Page 33 of Achille's Earth Angel
Chapter 9
“Oh my god,” she breathed, trying to make sense of it. How could that be? Delia was young and her father was old. Then again, she had no idea how old Delia really was. Age was irrelevant in the kingdom of the gods, they were immortal. She could have been living for hundreds of years already. Or it could be another Delia besides the one she’d seen on the beach.
She began scanning the pages. It told of a young man who suffered great heartbreak when his wife had died with their first child. He couldn’t bear her loss and it drove him to the sea over and over, not caring if the waters took him or not. He’d been on his boat when a freak storm had come up and he’d been knocked overboard by a large wave. The riptide had taken him down quickly, the water getting darker and his lungs bursting for air. He knew he’d never make it back to the surface and had given in to his fate when he’d met her. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Deep green eyes and long lustrous auburn curls. She’d given him air from her own mouth and then brought him to the surface, gasping and clinging to her, their eyes searching one another. Miraculously, he could hear her thoughts.
“Why do you wish to die?”
“I lost my wife and I can’t bear it.”
They hadn’t spoken a word, and yet they talked to each other in their minds.
On and on Ange read, unable to put the manuscript down. Two hours later, she finally finished it, tears running down her cheeks. Delia had been with her father when he had passed, and from his many descriptions, it was the same Delia.
She had questions, so many questions. On an impulse, she ran out into the night, Trolley following her. It had to be close to 3:30 a.m. The water was lapping gently against the sands and somewhere, a lone gull called a mournful sound. echoing across the dark waters.
“Delia,” Ange cried, tears still wet on her face. “Delia, are you out there?”
There was no response.
“I know you’re out there, Delia,” Ange tried again. “I read my father’s book and I know you must be grieving. If I were you, this is where I’d be as well.”
A small eruption in the water bubbled and then Delia arose, the water sluicing off her beautiful rainbow scales and some sort of iridescent clothing clinging to her skin like a second glove. The sadness on her face broke Ange’s tender heart.
“Why are you here?” she asked quietly. “What do you want from me?”
“You were with my father when he died,” Ange replied brokenly. “You don’t know how happy that makes me. I’ve been grieving because he died all alone. I wished I’d done more, spent more time with him, been here for him.”
Delia’s face softened and she reached out to touch Ange’s cheek with her palm. “Your father loved you so much, Angelina. Do not despair, you were achieving all he asked of you. He wanted you to embrace life and live it with joy. You were where he wanted you to be, and I was where I wanted to be. I miss him so much.” Her voice broke and Ange squeezed her hand.
“I’m sorry you were never able to marry him,” Ange replied with a sad whisper. “I miss him, too.”
Delia’s eyes flashed for a moment. “We were from two worlds, the sea and the land. We were never meant to be together, and yet we loved each other from the moment we found one another. We accepted this, and took what we could, when we could.”
With sudden intuition, Ange spoke. “Epaphras found you here, didn’t he?”
She nodded. “Yes, my brother knew that I loved a mortal, but he never knew who it was. My mother knew and she would often cover for me when I would visit. Most of the time he would come to me somewhere on the water so we could spend time together.”
“Did you ever have a child together?” Ange asked. Was it possible she had a brother somewhere under the sea?
