by Katee Robert
I pull on a pair of leggings and an oversized sweatshirt and consider my options. Running sounds like a great plan, except it’s not remotely feasible. Even if I could portal to a different world, I couldn’t go home. One of the merfolk who can’t hold her natural form in a world made of oceans? There are members of my father’s court that will kill me for the sin of allowing myself to be cursed in the first place. Portaling to a different land-based realm might work, but my necklace and my powers are here. I won’t be able to magically restore anything if I’m not here, too.
Not to mention that I’m potentially dragging my problems to my sisters’ doorsteps if I run. Whoever the monster stalking me is, I have a feeling he’s not going to let a little thing like a portal stop him from getting to me. If I involve my sisters directly, I might as well paint the target on their backs myself.
No, running isn’t an option.
That leaves fighting.
I put the tea kettle on and move to stare out the window. Angry clouds gather overhead, eating up the clear blue sky that we’ve been enjoying for the last few days. Even with a pane of glass between me and the coming storm, I can taste a spark of displeasure on the wind.
This is no normal storm—no more than the first one was.
He’s getting more aggressive. Escalating.
I know what I need to do, but I still pour myself a cup of tea and hold it between my shaking palms until it cools enough to drink. One slow sip at a time, my panic recedes. It’s not gone, won’t be truly gone until I’m whole again and my enemies are vanquished, but my thoughts finally arrange themselves into a straight line instead of spiraling into screams.
Though I don’t keep in active contact with my sisters, we like to have the ability to call using mundane methods, so I have all their phone numbers. Two years translates to more missed calls and unreturned messages than I want to count, but I’m betting everything on blood holding truer than past hurts. I take a deep breath, and then another. It makes no difference. I don’t fear for my life—none of my family would ever hurt me intentionally—but if Amae tells me to fuck off, it will break something in me that I don’t have words for. I almost put the phone down right then and there, almost judge the potential price too high to risk, but I’m out of options and I’m out of time.
I have no other option but to call my sister.
4
I press the button to call Amae before I can talk myself out of it and hold my breath as the line starts to ring. Just when I’m sure the voicemail will click on, my sister answers. “Lorelei? Is that really you?”
Her obvious concern shoots through the line and wraps its tight fist around my throat. I cough once, twice, a third time. “Hey, Amae.”
“Hey?” There’s a long pause. Amae apparently still forgets to fill silence when she’s thinking. “It’s been two years and you say, hey?”
Lies and explanations and excuses bubble up inside me, anything to avoid admitting the truth, but I shove them all down. “I’m in trouble. I’ve, uh, been in trouble for a long time.”
“I guessed as much on my own,” my sister’s voice has lost its worry and gone dry. “How can I be of help to you?”
Amae always was too smart for my own good. I drain the last of my tea and set the mug on the counter with a soft clink. “I’m sorry I never called you back.”
“Perhaps you are.” She sighed. “It doesn’t matter, because I forgive you. I’m glad you’re okay, Lorelei. The only reason I haven’t come down there to demand answers is because I didn’t think it’d actually take you this long to ask for help.”
That, and Amae has her own stuff to worry about. That’s the reason I’m calling her, as opposed to our other sisters—her unique skill set. “Once I figure my way through this, I’ll make it up to you—promise.”
“Liar.” There was no heat to the world, just a tired acceptance. “But you also never have to. I’d help, regardless. What do you need?”
This time, I don’t dodge the question. I brace myself on the edge of the counter and dredge up every detail about the monster stalking me that I can remember. His ability to summon storms, to speak across great distances, to transport me, at least mentally. The hint of tentacles that keep coming up and how he looks in his human form.
Amae is quiet for a long time and I reheat my kettle while she thinks. There’s no point in rushing her when she gets like this, and I learned a long time ago to be patient. My sister has an internal database that would put any computer to shame, but it sometimes takes her awhile to flip through it to match the things we know against the thing we’re looking for.
Finally she curses softly. “Lorelei, you’re in trouble.”
“We’ve covered this. I’m well aware that I’m in trouble.”
“No, I mean you’re in trouble. The only creature that fits what you’ve experienced up to this point…” She hesitated. “Lorelei, it’s a kraken. Possibly The Kraken.”
The breath whooshes from my lungs and I have to cling to the counter to keep on my feet. Somehow, even when faced with the various possibilities, I’d never once considered that the kraken might be real. “He’s just a legend.” Surely my sister is wrong… She never has been before, but there’s always a first time.
“Correction—we always assumed he’s just a legend. Our people haven’t had any interaction with him in living memory.”
I snort. “That’s not saying much. We haven’t been back to this world in living memory, either, and yet we exist. What can you tell me about him?”
“That’s just it—I have only legends and rumors. Nothing concrete.”
I close my eyes and strive for patience. It’s not my sister’s fault that my own personal monster is the stuff legends are made of. Literally, in this case. “Okay, then tell me the legends and rumors. Please,” I belatedly add.
“Eager for all the stories, regardless of what is fact or not. Nice to know some things never change.” But she doesn’t sound particularly bothered by it. “He’s a magic eater. I don’t know if he can’t create it on his own or if he is magic and consumes other types, but that one trait is consistent across all the legends.”
