Her voice.
Her body.
But not Kai.
Never Kai.
No, she thought with a frown when, turning, she met the same gentle blue eyes of the man.
He had not changed, not a bit.
He was still tall. Still slender. Still dark, and, apparently, ageless.
She didn't know how old Kai was in reality, she had asked once, but when he had said "very old" she had decided to drop the conversation, after all, it was not important how old he was, he was precious to her anyway.
- What are you doing?
- Searching for seashells.
Yes.
She was searching for seashells, really, this time.
Calisto was a clever woman, after all, and since she had promised to come back with seashells, then she would have brought back home seashells.
- What for?
Curious.
Kai had always been curious, just like a child.
He liked to ask questions about everything, especially about small things, obvious matter, silly issues people thought to know but did not really understand, not like her at least.
Andromeda had always been an avid reader, thirsty for knowledge.
And the reason why she had become so obsessed with knowing everything wasn't as noble as people thought.
She wasn't genius, a gifted child, or a haughty person, someone who wanted to triumph in life, she just wanted to know everything to be able to fix what had been broken.
Things.
People.
And hearts.
Especially, hearts.
Because Calisto wasn't a perfect mother, she had her flaws, her fault, but Andromeda had never been able to let her be alone, to let her be left behind as her father had done.
No. She wasn't like her father.
She really loved her mother, and it was just for her that she had begun to read, to learn, to want to know everything she could, just to help her, to support her.
To protect Calisto from her desire for self-destruction.
That was the only reason Andromeda tried always so hard. For her.
Always, for her.
-For my dress, I need something showy to wear or my mother will complain about how plain I am.
Honestly, she wasn't really plain per se.
She was a little short, yes, but she was very similar to her mother.
However, Calisto was taller, more slender than her, with soft golden hair and honey-colored eyes, eyes she had inherited, but not her hair, hers were brown, dark but not completely black, and, as Seoras loved to repeat, she was "perfect to hug" with her rounded hips, a generous chest and soft thigs and arms.
But her hair, well, they weren't so nice, and the fact that she was too lazy to take care of them did not help.
She had never taken care of her marron locks as Alecta or her mother had done, their hair were long, smooth, while hers were wild, curly and so puffy to make her look smaller than she was.
It had always been hard for her to take care of them, so she usually let them be, but not tonight. No.
Not tonight.
Alecta would have thought of her hair, of the makeup, of everything, the only thing she would have had to do would have been keeping an eye on the tourist and try to protect her island's masterpiece by the savage attack of some drunkard.
Well, if she could just find a damned seashell.
With a huff, Andromeda rummaged into the waves with narrowed eyes in the hope to find something, but whenever she stood up she was left empty-handed.
Really? There wasn't a single seashell in the sea?
- Is this showy enough?
- This? – she asked curiously with her eyes still glued to the waves before lifting her face to find out what he meant with this, and when she recognized the beautiful bracelet Kai usually kept hidden in his robes she blinked a couple of time before grimacing.
The first time she had seen the beautiful jewel she had mistaken it for a pretty, shiny rock.
At the time she had been fifteen, old enough to understand how strange was for something so beautiful to be found there, on the shore, in plain sight.
A lost item, maybe, one of the many she had found while pretending to be a famous archeologist, digging a hole wherever she could, but no one ventured to the windy side of the island, therefore she had suspected some kind of prove to see how she would have acted, used as she had become with Kai's habit to test her reactions, but when she had asked Kai if that one was one of his strange trials, he had denied it with a patient smile, telling her that since she had been able to find it, then, it was hers to take, but she couldn't.
How could she?
After all, she had not really done anything to find it, the jewel had not even been hidden at all, of course she would have found it, everyone would have found it, so she had refused to keep it, a rejection Kai had welcomed with a cryptic smile and the promise to give back what was hers when the time would have arrived.
A time for what, she had never known, but it seemed that the time, as Kai called it, had finally arrived.
- I don't think it's appropriate.
- Appropriate?
- Don't take me wrong, it's beautiful, too beautiful actually, I don't think it's suitable for ...well... for me.
The silence that followed her stuttering was so uncommon to make her lower her face and ask herself if she had offended him that time, if she had been too forceful, too rude, but when she felt the soft touch on her elbow she did not step back, not even when Kai's dark form shadowed hers, blocking the sun on his back while his hand gently grabbed the arm she had withdrew instinctively.
- Believe me when I say that you are the only one suitable for this.
There was no romantic meaning in the words Kai whispered, none of his compliment had ever carried a deep meaning, because, despite what her family could believe, his affection towards her was different from the one of a lover.
It was not passionate, wild or desperate.
He loved her as you could love a beautiful flower.
Platonically.
At a distance.
