The Secret of the Emerald Sea Read Online Free PDF Page A

other. She loved this idea. After all, even if she had to go under the water in a storm, she could not take the Cupid with her, and she would never leave him, even if it meant dying.
    The day they left was bright and clear and auspicious for travel. They walked slowly around the island that had become a home for both of them. To Jane, the Cupid looked pensive and a little sad—after all, he had never known anything else but this place.
    * * * *
     
    The Cupid stared at the Island once more from a vantage point at the shore. His heart was both heavy and light as he contemplated the sky, the leaves, and the sand. Someday, he hoped to return, with all of his great deeds done, and then he would sit on the beach and stare out at the sea until the sun fell into the sky and the gods were at rest.
    * * * *
     
    Jane hated pushing the raft out to sea—she hated being on the raft. One night, a storm came on at dusk and the wood she had bound together began to disintegrate under the strain of the high winds, the rain and the flotsam that would strike it from all sides. Jane quickly obeyed when the Cupid ordered her to hold onto to the handles she had made, and she stared into his eyes in terror.
    Soon, the weather became even worse. Their flesh was almost frozen now, and their supplies had gone into the frigid water. Suddenly, the Cupid began to wail as he sat and clutched the crude handles, and Jane recognized the sound of the creature on the island. She had suspected him, of course, but never in his presence had she heard the wailing cry that had once haunted her. Sometimes, she felt she heard it in her dreams late at night when both of them slept, but when she awoke, the Cupid was nestled very still beside her, and it seemed impossible that it could be him.
    “Don’t, Cupid,” she hollered into the storm. “Just hold on tight and wait for it to pass!”
    But he screamed and screamed, his childlike features suddenly ugly and distorted. Her terror was absolute, and he appeared suddenly monstrous, his eyes glowing with unnatural light, and his skin taking on a deathly green-white pallor so different from his normal rosy coloring.
    “Jane!” he screamed at her, and his voice seemed to be the voice of someone else, someone much older—his voice was the voice of a man . “Hold on to me, Jane, and no matter what happens, don’t let go!” Despite her fear, she clutched him in her arms like a child while trying to stay balanced on the center of the raft. He shook in her arms and screamed, and she watched in transfixed horror as buds emerged from his tiny back, pushing through his skin. She pulled his quiver of arrows to the front, and then she began to cry and touch at these strange growths to try and remove them.
    “Leave them be,” he roared in his deep voice. “They are all that can save us now!”
    Jane stared in horror as the buds became wings...wings that were spotted with his blood. His body grew at the same time, until he towered over her, floating above the raft like an avenging angel. His face was stern and square now...it was a man’s face. His chest broadened, and his arms and legs were soon roped with powerful, lean muscles. His hair blew off his face as Jane stared at him in disbelief. He was beautiful, and terrifying in his beauty, his lips as finely wrought as a god’s, his nose aquiline. The Cupid’s wings were huge and snow white and folded around him as he set himself down on the raft once more.
    “This is me, Jane,” he announced in a deep voice. She watched him smile and reach down for his arrows. They were still there. Some magic had protected them from harm. His eyes glowed as he picked her up against him and they began to rise over the churning sea.
    “It’s the first moment that hurts me, Jane,” he whispered to her as the storm surged around them. Jane’s heart throbbed as she felt his strong arms hold her close. Then, the Cupid kissed her lips, so gently, with tenderness and also passion. My