My human body was too slow. My clothes stuck to me and already the weight of them dragged at my limbs. Sonny was below me, fighting against the heavy, waterlogged clothes and the darkness. He wouldn’t be able to tell which way was up, would hardly be able to see that small little hole in the vast surface of the lake, the one chance he had of making it up to air.
I shifted.
Within a second, my octopus had taken over me and pushed itself out, slipped out of my coat and shirt, left my trousers floating behind me and my skates to sink quickly. The water felt cool against my skin. I could breathe deeply and move freely.
I shot through the water as fast as I could, heading directly for Sonny.
His movements were slower, his body tired so quickly from the shock of the icy water, the weight dragging at him and the little air he still had in his lungs.
Within seconds, I’d wrapped myself around him. My tentacles slid around his middle and curled around his throat beneath the sodden wool of my scarf, along his arms to his hands. He was completely in my embrace.
As soon as he was secure, I pushed against the water and swam straight for that tiny point of light, the hole in the ice.
I broke the surface, pushing Sonny up above me, angling his body so that his head broke the surface first and he could breathe. To my relief, I heard the ragged breath he took, the first inhale of precious air. He spluttered, his body shaking as he coughed and shivered uncontrollably from the cold.
His hands scrabbled at the ice, trying to pull himself onto it, but it broke under his grip. I pressed against it from below with two of my tentacles and tried to push him onto it.
He wasn’t going to make it.
I wasn’t strong enough, not from below, not with the ice cracking and breaking the way it was. If I could pull myself onto the ice and drag Sonny up, perhaps, but every second he was in the water, he froze more and his movements – and his breathing – became more laboured.
Then a hand grabbed Sonny’s.
I saw Declan through the rippling surface of the dark lake, lying flat against the ice to spread his weight evenly. He was too close to the edge, but I couldn’t speak and send him back, notthat he’d listen to me anyway. He’d known the danger and he’d come anyway.
He gave a strong pull, and Sonny moved in my grasp. Declan was strong, and desperate.
With me pushing from below, my tentacles manoeuvring Sonny so that he didn’t get cut on the shards of ice, and Declan hauling him from above, Sonny slid onto the flat ice above me.
The shadows shifted and Sonny was pulled further away from the edge. Then Declan’s voice, distant through the water, “Erik? Erik!”
I could stay in the water forever, despite the cold. It wasn’t pleasant but it wouldn’t kill me. Or I could ease myself onto the ice in my octopus form and make my way to my cottage where I could shift without being seen.
But of course I couldn’t do either of those things. Because Declan had seen me go into the water. He needed to see me come out.
And so I did the only thing I could. I shifted back.
In my human form, the ice suddenly stabbed into my skin like pinpricks. My limbs became less fluid and harder to control. Already, I could feel myself shivering.
Even if I gathered my sinking clothes in my octopus form, I’d never make it into them and back to the surface in human form.
So I had to break the surface as I was.
Declan was pushing Sonny along the ice, away from the hole and the cracks spreading out from it like a web.
“Erik,” he said as he saw me, my name catching in his throat. “Give me your hand.”
I reached out and took it, holding tightly onto his fingers and letting him pull me. It was lucky I was small and strong, because I slid right over the edge and onto the surface, slithering along it quickly.
The ice stung my naked skin but I ignored it. Sonny was lying very still.
“Get off the ice,” I said, and pushed myself along, doing what Declan was doing and crawling along it on my belly so as not to put too much pressure on one spot.
As soon as I was far enough away from the hole, I grabbed Sonny and pulled him into my arms. He didn’t resist, lying limply and breathing shallowly.
Clambering to my feet, I ran across the lake to solid ground. The couple who’d been skating were there, staring at me in astonishment.
“Give me your coat,” I demanded. The young man unzipped his puffy coat and I began to tug Sonny’s clothes off him, fighting to unwind my now-heavy scarf from around his neck. Buttons were my enemy, what with my numbing fingers and the waterlogged cloth making it impossible to manipulate them. I ripped anything that didn’t undo easily.