And just as a flower he touched her, gently, with so much care to distract her from the long fingers that, without her noticing, had taken the bracelet she felt closing around her wrist with a soft click.
- What-
- It is meant for you, Andromeda.
Scary.
For the first time in her life, Kai's solemn and cryptic sentence made her feel shaken and a little troubled, even if she had never minded his gravity, his high expectations toward her, almost as if she had had to do something extraordinary, something Andromeda did not know if she was capable to accomplish with all her insecurities to always bring her down.
Insecurities she now tried to put aside, taking a deep breath before leaving the safety of the corner where she was hiding, reaching her family gathered in the center of the room with a couple of tourists.
The first to notice her was obviously Alec, the last she wanted to meet knowing how her brother would have reacted to her unusual attire.
Andromeda tripped over her own feet when she heard the low whistle her brother released when he saw her and her dress, after all, Alecta had been magnificent, and very patient with her.
Andromeda knew how irritating she could become when someone cornered her, but her sister had ignored her and her complains, finishing what she had called her masterpiece.
- I will never discredit your skills as a beautician ever again, sister.
With her eyes glued to the hem of her silky dress, Andromeda did not see the satisfied smile of Alecta or the way the eyes of the eldest of the sibling had softened up for her shy behavior, what she heard, however, was the warm voice of Seoras and his incessant "beautiful, beautiful" to make her blush from ear to toe.
Beautiful.
Seoras had always called her beautiful, pretty, lovely, but that time, even Andromeda was able to see her like that, to feel, like that.
Her hair was unmanageable as always, but, for the first time, there was a sense in the wild, curly locks Alecta had pinned up to the side of the head with a pretty clip, a couple of striking, golden earring to tingle and caress her naked shoulders whenever she lowered her chin, thing that happened everytime someone met her eyes.
She was dying of embarrassment, but at least she was beautiful just as she had wanted to be, her jewelry showy just as her mother would have liked, while her dress, well, her dress was simple as she had wanted, a light peplum that reached the floor into a pool of white silk, leaving her arms bare and a modest neckline that showed only her collarbone and the delicate line of the neck.
- And you are?
Her mother's voice had not been hard, or angry, or annoyed, but Andromeda was so used to brace herself whenever Calisto spoke to her to take it as a taunt instinctively.
- Ipazia – she whispered softly, concerned about her reaction, a reaction for which she did not have to wait for long.
- I have never heard of her.
A grimace darkened her face when she heard it, something she was used to hear from others and, unfortunately, even from her mother.
After all, no one knew what she was saying half of the time, so she did not take it to heart.
It was fine like that. It was not her fault.
They weren't supposed to know everything like her, no one of them actually wanted to know everything like her, but, at least, Andromeda wanted to explain to her mother the reason behind her strange choice, behind her constant being different from all the other girls who had preferred to dress as Venus.
As someone everyone knew.
- Ipazia was a philosopher and a mathematics – she explained with a soft voice, trying not to have a lecturing tone and sound like a know-it-all - She had been killed by fanatics who did not accept the freedom of her thoughts.
She was different like me but Andromeda left that last sentence hidden behind her lips, waiting for a reaction from her mother, anything more than her indifferent gaze and stony silence, but maybe, silence would have been better, for her, and for the heart Andromeda felt shatter in her chest when the blow came.
- It was silly of me to expect from you something normal, for once.
Crack.
For an instant, a long, terrible instant, it was difficult for her to understand what had actually been shattered, what had just happened, but when no one around her seemed affected by the loud crash or the distressing silent that followed it, then, Andromeda finally understood that what had just been shattered to pieces wasn't around her, it wasn't near her, but inside her.
In her chest.
- Why.
The music was too high, the voice too shrilling, the surrounding too chaotic to let her whisper reach who was in front of her, but when someone tried to touch her trembling shoulder in seeing her waving on her feet, something snapped inside her, and the crash, this time, wasn't something abstract, something only Andromeda could hear.
The silence that followed the glass she had just threw against the wall did not affect her, just as the curious eyes of the tourist and the surprised gaze of her family did not dampen the anger that was making her breath heavily, hardening her form and the eyes she now held steady on her mother with so much fury to make her take a step away.
- Why? How can you so cruel to me. Why?
So angry.
She was feeling so angry at the moment, and hurt, and desperate to become insensitive of what was happening around her, of the people she did not see, not with the pain to cloud her mind and to poison her voice.
Her tongue.
- Did you find it funny, make a fool of me every time? Am I such a nuisance to you? What is the problem of being me?
Stop.
The desperate cry went unnoticed in her head while her hands began to shake and her mouth kept on spitting cruel words toward her mother and her siblings, too surprised to able to curb her outburst or pacify her anger.
