"Dylan." She took his chin in her hand, forcing him to look at her. His face was tight and withdrawn, but she could see the pain reflected in his eyes. "I'm sorry about your mother, and it makes me sad about your father, but it could never change what I feel for you. How could you believe that could matter to me?"
"You are Goddess of the Sea. I do not have even a palace or a realm to offer you."
"Yeah, I know all about being offered a realm—Sarpedon already did that," she said fiercely. "And I'm not interested." She nodded her head toward the monastery. "And there's a knight up there who has a castle to offer me," she scoffed. "I'd rather be trapped on land than accept their kind of love. Or, better yet, I'd rather have no lover at all than what they offer."
At the mention of the other two males Dylan's jaw clenched, and she could feel his body tense against her.
"I want what you offer me," she said.
"But I have nothing to offer you," he said miserably.
CC splayed her open hand on his chest over his heart. "You have this."
"No," Dylan's voice was thick with emotion. "I do not even have a heart. It was lost to you lifetimes ago."
"Don't ever think it's lost, Dylan. I'll keep it safe. Always." She pulled him down to her and their kiss was filled with the tenderness of true love.
"For an eternity," he said.
"Yes, for eternity," she agreed. "And I want to stay with you. Here, in the water, in this form, forever."
Dylan's look of joy was quickly shadowed by worry. When he spoke his voice was calm and filled with the hardness of purpose.
"I will protect you from Sarpedon," he said. "I will not allow him to harm you."
Remembering the raging, insane power of the gigantic merman, CC felt a stab of fear. "No! You won't have to. Gaea is going to Lir. She'll work everything out; she just asks that we be a little patient. She said Lir has some problem with another goddess who's taking his attention right now."
"I am not God of the Sea, but I do have some power of my own, Christine." Dylan's expression had darkened, and CC felt the deep, constant strength that rested beneath the merman's kind exterior.
"I know you do! But Sarpedon is crazy, and he's getting more and more bizarre. He scares me, Dylan. Please let Gaea handle it. I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you."
Dylan opened his mouth to argue, but CC silenced him by pressing a finger against his lips.
"Promise me you'll stay away from him."
When he didn't answer her, the stab of fear turned to panic. Her mind whirred while she searched for something she could say to convince him. Then she knew.
"If something happened to you I would be forced to marry the knight so that I could stay on land, away from Sarpedon's realm," she said simply. She hated that her words caused the flash of pain that crossed the merman's face, but fear for his life overrode her desire to protect his feelings.
"I promise you I will not seek out Sarpedon. But I also promise you I will not allow him to take you from me."
She smiled at him, trying to lighten his mood. "Do you really think it would be so easy to take me?"
Begrudgingly, Dylan's face relaxed, and he smiled back at her.
"No, I believe you would be very difficult to capture." He kissed her quickly. "You must have been a goddess in your old world, too."
CC's laughter sparkled.
"Well, I was a sergeant. I guess that's pretty close to a goddess, at least in some circles."
"What is this, ser-geant?" He pronounced the foreign word slowly, which made CC want to laugh again. "Where was your realm?"
"The Comm Center." She grinned. Then she sighed at his confused expression and tried to explain. "I was in the USAF, the United States Air Force. My, uh, I guess you'd call it my realm, was the United States. The air force is a branch of the armed forces that protects my realm's freedoms. I worked in the communications part of the USAF—making sure different people and countries got the information they needed to make wise decisions."
Dylan nodded his head. "A messenger goddess protecting her realm. Yes, that suites you. I would have guessed as much."
CC opened her mouth to try and explain that there really were no goddesses in the USAF, but she sighed again and stayed silent. Hadn't she just been trying to convince Isabel that there was magic inside of each woman? So why couldn't she take that belief one step further and claim the goddess within every woman?
A wonderful thrill swept through her as her thoughts touched upon a belief so ancient that she could feel the depths of her soul leap in response. That was it! Each woman must hold some part of the Divine Feminine deep within her. CC wanted to shout with the discovery.
"Yes," she said joyously. "You're right. I am a goddess."
Dylan didn't look surprised at all. "I wish I could visit your realm of the United States Air Force."
CC almost choked as a mental image of Dylan in Oklahoma flashed into her mind.
"Well," she said quickly. "It's in the middle of a land that's far from the ocean. There's really no way to swim there." Even if we were in the same century, she finished the sentence silently.
"I would have to have legs again," Dylan said thoughtfully. "Having legs was such an unusual experience."
CC tried not to laugh.
"I do not think we can ever go back," Dylan said.
CC shook her head. "I seriously doubt it."
The merman studied her. "Will you miss it? What of your family there?"
CC took a deep breath. She had been avoiding thinking about her parents. Now homesickness filled her. Yes. She would miss them. She loved them. But… her gaze traveled out over the fog-covered water. The soft fingers of the surf caressed her body.
The realization came swiftly to her mind. She belonged here.
She had left home when she was so young because she had never felt like she really belonged, and she had been traveling all of her adult life trying to find someplace where she truly fit in. The air force had been satisfying, she realized, not just because she enjoyed her work, but because she never stayed in one place long enough to begin to feel the discomfort of not belonging. While her peers were settling down, getting married and having children, she had been living the nomadic life of a woman searching for home. Deep within her she knew she had finally found that home.
She touched Dylan's cheek. "Yes, I'll miss my parents, but it's time for me to grow up and move on." She remembered their Silver Cruise schedule with a poignant smile. "They'll be fine. They have each other. And this is where I belong."