“Nothing like a bite of merfolk magic to hit the spot.”
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m not laughing.” Though what she’s saying doesn’t make sense. If he wants magic, he could just gobble up my magic without bothering with me. Even separated from my powers, I’m not sure I’ll survive if they’re consumed. I didn’t even realize it was possible in the first place. I stare at the whistling tea kettle. “Okay, what else?”
“Supposedly, he’s ancient. There are legends of him existing as far back as there are accounts of us existing here, which amounts to thousands of years.” This time, her hesitation lasted longer. “This is just rumor.”
“Amae, spit it out. I understand that it’s unverified and I won’t hold it against you if it ends up being wrong.” I take a deep breath and try to temper my tone. “At this point, any information is more information than I have. And he… Amae, he can get to me. No matter where I am, he can get to me. I’m scared and I’m furious and if there’s the slightest chance that an ancient rumor can give me an edge to put this asshole to rest, I’ll take it.”
“I don’t know that he can be killed.”
“Amae.”
She sighed. “The rumor is that he’s Abel. Or at least that he started out as Abel.”
I blink, waiting for her words to rearrange themselves into an order that makes sense. They refuse to comply. “Abel,” I repeat. “You’re talking Cain and Abel.” Origin myths are a dime a dozen, and Christianity is no different, for all that it gets uppity about having their written recordings. But just because something is a myth doesn’t mean it’s not true. I close my eyes and try to recall what I know about this particular one. “Brother on brother murder. Tried to cover it up. Got caught because he was shitty at lying. Mark of Cain.”
“That’s the gist of it.” She sounds
like she might be smiling, but just as quickly the warmth disappears from her voice. “The catch, according to legends, is that Abel didn’t stay dead. Cain’s idea of disposing of the body was to toss him into the ocean. The ocean decided to keep him. I don’t know exactly who or what is responsible, because the legend just says it was a woman of untellable beauty.”
I huff out a laugh. “It’s always a beautiful woman.”
“Of course. Regardless, she couldn’t just bring him back to life—even the so-called gods have limits—so she transformed him into something new. Something dark and powerful that would never be whim to something as mundane as death.”
“That’s a powerful transformation right there.”
“Indeed. But, like I said—it’s possible that it’s just legend and has no basis in reality.”
It was just as likely that it was the truth. I stare hard at the whitecaps on the dark waves coming in to shore. I don’t know how I can use this, but it’s a start. My enemy has a name. Abel. I shiver. “Thanks, Amae. I really appreciate it.”
“Will you tell me what happened? There’s no way you simply stumbled onto the kraken. Something brought him out of wherever he’s been holed up the last millennia.”
I couldn’t tell my sister that that something was, in all likelihood, my power-infused necklace. I don’t know what the kraken could possibly want with something like that, but there was no denying his interest. It didn’t bode well for me, but I’d be damned before I dragged Amae into it, too. “I’ll call you when it’s all over.”
“Be careful, Lorelei. This isn’t… I don’t know if it’s even possible to kill him. It might be better if we called in the rest of our sisters and—”
“Thank you for the information, Amae.” I cut her off. If I let her keep going, she’ll convince me to do exactly what she’s proposing—bring in our sisters and battle the kraken. The kraken that might be thousands of years old, eats magic, and probably can’t die. All that translates to a death sentence to anyone who stands against him.
He hasn’t killed me yet, so he’s got some kind of use in mind for me. That’s the only advantage I have at this point, and it’s one that doesn’t extend to Amae or the rest of them. I won’t let them die for me.
“Love you.” I hung up before she could say anything else. If I live through this, I’ll find a way to make it up to her. Somehow.
The whistling of the tea kettle brings me back to myself. Everything and nothing has changed. I am still being stalked by what equates to a primordial being and knowing his name and potential origin doesn’t magically give me the key to his undoing. I still don’t even know what he wants.
I pour my second cup of tea and grab my laptop. Amae’s given me a starting point at least, so my only choice is to run with it. I start by searching the term kraken, but it only brings me links and links of novice artwork and legends that have no basis in reality. The most interesting thing I find is a cryptozoology link that leads me back to pages and pages of documented sightings of what might be a giant squid but might very well be the kraken himself.
I sit back and glare at my screen. Smoke and mirrors and misinformation. This is getting me nowhere. It doesn’t matter what this thing is. What matters is what he wants. For all appearances, it looks like it’s me, but that doesn’t make sense any way I look at it. I’m nothing special. I’m not particularly powerful, even when I was at full strength and could portal. The ability to portal isn’t unique to me—anyone with royal blood can do it. Really, anyone can do it with the right combination of sacrifice and dark magic. No, he doesn’t need me for that.
Maybe this goes back further.
I shove to my feet and stalk around my living room. If he has my necklace—my powers—then it’s possible that was the endgame all along. I always assumed that those assholes targeted me because I was one of the merfolk and as long as there have been merfolk, there have been Deep Dwellers who craved the ability to do what we do. It makes all the sense in the world that they’d have worked out some dark deal to portal at will.