- Am I too strange for you?
- Meda-
- And you! – Alec winced when she looked at him, her eyes full of the tears she felt rolling on her cheeks – Is it funny for you to embarrass me every time? Are you enjoying yourself while I die of shame Alec?
- That's enough Andromeda.
- That's not enough mother!
Her scream was shrilling, pathetic, just as pathetic was her outburst, but Andromeda was too hurt to be able to come to her sense, to understand when to stop.
To be mature.
But she wasn't as mature as everyone thought.
She was just eighteen years old, after all, she wasn't even an adult.
She was simply lost.
And hurt. And broken, a shattered piece of glass no one had ever tried to pick up from the ground.
A piece of glass everyone had trampled again, and again, and again up to break it.
- I am not stupid, you know? I am not an I-know-it-all, I am just me! I can do great things if I want to ! I can do whatever I want, and go whenever I want, without any of you!
That look.
Andromeda knew that look, she had seen it too many times whenever her father left her and a crying Calisto in their home in Berlin, it was the look of when something was breaking you from the inside, but Andromeda was too broken herself to remember that, between her mother and herself, Calisto had always been the fragile one.
- I know, mother, that you don't like me very much – and it was then that what had hardened her voice faded away abruptly, leaving behind the quiet whisper of a confused teen with a broken heart and the desperate desire to be enough for her mother, to be able to make her proud, to make both of them happy like her father had not been able to do, but maybe, she was more similar to him that she had thought.
- You should have left me as you had left him.
That one had been the last, horrible thing she had said to her mother before running away, reaching the beach to cry out her anger, never turning back, never waiting for one of them to run after her, but now, as the fear crawled on her back biting each nerve of her body, Andromeda could not prevent herself to wish for one of them to be with her.
For her mother, to be with her.
- Andromeda? Andromeda? Are you alright? Andromeda!
Alec's voice was swallowed by the sand where the phone had just fallen when Andromeda, in her attempt to bring herself and Kai away from the thing, had only been able to crawl a little, her hands now anchored on Kai's back while her eyes did not leave, not even for a second, whatever was looking back at her with red eyes.
Eyes?
Andromeda didn't know if the ruby orbs gleaming in the darkness were eyes. She didn't even know if what she watching was a man.
If it was human.
- Sta…Stay away from me!
A scream, that was what Andromeda had wanted to release from her trembling lips, what she had expected to hear echoing around them, but what came out from her mouth had been just a feeble whisper the waves behind her swallowed along with her hips when she stepped back, making her shiver for the cold and the fear that was overwhelming her.
- Stay…stay away from…- the scream came out this time, it grew into her throat and pierced the night when Kai, still unresponsive, still heavy in her arms, literally melted in her hold, leaving her with nothing more than her own horror and dread to curb.
And she broke down.
A scream escaped her constricted chest while her hands ran into her damp hair, her fingers so violent on her head to scratch her skull while another scream, and another and another one kept on leaving her trembling lips, leaving her breathless and hopeless.
Defenseless.
A sob escaped her lips when the things moved a step towards her trembling form, forcing her to take one step back, her hands now on the mouth she tightened to hold her voice, shutting her eyes and praying for herself to wake up.
Wake up.
The whisper did not leave her sealed lips, it remained a thought, a mantra Andromeda kept on telling herself while shuddering whenever a soft hiss in front of her made her aware that he was approaching her, that the thing was trying to reach her.
Yes. She must be dreaming. Maybe she had fallen asleep on the beach without knowing.
Maybe it was all a nightmare, a horrible, dreadful nightmare.
She thought so, she hoped so, but despite her hopes and her thoughts, the thing kept on advancing, she kept on recoiling, and everything kept on drowning as her in the water that now had reached her elbow.
Her shoulder.
Her chin.
Wake up.
Wake up.
Wake up.
Wake-
- Get out from there!
- Mom?
Water filled her throat and lungs when Andromeda called out for her mother, her voice a far away ring into her ears, a trick of her mind, the sign that she had gone mad, but when Calisto's voice returned to shake her from her frozen state, then, moving towards that voice, towards the only normal and familiar thing was natural.
Necessary.
- Leave or take.
As heavy as stones, the arms Andromeda had started to move in confusion in the water to reach the shape she saw advancing towards the beach fell along her sides, her feet drowned, her body left at the mercy of the wild waves she felt stirring around her.
But it wasn't because of them that she had stopped, it wasn't for the fear that made her greet her teeth that she had frozen up, but for the voice she had just heard in her head.
Kai's voice.
Kai, who just a moment before had melted into her arms just like ice under the sun.
Kai, who now seemed everywhere around her.
In the cold air she could feel biting her neck.
In the icy water she could feel freezing her to the bones.
