Alec & Circe
Alec’s boat bobbed in the distance as he waited on the desolate shore outside the cave. The ghastly moon peeked through bars of crawling gray clouds as the lighthouse beam slid across his chest every seven seconds.
It was a cold night—perhaps the coldest night of the season—yet Alec endured the cold as he would bear any other challenge standing in his way.
I’m only a lighthouse keeper, Alec thought, never expecting a purpose beyond this. He never thought to love. He never thought of one day having a family. He never thought it was possible to live the rest of his days having more than being alone.
Of course, he had hoped. Oh, had he hoped for a poor keeper such as himself to fill the austere lighthouse with love and laughter. However, with hope came disappointment, and Alec had known never to open his heart for it to be torn to pieces. Until Circe. He may not have a suitable house for her to call home, rich bed linens for her to lay her head, or money to purchase all she desired. But he had an island, a boat, his entire heart, and a lifetime of adventure.
The witching hour had passed. Alec was growing anxious, retracing his steps in the sand, when down the shoreline, three bodies were pacing toward him along the cliff. They had hoods pulled over their heads so he could not see their faces.
Alec dipped into the cave, peeking around the bend to catch glimpses of the intruders’ features. The position brought memories of when Circe and him first kissed.
Then the moon’s light reflected off the sapphire.
“Circe,” Alec whispered.
Relief filled him, and he sprinted toward his love, feet sliding and sand spraying the air. And at the sight of Alec, Circe dropped her things on the cold beach and ran to him.
The two crashed into each other like it was a monumental thing, like two stars crashing into each other. Alec pulled off her hood as her hair cascaded down and around her. He grabbed her face and kissed her, and when the two broke away, Alec inched back to grab her belongings. “A second more, and I would wake the entire town to find you.”
That was when he remembered the two other bodies.
One was the maid, Lacie.
The other was a child.
Alec froze, a surprised grin stealing his face. “Who’s this?” His eyes darted back to Circe as complete shock distorted his features. “Why is a child with you?”
Circe laid a hand on the child’s shoulder and pulled her close to her side. “This is my daughter, Hedera Sotiras Cantini,” she said. “Hedera, wipe off the sour face and say hi.”
Alec’s gaze bounced between Hedera and Circe as he crouched down.
It all became apparent why she’d left for days, sometimes weeks at a time. It was why she was so hesitant to live with him on the island, and why she endured abuse from the inside of a man’s hand. She had a daughter. She was responsible for a beautiful little girl.
In an instant, Circe’s entire world had become his.
Alec held out his hand to the child with midnight hair and two blue moons in her eyes. “Miss, my name is Alec.” But Hedera just stared, not taking the stranger’s hand. Alec hooked a thumb toward his boat, amused by her stubbornness, which he thought had been passed down from her mother. “Have you ever been on a boat before?”
Hedera remained silent, studying the man’s face, deciding whether he was kind.
Alec’s voice lowered to a whisper. Like he was to tell her the biggest secret of all. “When you’re swaying in the middle of the Atlantic, it looks like the stars have fallen right out of the sky to sleep on top of the ocean. It’s a beautiful sight, watching the stars tucked inside the waves and rocked by the sea. And if it were up to me, I would have it always be nighttime just to admire it for hours while the whole world sleeps.”
Hedera’s brows squished together. “But there’re monsters in the nighttime.”
Alec grinned, shaking his head. “That’s what the monsters want you to believe,” he said. “But these monsters you speak of can only come out when you’re deep into slumber. It’s what they call nightmares.”
“Alec!” Circe said, slapping him on the shoulder with her bag. “Quite an imagination you have. Not two seconds, and you’re already frightening her.”
Alec chuckled, fixing himself upright. “It’s okay, I have a secret weapon.”
“A secret weapon?” Hedera asked, eyes wide, brows touching the sky.
“You see the lighthouse beam?” Alec turned to his right just as the lighthouse beam circled again. “I keep it on so when your mother’s here with you, she knows I’m thinking about her, and so she can always find her way back to me. And now the same holds true for you.” Alec grabbed her hands and guided her closer to him. He pointed at the lighthouse, their faces side-by-side. “It’s magic and powerful enough to see from the other side of Weeping Hollow, and in your nightmares—”
“But what if I don’t make it in time?”
Despite the dark cloud that loomed in his chest, Alec smiled. “Even if you don’t make it, and your soul leaves this body, the beam will still be on for you until the three of us are together again.”
Hedera crossed her arms. “Oh, but what if it takes a hundred years?”
Alec’s smile reached his soul. “Why, then this beam must shine for a hundred years.”
“You promise?”
Alec looked into the little girl’s eyes, loathing the idea of swearing an oath he wasn’t certain he had the power to keep.
“I promise to do everything I can,” he said.
A man shouted in the distance. All four gazes followed the direction it had come from. At the other end of the beach, beneath the Cantini castle, flames from lanterns and torches glowed like fireflies in the night.
“It’s too late. They’re coming,” Lacie said. “There isn’t enough time. We must go back.”
