Free Goddess of the Sea by P. C. Cast Page B

wouldn’t come free. She tried to reach down to get it off, but she was pulled under the surface with such force that she thought her leg would wrench from its socket.
    Water surrounded her and the pressure on her leg was unrelenting. She tried to fight against it, but it was impossible. Her ankle had been securely captured, and she was being pulled to the floor of the ocean by the weight of the sinking plane.
    She was going to die.
    Panic rippled through her and she reached both hands up towards the fading light of the surface, struggling to kick against the enormous weight dragging her to her death. She didn’t want to die—not like this—not so young. In that moment, CC didn’t see glimpses of her life passing before her eyes, she just felt the despair of knowing that she was dying too soon, before she had ever really lived. She would never know the love of a husband; she would never watch her children grow and marry. Her chest was burning, and she knew it was only seconds before she would be forced to breathe in the deadly water.
    CC closed her eyes. Please help me, she prayed fervently. Someone please help me.
    Miraculously, the weight that had been dragging her under evaporated, and she was filled with an indescribable peace. She opened her eyes to find herself floating in a bubble of soft blue light. And she wasn’t alone in that bubble. Suspended in the water directly in front of her, so close CC had only to lift a hand to touch her, was an incredibly beautiful young woman. Her long hair floated around her like a shimmering veil. CC thought it would be the exact color of her mother’s buttercups, if flowers could shine and sparkle. The woman’s face was a study in perfection. She had sculpted cheekbones and lovely aquamarine eyes that looked somehow familiar to CC. Her skin had the flawless complexion of a china doll. CC’s eyes traveled down the body of the woman, who was quite obviously naked from the waist up. CC could clearly see her large, well-formed breasts. But what was she wearing on the bottom half of her body? Whatever it was glistened like it had been beaded with glass and colored in iridescent shades of blue and turquoise and amethyst. It fit her shapely body snuggly and tapered down to . . . CC felt her own body jerk in surprise. A large set of fins! She was no woman; she was a mermaid!
    CC stared at the incredible creature, knowing that what she was seeing, what she was feeling, couldn’t possibly be real. Her lungs didn’t burn anymore. But it wasn’t that she was breathing, because she was still definitely underwater; it was more like she had been infused with oxygen. She decided she definitely must be dead, or so near death that she was experiencing some kind of amazing hallucination.
    The mermaid smiled tentatively at her.
    CC smiled back.
    Do you desire to continue to live, no matter the cost? The words were spoken clearly into CC’s mind. She knew they had to have come from the mermaid, but her sensuous lips had not moved.
    Well, of course I do , CC thought automatically and nodded her head vigorously.
    The mermaid’s timid smile was gone, replaced by a dazzling look of relief and joy. Without hesitation, the creature reached out and wrapped her smooth arms around CC in an intimate embrace. CC didn’t feel any desire to pull away. Instead of being frightened or repulsed, she was mesmerized. The mermaid pulled CC gently against her body, and CC could feel the creature’s naked breasts press softly against her fatigue shirt. The mermaid’s curtain of gossamer hair surrounded them, and her tail wrapped around CC’s legs. CC had always been firmly heterosexual, so she surprised herself when she felt her body respond and her own arms wrap around the mermaid’s bare shoulders.
    Suddenly CC understood that what was happening to her wasn’t anything as simple as a sexual experience; it was a magical infusion of the senses. Just