In the heart she could feel throbbing in her ears.
Her throat.
Her hands.
And even if it was crazy to talk to the void, even if it was silly of her to ignore the calls of her family or the sudden jolt of the shadow, Andromeda did not try to reach her mother.
She did not try to get out of the water, she remained still, her eyes wide. Her mouth dry.
Her troubled heart lulled by Kai's voice, the only sound she chose to listen, in the end.
To think of something real.
- Take.
She spoke that time, with her mouth and her soul, and as everytime she tried to speak, her voice was soft, slow, quiet, a voice no one heard.
Not the family she could now see under the pale, gentle moonlight.
Not the shadow who now was looking like her the running people in the sand.
But he heard it.
He had always beel able to hear her inner voice.
And only him she chose to listen, in the end.
Not the cry of pain and horror of Calisto when the woman saw her daughter, so little and frail surrounded by dark and wild waves running towards them, yes, towards them, but not to reach them, not to grab her hand, not to hug her mother.
Because when Andromeda stretched out her own hand, it wasn't her mother's fingers what she grabbed, it wasn't her mother's shape what she touched, but him, the thing who would have clutched Calisto if she had not grabbed him first.
- Andromeda?
When Calisto saw her daughter lift her chin at her faint whisper, she blinked in confusion when she recognized it.
That look.
Strong. Unwavering. And gentle.
Strong, as the eyes and tiny hands that had ripped Calisto from her undone bed and dark room to let her see the light once again.
Unwavering as the gaze Andromeda had interposed between Calisto and the indifferent and cold eyes of the man they had left for good. Together. Her small form the only support that had always kept her standing. And tall. And strong.
And the gentle, so gentle eyes Andromeda softened up when Calisto failed to touch her face when she dragged back herself and the shadow, her fingers a soft caress she could only imagine behind her closed eyelids while hardening her grip around the thing to prevent him to get away, to take her mother whenever they were going.
Because that one wasn't a dream.
She hadn't gone mad.
She had just been caught in something nor she nor the people she saw stiffen in watching the dark shadow stirring into her clutch could understand.
Take or leave.
Kai's voice was still echoing in her hand, his low voice no more gentle.
No more kind.
But solemn.
Painful.
And painful was what followed her choice.
Her action.
When she felt her right arm sting, Andromeda could not even imagine the searing pain that would have assaulted every nerve of her body, but the only thing she could do was bearing the pain the best she could.
Even if the pain made her ears hiss, and her eyes sting, and her heart break.
She did not let go, she kept on holding on.
For herself, and for the family she heard screaming before being crushed by the hight, ominous waves that, without caring for the broken woman on the sand and the cry of pain of the people around her, swallowed her daughter and the horrible thing she was holding firmly before becoming still as nothing had happened.
As Andromeda had just died.
Just like that.
Just in front of their eyes.
But dead she wasn't still. Oh no. Not still. Not yet.
She was sinking, slowly, silently, with complete darkness to welcome her eyes and engulf her form and what her arms, even despite the pain, kept on holding firmly.
She was drowning.
She knew it.
She could feel her bones yield to the high pressure of the water.
Do you want to die?
Her eyes opened wide when her internal voice asked that question.
Do you want to die? Just like that?
Die? - she asked herself once again, looking at the surface with longing and despair.
Did she wante to die?
No.
She didn't want to die, not yet, not like that.
There were many things she wanted to do, many places she wanted to see, many people she wanted to meet, and it was then, just then, that her survival instinct kicked in.
Because she was drowning, and no one would have let himself to drow voluntarily.
Not even her. Not even if Kai's warning was still echoing in her mind.
But she had done enough.
She had left her family and took the thing.
She had choosen to take the monster to protect them.
She could try to resurface now.
But without him.
Never, with him.
Her hands loosened the grip even before her brain could tell them to let go, and just as a stone threw in the water, the thing began to sink, slowly, sucked by the current that Andromeda fought with all her might, swimming the best she could to reach the surface a hand suddenly pierced like a knife.
Seoras's strong hand maybe, or her mother's frail grip.
But the hand wasn't gentle, it wasn't frail, it was just hard, and cold, and cruel when the long, spidery fingers did not take her hand, but her neck.
Hard. Cruelly. Painfully.
Just as painful was the first breath Andromeda could take when the stranger pulled her out from the water, a breath she lost when the hand, instead of loosening the hold, began to tighten.
To break her neck.
Because she had failed.
She had let go when she shouldn't have, and when her body crashed on a floor, tearing her a last, weak breath, Andromeda knew that she was dying, really, that time, and that despite her will and all the things she knew, she could not fix anything, that time.
Not her broken promise.
And not even herself.
Thanks for reading!