Page 78 of Odette's Vow

“And I would see you live long enough that you may return to your family once more. I no longer wish to take that from you,” she whispered, trying to break away.

Instead, I pulled her closer, until our faces were mere inches apart, while Calypso watched on. “If you do this, I’ll not be able to forgive you.”

Tears pooled in her eyes, but she did not let them fall. “As is your right. I would still see you live.”

Then, Odette turned away from me, and whatever fragile connection had entwined us for so long, snapped.

Calypso smiled at her, satisfied in her victory.

The older male sand body began walking towards a small boat that had risen from the depths of the ocean before my very eyes, while the small boyish figure ran forward, beckoning Odette to follow.

Calypso giggled as Odette almost broke into a run, just to see her son’s form once again.

“Uh-uh, there are rules,” Calypso sang, snapping out a hand with unnaturally fast reflexes, to capture Odette’s arm and stop her in her tracks.

“What?” Odette impatiently brushed a tangled curl from her face, and there was a painful spike in my chest as I realised I would never get to do that for her again. That she was robbingus, me, of something I had come to treasure in those few and fleeting moments we’d had alone.

“One, you must return to your village by this boat. Alcander will lead the way. Two, should you change your mind, should you turn back to my island, the sands of time will take your boys as quickly as they appeared, and – poof – Poseidon will claim you as his own. The boat will be nothing but splinters floating on the sea, and you,” – her focus darted over Odette, as if already seeing her drowned and broken body – “will end up shipwrecked, dead, with nothing to show for your sacrifice. We both know how that went for you last time.”

Odette’s jaw clenched ever so slightly. The moment dragged for what felt like an eternity, and then, at last, her chin dipped. A nod so small it could have been imagined, but Calypso saw it, and her cold smile stretched unnaturally. She had what she wanted – an agreement, unspoken but understood – that the broken shell of the man I now was would remain in her possession.

As she led Odette away, towards the conjured boat, the sand statues of Odette’s loved ones already sitting in it, I stood there, muttering a vow of my own.

“Lady Athena, hear my words. May Odette spend the rest of her days with my cool breath on the back of her neck like the wind, forever watching over her shoulder, awaiting my retribution. And when the time is right, by your good graces, may I bury her myself beneath Poseidon’s keep where the water is coldest, so that she may feel the cold she has placed upon my heart, forever in her death.”

Ash, the same grey as Lady Athena’s eyes, plumed from the volcano on the island.

My Lady had heard me.