“Follow me.” Alec swiped up bags from the sand and clutched Hedera’s little hand. The four of them sprinted across the beach until they reached the cave, and once they were tucked safely inside, their breaths echoed off its walls. Alec turned to Circe. “Go to the boat and wait for me on Bone Island. I will take care of this and meet you there.”
“That’s maddening,” Circe cried. “There are too many of them and only one of you. They will kill you, Alec. And they won’t stop there. They will surely spot the boat and come for us next. I cannot let them take Hedera from me.”
“And let you both return to a monster? How do you expect that of me, then assume I would just wait on an island for you, knowing both of your lives are in danger?”
Circe stared up at him. “We have no other choice.”
He took her head into his hands, his heart pounding. He kissed her cheek, her lips, and pushed his mouth into her ear so Hedera and the maid wouldn’t hear. “I love you, Circe,” he said passionately, almost angrily. “That’s why I have to demand that you take Hedera, get in the boat, and be on your way to Bone Island so I can rip Cantini’s heart out of his bloody chest.”
Circe leaned back, their gazes falling together.
“No one’s ever fought for me,” she said, her voice shattered.
He cupped her face, pushing his forehead to hers. “I would burn down the castle for you, and if I must, I would burn down the entire town.” He swiped her hair back from her face. “I’ve spent almost four hundred days falling in love with you from a distance. I finally have you in my arms, and we’re so close to forever. Circe, we’re so close,” he said in a harsh, suffocating breath. “This is the only option for me because I cannot breathe without you. If anything happens to you—” Alec’s emotion stole his words.
A sea of tears slid down Circe’s cheeks.
There was only one thing she could do.
She ripped the sapphire from its setting and grabbed Alec’s palm.
“What are you doing?” he asked, confused, panicked.
She used the jagged corner of the stone to slice open his palm, then did the same to her own as Alec froze in shock. Blood oozed out, spilling down the edge of their palms and dripping from their wrists.
“Mother!” Hedera cried, horror appearing in her youthful eyes.
Lacie held her close to her chest, stroking her hair. “Shh, child.”
“Circe, why are you doing this?” Alec held the back of Circe’s neck, trying to catch her gaze. “Answer me.”
“The beam is your weapon, but this stone is mine,” Circe said, taking his hand and cupping the stone between their cut-open palms. Circe’s eyes lifted to his. “You will return to the lighthouse without me, Alec.” A tear chased one after another. “I will ensure that you live a happy and fulfilling life. You will not know pain. You will not know sorrow. You will breathe easy. As will I.”
“No.” Panic washed over Alec. “Circe, please don’t do this!”
“I won’t risk your life. I can’t lose you either. And I can’t walk away from you, knowing we’ll both live in misery while apart.” Circe cried. “You deserve peace and happiness.” She fell back on her heel and shrugged. “You are the man I love, Alec. I’m eternally yours, no matter how long it takes until we’re together again.”
Emotion flooded Alec, and his throat tightened, tears gathering in his eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing would come out. So, he cupped the nape of her neck and pulled her close, pressing his mouth to the shell of her ear, squeezing his eyes closed. A single tear fell from the corner of his eye.
“And I’m eternally yours, my darling siren,” he whispered on an exhale. A breath. Like a secret. But it was no secret at all because his gentle confession beamed loud inside them.
They held on to each other for a moment longer, then Circe closed her eyes and whispered a spell to link their souls together, the sapphire their bond.
The sapphire glowed between their hands, lighting the cave in an underwater-world shade of blue. Kaleidoscopic spotlights bounced off the
walls like stars, and Hedera and Lacie marveled at the sight.
Circe’s musical whispers filled the cave, a siren’s call. This bewitched Alec in ways he’d never thought possible and in ways Circe never thought to use on the man she loved. “Conspirare. Perspirare. Inspirare,” she sang, transferring all her magic into the stone. “Breathe together, breathe through, breathe into you.” To be together in spirit while apart was the only way until they could meet again. So they felt agony nevermore. So they felt misery nevermore. “Ontil thy finneuma.”
This was the last time Alec heard the sound of Circe’s voice.
When the sapphire swallowed up the light and all was dim again, it took a moment for him to catch his bearings. His eyes adjusted, his legs strengthened, and he reached out and held Circe’s face in his wounded hand.
Then Circe kissed him hard, deeply, as though to leave a phantom stamp in their hearts. And Alec kissed her slowly, passionately. She was his past, his present, his future.
“Mother!” Hedera cried, and her daughter’s voice pulled her away from Alec.
“We must go now!” Lacie insisted, watching as Circe placed the sapphire back into the setting. “This way through the secret passage in the tunnel.”
Circe turned back to Alec and looked into his eyes, wishing she never had to let go.
“I’ll wait for you,” Alec said, fingers intertwined, never wanting to part. “I’ll wait at the top of the tower with your beam on for an eternity if that’s what it takes.” A promise. An oath. A vow. “Every night when you see the light, think of me.”
And these were the last words Alec had spoken to Circe.
In fact, these were the last words Alec had spoken at all.