AN: I was really not happy at all with the last few chapters. Making Sally react negatively to finding out she was pregnant put me into a corner I couldn't get out of and it was just not working out at all. The secondary characters seemed disregarded and I apologise for any confusion but I'm hoping this alternative works better. There are only mild changes in Chapter 11 and major ones in 12 and 13.
I stand on the shore, shivering from the cold rain that seeps through my clothes, and watch Don. I want to trust him but how can I now that I know how much he hasn't told me? I can't deny that a part of me, the part that loves him unconditionally, wants to go with him. But another part of me, the practical part of me, holds me back from following him blindly.
Don sees me hesitate and for a moment he looks disappointed. But he turns to the ocean and points his trident at the waves like he had done to bring the tide in. Except this time, the water around his feet starts swirling. It twists and writhes, almost as if it was solid, around his feet and spirals into a circular shape, almost like a crater in the water.
"Please just come and take a look at this," he begs. My heart wrenches at the urgency in his voice. No matter how much of his life he has hidden from me, I can't say no when he sounds like that, like he's desperate for me to trust him again.
I take slow steps across the wet sand and take my place beside him, further away than I would have stood normally but close enough for me to see what he wants me to see. He motions for me to peer into the crater and I do. I gasp at what I see because what Don has created is a portal to another world. The mouth of the crater has no bottom and opens out to reveal an entire city hidden under the ocean. It must be thousands of feet below surface but it looks close enough to jump into safely. I can make out gleaming marble buildings and green fires which burn in their sconces.
"What is this place?" I ask, mesmerised by what I see.
"It's, uh, my kingdom," Don replies, "It's my home. Zeus can't touch you there. You'll be safe there, Sally, I promise. Safer than you would be on land."
His kingdom. I can't pretend anymore that I don't understand what is happening. Don is Poseidon, god of the sea, just like I saw in my dream. It probably wasn't a dream at all. Such a thing should be impossible but what else could be the explanation? If I want answers, only Don can give me them. I have no other choice than to do as he says.
"All I have to do is jump?"
"Yes," Don – or Poseidon as I should call him now – replies. I can't help but notice how relieved he sounds. For some reason, that makes me smile.
I take a deep breath and jump.
I fall over the edge like Alice going down the rabbit hole. From above, the fall had looked short, a few feet at most but it seems to go on forever. It feels a little like going down a glass elevator really fast. On the other side of the water, all around me, I can see fish watching me as I pass them, a blur of colours and shiny scales before they disappear from my view. I touch the ground with a soft bump onto golden sand. The ocean floor. It's not like anything I ever imagined. I had never imagined there to be a kingdom under the sea for one thing, but even the feel of the sand beneath my fingers and the warmth of the water is beyond anything I could have dreamed up. It is only when I look around me at the amazing city and gasp that I realise I can breathe. Looking down at my clothes, they seem perfectly dry. There is no way to deny the magic that fills every inch of this kingdom; it is in the fibre of its being.
I step away from the chute I'd just come down and Don touches down next to me. "What do you think?" he asks.
I am speechless. All this time I thought I'd been crazy, imagining mermaids and Cyclops when they didn't exist, but I'd been right. In front of my eyes, mermaids with colourful, scaly skin and long hair tied back with seaweed swim past. Their tails catch the light of the green fires that burn magically under water and shimmer. Some smile and nod at Poseidon and look at me curiously. But none stop to say hello. Instead, they continue their journeys along the paths that cut through towering marble buildings made in the Greek style.
"This place is magical," I sigh. It is the most beautiful place I have ever seen. There is something about it that makes me want to stay forever. But I know I can't; this place could never be my home.
"I'm glad you like it," Poseidon says. He sounds proud and he should be. If this place is his kingdom, he has every right to take pride in it. "I'll take you to my palace. We can talk in private and I'll explain everything."
