Fight to the Surface (Sea Prince Trilogy #2)

Chapter Seven

It was him.

Percy.

Her son.

Of course he would be here. Wherever she was, he was. Perhaps not all the time now, but the concept still stood. It hadn't occurred to her in the spur of the moment that Percy might be here.

If Percy didn't remember them, it wasn't a good idea for Estelle to be around him. She wouldn't understand.

Percy's head whipped around when he heard her gasp.

Sally was frozen. She felt paralysed under his sea green gaze. The usual warmth in his eyes wasn't there. Just an vast empty cold space. Like the still sea, drowning her in its depths, so deep down where the darkness ruled and not even the creatures of the sea dared venture.

She knew in that moment.

He didn't recognise her.

And that hurt more than she could describe.

Estelle took her mother's moment of hesitance to slip her hand out of Sally's and run towards her older brother.

"PERCY!" She yelled, throwing her arms around her brother's thighs, for she wasn't quite tall enough to reach any higher.

He flinched and staggered back, not returning the hug.

He couldn't see their details properly from so far away, but now they were closer. So much closer. He could see them clearly now.

And he knew them.

No.

He knows them.

His memories of them were slowly trickling back. So slowly he barely noticed. Just enough to know that he knew them, and why, but not in the full depth. He didn't remember their relationship.

Not yet.

But in the long run, nothing could block out the precious memories of family he was determined to protect at all costs. Those memories wouldn't fade. They'd always be there waiting right around the corner for any chance they could get to come back.

A little girl's voice called up to him, yanking on his shirt. "Percy, somebody said you don't rember us. Why not? That's not true right?" Her voice was pleading, boarder line terrified. She didn't want to be forgotten. Not by him.

He said nothing and Estelle felt her heart drop. "No." She whispered. "No! You're not allowed to forget me! I-I-" she stumbled for the right word, "forbid it!"

She felt hot drops of water land in her face and for a moment thought it might be raining, but it wasn't. A few more drops splashed onto her cheeks.

Percy was crying.

Not full out bawling, his face barely changed from its shocked expression. Tears just slid down his face. Not even he knew why.

"Mom?" He whispered softly.

Sally stepped forwards, hesitantly at first, but she quickly pushed it to the side and pulled her son awkwardly into a hug, Estelle sandwiched between them, though she didn't mind.

Sally embraced her son. Not as a welcome -it was far to soon for that- but as a form of remembrance, out of her need to give him familiarity and her need for comfort. She knew he'd called her 'Mom' purely because that's what he recognised her as. He was remembering what she was to him, the biological mother who had brought him into this cruel world, not who she was to him, the woman who had been by his side, who fed him blue food and if the time arose, fought by his side.