by Katie May
“She told me she had information about you,” he admitted at last.
“Me?”
That wasn’t at all what I was expecting.
“I went, of course. I thought she maybe had some information about Aaliyah or some shit like that.” Another intake of air followed by a heavy exhale. “Maybe it was a diversion. Maybe she was actually working with Haven. I was stupid and believed her when she said she had information about the new noble, Zara.”
There was another long pause, and I pictured him forking his fingers through his blond hair, a few shades lighter than Dair’s. It was an anxious gesture that a lot of my mates had. A product, I was sure, of their life growing up together. I knew I picked up habits from the assassins in the Alphabet Resistance.
S and T used to always bite their nails down to nubs until B, our leader, poured syrup over their heads. I didn’t know how that helped them, only that it did. The bad habit stopped instantaneously. T still joked that he could feel phantom remnants of syrup in his butt crack.
“Anyway...I’m not going to lie to you. She tried to kiss me.”
I remained immobile, expression stoic, as I processed what he had confessed. She had tried to kiss him. I wasn’t surprised - especially after her spiel of snagging one of the princes - but it still left a hollow hole in my stomach.
“You didn’t kiss her back.” It wasn’t a question despite my need for confirmation.
“Of course not!” He sounded aghast. “I would never do that to you, no matter how much you annoy the fuck out of me.”
Silence. Water rippled, smashing against the side of the boat.
“Why does fate hate us?” I whispered. “Is it just some cosmic joke? To be the mates of the men you were supposed to kill? To be the assassin for a kingdom you hate? To be the mate of a man who hates you?”
Those questions were ones I asked repeatedly. In the dead of night. Huddled in Killian and Devlin’s arms after making love. Walking through the halls of a Capital I despised. Bowing to Kings who would never earn my respect or devotion.
“I don’t hate you,” said Bash adamantly. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”
“You don’t like me,” I pointed out.
“I don’t know you! All I know is that you’re this beautiful, kickass assassin who loves knives and has me and my brothers wrapped around your finger. I don’t know you, Z. I don’t know what your favorite color is or what you like to eat. I don’t even know anything about your family.”
“Black,” I answered immediately. “My favorite color is black.”
Finally, I peeled open my eyelids. Bash was staring straight ahead at the open expanse of water. We were reaching the end of the canal which hopefully meant we would be able to speed up.
“Why black?” he asked, not bothering to turn around. I shrugged.
“It’s made up of all the colors.”
“Black is not a fucking color,” he protested with an indignant huff.
Fucking Bash. Always having to argue with me.
“It’s every color,” I insisted. “Red and blue and green and pink and purple and every color you could think of. Have you ever painted before, Bash? Have you ever combined every single color together? What does it get you?”
Bash was silent. Usually, he was only silent when I was right.
“And for what I like to eat...hmm...I like steak.” I shrugged, a gesture I knew he couldn’t see. “What can I say? I’m a carnivore.”
Once more, Bash snorted.
“What?” I asked. “Don’t tell me you’re a vegetarian?”
“Vegan, actually,” he said. I could hear the smirk in his voice. “All Mages are. It’s part of our evolution, I guess. Years ago, the Mages were too fucking lazy to go hunting for their own animals so they lived on the greens Genies provided. It must’ve stuck.”
“Diego wasn’t a vegan,” I mused, tapping my chin. “The things that man did with a hot dog...”
At that, Bash spun around to face me.
“Why the fuck are you talking about Diego’s hotdog?”
And...I smiled. I heard Diego’s name, and I didn’t completely fall apart. It still hurt, the softest of pinches, but it no longer overwhelmed me. I could hold the hurt in two hands and know that I was stronger because of it. My mates had helped me understand that, had walked with me through my grief.
I hadn’t even realized it.
My mourning would’ve gone differently if it hadn’t been for them.
“Guys!” Dair barked, and I immediately went on alert. The copper handle fit perfectly in the palm of my hand as I unsheathed my knife, searching. The water rippled, bubbles appearing, but that could’ve been from the boat itself.
Up ahead, Dair continued to swim, golden hair clearly visible in the blighted sun. He paused suddenly, back muscles tensing, before beginning again, this time slower.
“Be careful,” Bash warned. He stood, still holding the wheel, and searched the nearby land. I kept my focus on the water.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Something pushed through, and I staggered backwards, heart hammering. Just as quickly, I caught my bearings and rushed at the offender.
A dolphin.
A fucking dolphin.
It rode alongside the boat, fin the lightest shade of gray.
“It’s just a dolphin!” I called to Dair, my muscles minutely relaxing. Dair, however, stopped abruptly. He swiveled around to face me, and even from this distance, I could see the panic in his eyes.
“There shouldn’t be fucking dolphins in this shallow of water!” he called back.
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 big
ger. 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 blocked out the sun, coating the water and surrounding landscapes in darkness.
“What the fuck, Bash?” I screamed, not daring to pull my attention away from the hideous monster.
“Shit!” My Mage scrambled to his feet, eyes wide. “That wasn’t supposed to happen!”
“No shit!”
I grabbed a second arrow and placed it in my bow, pulling the string back. The second I would’ve let it loose, I felt something slimy wrap around my feet. I only had a second to scream before I was dragged off the edge of the boat and into the water.
My ears rang, head reverberating with pain from where it had bounced off the railing.