He turns away, puts two fingers to his mouth and whistles like he's hailing a cab. In a matter of seconds, a large grey dolphin is at his side. It's much bigger than dolphins that I've seen on TV or at the zoo. It chatters excitedly when it sees Poseidon and bows.
"This is Delphin, my advisor," Poseidon says, laying a hand on the dolphin's back. "We'll reach the palace much quicker if you ride him."
"Ride him?" This is all too much. The marble city, the mythical creatures, and now a giant dolphin that I'm supposed to ride? My head swims as I try to process all the information. It's so ridiculous that it can't just be a dream. This is real.
Poseidon tells me how to straddle the dolphin like a horse. I went horse riding once but sitting on Delphin feels nothing like riding a pony. His skin is slippery and hard to hold on to, and though he stays still while I settle down, I am paralysed with fear at the thought of falling off his back.
"Delphin is very used to carrying passengers," Poseidon reassures me, "He won't let you fall off. I'll follow behind you."
Poseidon pats Delphin's back and he shoots off. I hang on, clutching his sides, as tightly as I can as we speed through the streets. After a few minutes, I get used to the slippery ride and look around the city. There are not only mermaids but saltwater nymphs and sea creatures I can't name. We pass through a market selling fish, clothes made out of shells and seaweed and armour. There is a park where tiny mer-children chase each other, their colourful faces contorted with laughter. It's just like home.
We reach Poseidon's palace in a matter of minutes. Delphin stops outside the gates and I gasp at the sight of it. The spires reach up for hundreds of feet, so high that it's a wonder they don't break the surface. The marble reflects the water, shimmering gold and blue and a thousand other ever-changing colours. Multicoloured flowers grow in the lawns that stretch before the palace and decorate the windows. Two strong looking mermen with green-tinged skin and bronze tridents guard the coral gates. The gates tell the stories from the legends: Poseidon creating horses out of sea-foam, battling evil Titans and sea monsters, brandishing his trident to release his wrath. Though the pictures are beautiful, the man in them doesn't look anything like the Don I fell in love with. He looks like a fierce king, not the boy with the charming smile that I thought I knew.
When the guards see Poseidon with us, they bow deeply, their tridents grazing the sand. The stand aside and the gates slide open.
"That will be all, Delphi," Poseidon says to the dolphin, who bows and swims away. To me he says, "Follow me." He takes my hand and I feel myself relax. It feels so familiar and almost makes me forget how things have changed so fast.
We walk through endless corridors which are decorated lavishly with tapestries and paintings and up a long, spiralling staircase. The palace's interior is beautiful but Poseidon pulls me along so quickly that I can't take it all in. When we reach the top of the stairs, Poseidon lays his hand on the wooden door which swings open at his touch.
The room inside must be his; it's fit for a king. It is decorated in blues and greens, the colours of the sea, and a huge green fire burns in the hearth. It is quite simply furnished, with a few chaise lounges and carefully woven tapestries but most of the room is taken up by a huge bed.
"All of this is yours?" I ask, still unable to believe it. It strikes me then how little thought I had given to where Don actually lived. I hadn't thought it would be a whole kingdom that he had for himself.
Just for a second, I feel a little bitter. All of this that he has is more than I ever will, no matter how hard I work. But I shake the feeling away. He can't help the family he was born into any more than I can.
"Please sit down, Sally," he says, guiding me to a chaise. He sounds nervous again and clears his throat uncomfortable. He pours himself a golden drink from a decanter on a table and begins to pour me some before stopping himself. He pours a glass of wine instead and offers it to me. "Ambrosia," he says, like that should explain everything. "It's a godly drink but it would kill a mortal."
I take the wine but I don't drink it. "So it's true," I sigh. The truth feels heavy in my chest. "You're a god."
"The god of the sea, Poseidon, yes," he says wearily. "It's a title that I've been wishing I could shake for a while now."
"Well," I says, reclining in my seat, "You can't. If the myths are true –"
"They are."
"Then you're stuck this way forever."