What if it wasn’t that at all?
I curse, make another lap around my living room, and curse again. I don’t know. That’s the problem. I don’t know anything. I don’t know what this asshole wants. I don’t know what the Deep Dwellers want. All I can be sure of is that it involves me, and it means nothing good for my people. That’s not much to go on.
It doesn’t matter.
I signed up for this when I came back here to help pave a way for my people to make the same journey on a species-wide scale. The clock is ticking and while there might be years left before the situation becomes critical, we’re talking decades instead of centuries. If there truly is some evil plot that I’m at the center of, I need to stop it. I can’t hide here in this little house by the sea and wait for everything to blow over.
Shame has made me stupid too many times in the past two years. I can’t let it do it this time, too.
I’ve been sitting on my hands for so long, the motion feels good. It feels so good, I don’t stop. I throw open my door and charge out onto the path leading to the beach. “You want me, asshole. You’re going to get me.” The best way to get answers is to go straight to the source. He’s decided not to kill me before for whatever reason, and all evidence points to him not killing me this time, either. I’m going to ask that bastard my questions and he’s going to give me some goddamn answers.
I am nearly sprinting by the time I hit the beach. I hear a voice in my head that sounds a whole lot like Amae, This is not a plan, Lorelei. I don’t care. I’m a pebble swept along by a river of energy. I’ve been still too long. Stuck. Wedged in tightly against things beyond my control. I still don’t have control, but I have the ability to take action and I’m drunk on it.
I kick off my sandals and step into the water. Energy licks at my skin, tempting me to strip and dive in to soak up as much of it as I possibly can. I might be acting foolish, but I’m nowhere near that level. This is dangerous enough without flinging myself fully into the kraken’s power.
I’m here, you bastard.
It takes the space of a breath—one inhale, one exhale—and then his presences surrounds me. Amusement drifts down the link between us. So eager to join me in the deep.
Hardly. I eye the ocean, but the blue-gray sea can hide a multitude of sins. He could be just out beyond the drop-off point, a quick snap of the tentacle away. The one thing Amae wasn’t specific on was his size. He’s got to be massive. Every legend surrounding the kraken labels him so and there are too many accounts that stretch back through the years to fully discount it. You have something you want, or you wouldn’t be screwing with me. I’m here. I’m listening. Spit it out.
Surprise flickers. Perhaps I just like toying with my prey.
Thought about that. Discounted it. You’ve put too much effort into doing a whole lot of nothing. Either you’re really bad at your job or you’re playing a deeper game.
His chuckle vibrates through my entire body and creates little ripples in the water around me. Very well.
I barely have a second to process his agreement when a thick black tentacle shoots out of the water, wraps around my waist, and yanks me under.
5
I am heartily tired of drowning. I struggle and fight and try to wiggle out of the tentacle’s grip, but it’s no use. He’s got me too tightly. There’s no escape now. Maybe there never has been.
Down and down we go, impossibly deep for my human body. The band around my chest tightens, the pressure threatening to send my head spinning round like a top. I hold my breath as long as I can. Longer. It’s no use. With the last of my strength, I scream in fury and pain and fear, bubbles cascading from my mouth, physical evidence of the last of my resistance. I have nothing left.
Pop.
The water rushes back but the darkness doesn’t abate. I hit my knees and inhale before I can stop to think that this might be just another trap. Sweet, salty air fills me, and it feels so good,
I do it again.
I manage to lift my head and look around. I blink, realize I can see, and blink again. “That’s new.” I’m in a bubble the size of a small house. A bubble that’s…glowing faintly. The surface of it sparks against my palms where I kneel and I watch through the vaguely opaque surface as something huge moves beneath me. For some reason, the kraken is always pictured as black, but it’s not the case at all. He’s a deep gray with faint brindle patterning across his massive body. The better to blend in with the sun-dappled water, which indicates he’s a creature that travels through the shallows as often as the deep.
I look up, but the surface is barely a glint in the distance. Too far to swim, even if I could get out of the damn bubble—something that isn’t looking promising to begin with. I push slowly to my feet and wobble a little on the unsteady surface. It shows every evidence of being an actual bubble, albeit one thick enough to hold my weight. I turn a slow circle, but nothing changed. “You’ve got to me kidding me. Hey!” I stomp on the bubble, which makes me bounce like I jumped onto a trampoline. I land on my ass and curse up a storm. “Hey! Asshole! What the hell?”
“You wanted to talk.”
I shove my hair from my face and climb slowly to my feet. It doesn’t matter that he can crush me like a bug without the least bit of effort or that, judging from the glimpses I got of his other form, he could just swallow this entire bubble whole. I will not meet him while I’m on the ground and he’s standing over me.
He’s on the other side of this room he’s constructed somehow, wearing the same three-piece suit he had on earlier. Abel. The name fits him somehow. It should be too simple, too earthy to encompass this creature, and yet… If I had any doubts about my sister’s information—and I didn’t—they would have disappeared the second I laid eyes on him again.
It’s all truth.
Cain and Abel.
