Beyond the Sea by Emily Goodwin Read Free Book Online

scrambling to safety.
    Shifting into human shape, Melia fled from the water.
    “Are you alright?” she asked, causing Peter to jump.
    He coughed up more water. “I’m—” More coughing. “Fine, I’m fine.” He shot Melia a startled glance. After another cough he asked, “What are you doing out here?”
    “I should ask you the same,” she said defiantly. “You almost drowned!”
    A lightning bolt shot up from the ocean. Melia got a millisecond glance into Peter’s eyes. She saw confusion, sadness, pain, and fear. Smiling, she put her hand on his arm. “Let’s get closer to the rocks.” She stood, helping him up. On shaky legs, Peter took her hand and followed Melia under an overhang of rock. “What were you doing?”
    Peter shook his head. What had happened? He couldn’t see anything. It was too dark. He knew something had pulled him to shore. It felt like hands had grasped his ankles, and he knew long hair had slipped between his fingers. A too quick flash of lightning revealed the angelic face of Melia. He knew her voice too; alluring and calming. How quickly his emotions had changed, from anger to fear to the deepest fear he’d ever felt, to thinking some horrible creature was dragging him underwater. Then relief and finally confusion. Where had Melia come from?
    Melia watched Peter’s eyes dart all around. What was he looking for? He was breathing heavily; too fast to be normal. Was he alright? Blood dripped down his right shoulder. When she gently touched it, he jumped. Oh, right. Humans couldn’t see in the dark.
    “You’re bleeding,” she told him.
    “Oh.” He put his hand where hers had been, pressing on the wound.
    “What were you doing?” she asked again.
    Peter shifted his weight nervously. “I wanted up on the rock.”
    “During a storm?” she asked incredulously.
    He shrugged. “I was angry. Coming here makes me feel better.”
    “It does.” She took Peter’s hand. “Let’s sit.”
    “Ok,” he agreed and allowed her to pull him down. They were close. His hand brushed her thigh, her wet hair whipped in the wind, tickling his face.
    “Is your head ok? It looked like you hit it.”
    “Yea, it’s fine. I think my shoulder got the worst of it.”
    “Good. Why were you angry?”
    Thunder boomed. Lightning struck again. The storm was getting closer. Peter’s sight became accustomed to the dark. He looked at Melia. “My parent’s really pissed me off.”
    “What happened?”
    He shook his head, sighed, and let go of his bleeding shoulder. After wiping his hand clean on his wet shirt he said, “It’s a long story. Basically, they hate me.”
    “How could anyone hate you?” she asked, sounding genuinely oblivious.
    He laughed. “Do you really want to know?” Through the dark, he saw her nod. “Ok, then. But I warned you, it’s a long story.” He smiled. “My mom had me when she was seventeen. Obviously, I wasn’t planned. She barely made it through high school and wasn’t able to go to college. She blames me for it. She and my dad got married right after graduation. She always complains about how she never got a real wedding…and sometimes I wonder if they ever would have gotten married if it wasn’t for me. But they did and I guess it was really hard. My mom stayed home with me while my dad went to college. But things got better and we were ok.
    “When I was eight, Adam and Ava were born. I was excited to have siblings. Even then, though I was young, I knew something was different. It was the way my parents talked about it, about how exciting it was to have a baby they tried for. I remember my grandma saying she could actually be happy this time my mom was pregnant. I remember it like it was yesterday. I was sitting at their baby shower, and it hit me then that my parents resented me.
    “And it only got worse. My dad was finishing grad school and wasn’t home much. My mom was busy with the twins and left me to do all the chores. She’d told me before she