Poseidon puts a hand to his eyes and suddenly, he doesn't look like a young, teenage boy. His expression is a thousand years old, full of exhaustion and pain. "I didn't choose this, Sally. Please don't be angry at me for not telling you sooner."
"I'm not," I say and it's true. I am shocked and a little scared but I'm not angry. It's not an easy thing to tell and there is no way to say it that makes it believable. If I wasn't here, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I would never have believed him.
Poseidon pulls his hand away from his face and reaches it out to me. I take it and he squeezes my hand. He takes a swig of his ambrosia and begins his explanation. "Those stories I told you, the Greek myths, they're all true. Of course, you've probably figured that out by now. The Olympian gods are immortal. We cannot die, no matter how much we may want to at times. Over centuries, we have thrived with the most powerful societies in the world. When we left Greece, we went to Rome. We moved all over the world and now, we reside in the United States of America, the most powerful society in the twentieth century. If you look closely, you'll see how much influence we still have over your country.
"Usually, humans can't see us because our magic is concealed by the Mist, a magical force which hides our world from yours. But you can see through it. There are very few people who can."
"I can see through the Mist?" I say, mostly to myself. It explains why I have always been able to see the fantastical things that no one else could. My uncle had told me I had an overactive imagination but I had never imagined the creatures I saw. They had all been real.
"Yes, there are some mortals that have always had this power. They're special people but they're lives can be ruined by what they see," he pauses and looks at me apologetically. "They can be driven to insanity or thought to be insane by others."
That could have been me. If Poseidon hadn't told me this, I might have ended up crazy in a home somewhere, raving about the beasts that only I could see. It makes me shudder to think that could even have been a possibility.
"But if you're Poseidon," I say slowly. The realisation puts a heavy pressure on my heart, making it hard to breathe. "Does that mean everything else in the myths is true too? You're married, aren't you?" A sob threatens to escape but instead it lodges in my throat. "Was I just some conquest? A twentieth century fling? What, are kids in a thousand years going to learn about stupid Sally Jackson that gave her heart to the god of the sea believing she stood a chance of actually finding love? How could you lie to me? You said you loved me."
"No, Sally!" Poseidon insist, squeezing my hand but I pull away.
How can he say no? My tale is the same as the ones I have read about the foolish mortal women that gave themselves to the gods and were left heartbroken. The only difference is that I will get to walk away from this. My heart feels like falling to pieces in my chest and every heaving breath aches like a blow to the chest.
"Take me home, please," I beg. "Take me home."
"Sally, listen to me," Poseidon pleads. His voice breaks me. He sounds like he needs me, no matter how stupid that seems. I make the mistake of turning back to face him and when my eyes meet his, I can't look away. They are grey and heavy with sadness and in that moment, all I feel for him is the love I can't ignore. "I didn't lie when I said I love you. I do, so much. Amphitrite means nothing to me. I am bound to her by the legends, not by love. I couldn't leave her even if I wanted to. You've never been second best, I promise you. I haven't loved another woman like you."
He turns away from me and goes to stand by a window. He looks out across his kingdom and when he speaks, his voice is thick with unshed tears. "I have all of this but it is not enough. They are my subjects, my people, not my family. My immortal family is broken beyond repair, too damaged for me to love unconditionally. You made me forget all that. I love you, Sally. Even if you don't believe me, it doesn't change that. I love you."
I wish he would stop saying that. I wish he had been proud, arrogant and unlikable which would make walking away from him easier. I wish he had said that he'd loved a thousand women before me and he had loved them better. I don't want him to say he loves me. I don't want him to say I am special. I want him to hate me so I can hate him back.
But instead we are trapped in this way, loving each other and having nothing to show for it. Knowing who he really is doesn't make me hate him. Maybe it should but instead, I feel sad for him. He is a god, he has everything anyone could wish for, but nothing that he needs. I wonder if anyone, his brothers, his wife or his children, really love him. I do. I can't change that.
"I love you too," I whisper.
I step forward, into his arms, and I know there is no going back from this. My life will never be the same.
