Page 17 of Venom Sweeter than Honey
In that moment, the tide awakens with a roar. A wave rises and surges forward, knocks me off my feet, drags me beneath its undertow, and slams me against the sand.
Is that you, Father?
Can you hear me?
Can you feel the fury bleeding from me because of you?
My mer form presses against my skin, begging to be released.
Instead, I crawl to my feet as the water recedes. Another wave surges, pummelling me directly in the face, forcing brine and sand into my mouth as my wings and tail are again crushed beneath me. My instinct to shift into my mer form turns desperate, painful.
The form that I always suppress because it only ever reminds me ofhim.
Scrambling to my feet, I spit sand and brine into the riptide trying to suck me back out to sea.“I fucking hate you!”
Rough, unfamiliar hands grip my arms and yank me backwards towards the shore.
The high priest’s vestments are drenched, and a scowl carves his sharp features.
They have no idea who my hatred is really for. If they knew, they’d probably let me drown.
“You’ll anger the sea god with this foul behavior, girl. This is no way to mourn your mother.”
If only.I would take his anger. At least it would show me he cared. Fuck, I would even take his hatred, because hatred is not the opposite of love.
Apathy is.
A spiteful cackle bursts out of me.
“Fuck the sea god.”
The priest gasps, face paling. Murmuring admonishments under his breath, he releases my arm and stomps away.
Something tickles my shin, drawing my gaze.
As another wave flees the shore, it reveals the sand at my feet—and a delicate gold chain draped across my ankle.
The baby conch shell decorating it somehow glitters in the overcast light.
Scowling down at it, I wait and brace myself against the next wave, hungry to devour the shore, and swelling so high it makes my dress swirl around my hips.
As the sea calls back the tide, my gaze returns to my ankle. Sure enough, the gold chain remains.
The impulse to throw it away again, purely out of spite, is strong, but before I can think any further on it, I’m angrily snatching it out of the water.
When I finally look back up, the priest is gone.
The house mothers from the orphanage pepper the shore at a distance, all watching me with pity in their eyes as a familiar deep voice calls to me from above.
“Horus, here. Horus, here.”
My eyes lift to the sky to see Horus descending. Seagulls screech, flying in every direction to get away.
My vision blurs with tears as relief suffuses me.
At last.
My one true friend.