And then, I was submerged completely in water.
The change was so sudden, so abrupt, that I didn’t have time to inhale before I was pulled beneath the freezing water. Panic clawed up my chest as I desperately twisted my body. The Kraken’s tentacle still held my leg in an iron vise.
I was going to die, I realized with a vivid clarity. And my death wouldn’t be from assassins or from Kings.
But a damn sea creature.
I was going to drown.
Black spots penetrated my vision, and I desperately wanted to gasp for air. The need was so strong, and my lungs were burning. One tiny inhale...
I was yanked from the water abruptly. Coughing, I only had a second to see that I was dozens of feet away from the boat and still clutched in the Kraken’s grasp before I was pulled back under.
Like the others, the Kraken didn’t seem to want me dead. Instead, he was taking me somewhere.
No, not somewhere, but to someone.
Aaliyah.
The she-bitch had some explaining to do.
Strong hands wrapped around my arm, tugging. I didn’t even have to open my eyes to know that it was Dair. Relief filled me instantly.
I wished I could open my eyes, could see, but I had to rely on sound and touch instead. The guttural roar of the Kraken. The release of the tentacle around my leg.
The sweet, sweet air as I was pulled out of the water.
I gasped, coughing wildly, and Dair patted my back.
The Kraken continued to roar, and it was only then that I noticed one of his tentacles was shorter than the others. Dair must’ve cut it off to save me.
“Are you okay?” Dair yelled. Even treading water inches from me, he was difficult to hear over the Kraken’s bellow and the rippling waves.
I nodded to tell him I was, though my throat burned and my body felt leaden. Still, I couldn’t focus on the many aches and pains vibrating down my body.
He cupped the back of my head and brought me into a quick, desperate kiss. His hands rested on the back of my thighs as he lifted me.
And then I was flying, flying, flying through the air, landing sharply on the nearest landmass. I screamed as pain radiated up my now broken leg.
“Fuck,” I cried. Unbidden, my eyes traveled to the skin. From the Kraken’s tentacles, black and blue bruises covered the pasty skin of my leg. Red welts, like ones you would get from too tight rope, intermingled. And from Dair’s throw...
My leg was twisted backwards, the brittle bone peeking through.
The pain was immediate and intense, unlike anything I had ever felt before. A strangled sob got caught in my throat.
Still, I tried to amble to my feet, using a nearby tree as leverage. The shooting pain clambered up my leg, and I immediately fell back down with a cry and curse.
In the water, Dair still fought the Kraken. Or, at the very least, attempted to fight. It was apparent to me that it was a losing battle.
He dodged and parried, sword stabbing any expanse of skin it could find. The Kraken cried, obviously in pain, but did not relent its ruthless assault.
I watched in horror as the Kraken batted Dair away as if he was nothing more than a pesky bug. My Mermaid mate went flying, blond hair disappearing into the thicket of trees.
He didn’t return.
I waited, breath held.
Please, Dair. Please. Please be okay.
Slowly, ever so slowly, the Kraken turned his face towards me. I didn’t know how he knew where I was, how he sensed me, but the single eye in his head seemed to narrow into a thin slit. I remained frozen on the ground, shivering.
Dair, please. Please.
The Kraken, oblivious to my desperate pleas, unfurled another long tentacle. It slithered through the water and onto the grassy shoreline that I was lying on.
The monster suddenly released a wailing sound, head canting backwards, before it began to shrink.
And
shrink.
And shrink.
Soon, it was the size of a large fish bobbing inside the water, single eye wide and fearful.
I whipped my head in the direction of the now sinking boat. Bash stood on the railing, one hand tightly gripping the white sail and the other raised.
“That,” Bash called, breathing heavy, “was what I meant to do the first time.”
All I managed to do was release a giddy, dazed laugh/cry mixture before darkness consumed me.
THIRTY
DAIR
I shook my head rapidly from side to side, but it did little to clear the fogginess in my brain.
My body ached, pain radiating down my sides and to my legs.
I tried to recall what had happened, how I had ended up here, but the memory eluded me. I squeezed my eyelids shut, waiting.
Something had happened...
Water…
Monster…
Z...
I scrambled upright, wincing at the initial stab of pain in my stomach, before running through the trees.
Memories bombarded me with a dizzying clarity. The Kraken. Z. The fight. The asshole monster tossing me through a forest and into a tree.
Z.
Her name echoed in my head, giving me the strength to run through the pain. What felt like hours later but was probably nothing more than a few minutes, I broke through the treeline and landed waist deep in water.
Immediately, I felt my body change. The stretching sensation wasn’t uncomfortable, just strange. My tail emerged, and I kicked it out wildly, splashing up water.
Holding my breath, I surveyed my surroundings.
The ship was completely submerged in water, only the side railing visible. It must’ve tipped at some point, water greedily swallowing it whole. There was no Kraken that I could see, and the sea was almost calm. It was a direct contrast to what we had just experienced.
On the shoreline, Bash knelt over Z. It was there that I headed, pushing the water aside with each breast stroke.
“Is she okay?” I asked roughly, pulling myself out of the water. My tail was instantly replaced by two long legs.
Bash ignored me, perspiration beading on his forehead. His eyes were closed as his hands hovered over Z’s form, a golden glow emitting from his hands.
