Page 66 of Bewitched By the Sea Monster
People murmured as she passed.
“Do you know who that is?” Jackson asked.
“Onyx?” I repeated her name.
“Onyx Thornheart. Yeah. Hemadeher. She was a nobody—born without magic to a Sorcerer family, working the nine-to-five grind with the rest of us. Then she got in with Rune and now she’s up there with the richest women in the world.I’m telling you, babe, this is why everyone’s out here today. Rune Bloodworth changes lives.”
“Onyx.”The mournfulness in Alistair’s voice and the needles of despair he fired into my heart had me digging my teeth into my lips to keep from crying out.
Onyx stopped dead in her tracks and turned, raising her eyes toward the ocean.
Had she heard him too?
Rune called to her, jokingly telling the group that, “Onyx here has been dyingfor a drink since we left the states. Haven’t you, Onyx?”
“Onyx.” It took every ounce of willpower I possessed to keep my feet rooted when my body itched so fiercely to move. To run to the sea and offer whatever comfort I could give to Alistair. To make a dash for Onyx to ask if she reallycouldhear him and then demand to know why he was so upset over her being here.
But I did nothing. Except to lean back into Jackson’s arms and suckle what comfort I could get from his embrace.
After a heartbeat, two, three, Onyx smirked and turned away from the sea.
Once I belongedto the land. I belonged to thehumans.
That life feels distant. The colors and sounds of it. The noise. The feeling ofbelonging.Of having companionship. The sensation of having strong legs. Of walking.
I miss walking.
It feels…felt…purpose…ful.Purposeful.
To place my feet against the ground andwalksomewhere.
So much of my life now is…unpurposeful.
I move, because the waters and my body don’t allow stillness. But I am nevergoinganywhere. I can’t.
I miss walking. And I’ve forgotten how much I’ve missed it. But the image haunts me today: the place I lived on the land. A place far from the waters. Where the orb in the sky…
Sun.
That’s its word.
Thesun.
Where the sun is seen—itshines.And I feel its light warming my back.
That sun does not shine here. Not over these waters or the land.
I miss that too. The sun.
There are the tastes on land…food. So much food. I see some of it still, in the hands of the humans I am called to amuse. Burgers. Sand…werches-witches-sandwiches.
Chips.
They are my favorite.
Chips.
In my old life, I ate them until my belly hurt.
