The boat had finally reached the end of the canal and was now floating haphazardly in the open ocean. Waves rocked the boat, but Bash didn’t seem inclined to go any faster. We all waited with bated breath, eyes flickering from the dolphin to the canal and then to the endless sea of water.
Finally, the dolphin swam away with a cheerful mewling noise, and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding.
“We should be good,” Dair said. His voice was nearly lost in the cacophony of the ocean - waves and seagulls and roaring wind. “I’ll-“
Dair was cut off by a whining noise, and we both turned our attention towards the dolphin once more. It was a dozen or so feet ahead of us.
As I watched, in utter horror, a gaping mouth closed around the dolphin and swallowed it whole.
Revulsion churned in my belly, but that disgust quickly transformed into fear.
The creature that ate the dolphin rose from the water...all five stories of pure muscle.
My mind flickered back to the book I read in the library with Lupe. An extinct supernatural creature.
“Motherfucker...” I cursed. “Guys, that’s a Kraken.”
TWENTY-NINE
Z
Reading about a Kraken and seeing a Kraken were two entirely different things.
The book had said it was big, but that word failed to encapsulate how mammoth the creature actually was. It rose from the water like some unholy being, a ruddy gray color. Dozens of tentacles snaked from its immense body, and its single eye blinked rapidly, fixated on the boat.
On me.
“Shit,” Bash breathed, and I wanted to snort at his use of the word. “Shit” was a vast understatement. “Dair, get out of there!”
My Mermaid Prince was already swimming back towards the boat, muscles rippling and tail flipping erratically.
“What the hell do we do?” Dair asked the second he got near the side of the boat. I reached a hand down to help him up, but he brushed it away dismissively.
“We fight,” I whispered. I’d meant for the statement to sound badass, but my voice trembled. I could handle a lot of things - fucked up assassins and fucked up Kings - but what I couldn’t handle was a sea creature larger than the mansion we had come from.
I was going to have nightmares for years.
Still, I tightened my grip on the dagger...before realizing I was going to need something bigger. Deciding quickly, I dropped the dagger into a cup holder and grabbed my bow and arrow. Distance would be key for this monster, at least for the time being.
“Fucking hell,” Bash muttered beneath his breath. Despite his trepidation, he lifted his hands and began to chant softly beneath his breath. I didn’t know what type of spell he was incanting, but I knew whatever he did had to be done fast.
“Give me your sword, Z!” Dair called up to me. I hesitated, only a second, before releasing the sword from the strap on my back and tossing it into the water. Dair caught it expertly before taking a deep, shuddering breath.
And then his body cleaved in half. Before I could even scream, those halves turned into fourths and the fourths turned into eighths. Soon, there were dozens of fishes in the place of my mate, all swimming in separate directions to surround the Kraken. I had no idea what had happened to my sword, but I trusted Dair had a plan.
The Kraken opened its mouth and released a roar. Row after row of teeth, various shades of brown, sat crookedly in its gaping mouth, and air from the roar blew my hair back. It smelled of decaying fish and blood, permeating the air in a sickly perfume.
That one eye remained trained on me. All it needed to do was reach out a tentacle...
I hooked the arrow into the bow and leveled it at the monster. Pulling the taut string back, I waited until that one eye was in my direct line of vision. And then, I released the arrow.
It flew through the air with a blistering speed, landing directly in the Kraken’s eye. Its cry this time was anguished, pained, and the sea creature withered. The arrow protruded from the milky, sunken eyeball, black blood drizzling down the creature’s face.
With a newfound vengeance, the Kraken wrapped its tentacles around the boat, shaking it. I let out a squeal as I was roughly thrown against the siding, my head hitting metal and black spots forming in my vision.
“You okay, Bash?” I asked, staggering back to my feet.
He ignored me, eyes still squeezed shut and lips moving rapidly even though he was on the ground.
The tentacles crushed the side of the boat, and water gushed through the many holes now adorning the side.
“Shit. Shit. Shit.” Apparently, I was encompassing Bash’s use of language. There was not a word in the dictionary that could encompass the epic clusterfuck we had found ourselves in.
I turned my attention back towards the Kraken’s head just in time to see two dozen fishes lunging from the water. One of the tentacles retreated from the boat to swat at the onslaught of fish, and panic tightened my stomach.
Dair...
The man in question materialized on the top of the Kraken’s meaty body, sword in hand. Without preamble, he jabbed the sword into the creature’s head.
Once more, the Kraken bellowed and bucked its body. Dair held the hilt of the sword, but the movements of the Kraken were getting more and more volatile. With a cry, Dair was brutally tossed off its body and landed with a deafening splash into the water.
“Dair!” I screamed, but I didn’t have time to worry about my Mermaid mate. The Kraken had already turned its attention back to me, a tangible incandescent fury burning in his one bloody eye.
Bash’s voice grew to a scream as he finished his incantation, and he smiled in smug satisfaction.
Only to have the smile change to horror as the Kraken grew. And grew. And grew.
His form continued to expand until it
