by K. F. Breene
“Whoa.” I jerked my head away. “Wow. Warn a girl.”
“I’ll check it out really quickly.” Jack jogged toward the ocean, and I couldn’t help getting a peek at his well-formed backside.
“What is his magic?” I asked as he waded into the water without so much as a shiver. He dove into the rush of an oncoming wave and disappeared below the surface.
“Kraken,” Bria said, watching the water.
I shifted so I could stare at her. “Are you serious? Those are real?”
She frowned at me. “Of course they’re real. Most of the myths and supernatural stories we hear were originally based off of magical beings. Why do you not know this?”
“No. I mean…” I looked out over the rough water. “I knew that, I just…” I shrugged. “I’ve never heard of a Kraken.”
“Clearly you have, since you just asked if they were real.”
“No, I mean, I’ve never heard of them as—never mind.”
“Is the dual-society zone a black hole, or something?” Bria asked incredulously. “Because wow. You are ignorant.”
“Right. Fine.” I tried to let it go. And failed. “But I’ve literally never heard of a real one. Not in society, anyway.”
“He’s a shapeshifter, then?” Mordecai asked.
“He is a shapeshifter, yes…obviously,” Bria said, watching the waters. “A shapeshifter of the sea. There aren’t many of them hanging with humans. Most of them stick to the sea. I think Kieran met Jack off the coast of Ireland somewhere. Or maybe it was Scotland. I don’t know how long ago—I only care so much, know what I mean? Sometimes when people talk, I accidentally stop listening. My mind is a more interesting place to be.”
“That’s one way of putting it,” I mumbled. “He doesn’t have an accent, either.”
“He gets that from the blood oath. All the Six automatically speak the local language anywhere they go. It helps them protect Kieran or something, I don’t know.”
“So…are Krakens really as huge as the myths say?”
“They can alter their size to fit various bodies of water they inhabit. Only the most powerful can get that big. Before you ask, they resemble a cross between a squid and a whale. They’re really weird looking, I’m not going to lie. But the strongest of them—like Jack—can take down ocean liners. He’s a big deal when it comes to the sea. Which is why he’s one of the Six. Each of the Six is exceptional in some way.”
“Would he ever think of adding more guys to the Six?” I asked, shifting from foot to foot. The waiting was killing me. I wanted to know if I was right. I wanted to know that if worst came to worst, I could still save Kieran’s mom.
“Then he’d have to change the name.” Bria frowned at me.
The seconds trickled by, turning into minutes, then handfuls of minutes. Mordecai walked up the beach toward the cliff, then back down. Bria and I stared out at the waters.
“That area couldn’t kill him, right?” I asked in a hush, my words drifting into the thick fog and disappearing.
“No. He might come back a little battered, but he won’t let himself get into a situation where it’ll kill him.”
“Is this why he’s the one who will be walking me through the change?” Mordecai asked, coming to stop next to us again. His voice quavered just a little, full of excitement and fear.
“Obviously.” Bria shook her head. “Wow, you two are about as magically dense as can be. How have you made it this far in life?”
“By not getting involved with magical people,” I replied.
“And look where that got you. You’re involved with the worst of the bunch.” Bria rolled back on her heels before checking the watch on her phone. “What’s taking him so long?”
“How will he show me, if…” Mordecai’s voice drifted away.
“Don’t know, kid. That’s not my area of expertise. Finally!” She pointed out at the water. Through the swirling fog I could just see Jack riding the top of a wave, his body as flat as a board and his arm held out. Body surfing. The wave crashed down, bringing him with it, and he disappeared under the churning foam. A moment later, he rose gracefully from hip-high water and jogged in our direction.
I jerked my head away, having caught sight of dangling bits I had no business noticing.
“What’d you see?” Bria asked, bending to gather his clothes.
He breathed deeply as he neared, catching his breath. “You hit the nail on the head.”
Excitement surged through me. I couldn’t help smiling and turning to him. “It’s there?”
He ran a hand over his short hair, flinging water. “It’s definitely there. It’s at the base of the cliff. It really is a washing machine in there. It’s fucking nuts. The current rips and tears you every which way, the rocks are extremely jagged, and more than a few spots could catch you and keep you. A human or normal magical creature wouldn’t have stood a chance. Not a chance. I barely made it in and out.”
I belatedly noticed the gashes along his arms and across his broad chest. Blood oozed down his skin, but he didn’t seem troubled by it.
“You’re sure it’s what we’re looking for?” Bria jerked her head back to the car and started walking.
“Oh yeah.” Jack nodded emphatically, a huge grin on his face. His energy sizzled, potent and infectious. The water had clearly revived him. “I got right up on it. It’s a sort of trunk—really classy—with her fucking name on it, man. And engravings of her in both forms. It’s her skin. It is her fucking skin. That prick made a shrine out of the box.”
“Sick fucker,” Bria said.
I pushed away the uncomfortable sinking of my heart. Kieran’s mother had been attached to the worst kind of man. He’d kept her in a living hell without her skin, and the bastard hadn’t even freed her from his honeyed trap after death. Yet he still clearly loved her. He had to have with the fountain and the picture. His mind must’ve been bent toward insanity when it came to her. Regardless, there was one thing I knew, it was that I could set her free.
“Tell Kieran,” I said, barely able to breathe. “We’ll have to do this on his timetable, but tell him. Whatever else happens, at least he can save his mom from a life in Demigod-made purgatory.”
“Freeing her is going to start the war,” Jack said.
Bria slapped her hands together and started rubbing. “Let’s hope so. I’m so ready to take that fucker down.”
26
Alexis
Later that evening I sat at the kitchen table with wet hair, wrapped up in the coziest bathrobe in existence. Clouds in the shape of slippers adorned my feet, and my skin smelled of lilac. Until today, I hadn’t even known what lilac smelled like, but it was the fragrance of the silky lotion I’d shoplifted from my shelf in Kieran’s medicine cabinet. The guy had been very prepared for me to sleep over, which was a little surprising given it was his dad’s house and that was a no-go. He clearly hadn’t been using the ol’ noggin, which was good justification for snatching all of it and running. They weren’t pity purchases, but I was fine with treating them like they were.
Momma got some brand-new treats.
I took a deep breath and glanced at the phone sitting next to me on the dining table. I’d left Kieran a voice message earlier, giving him a summary of the impromptu visit Bria and I had made to Valens’s room, and what I’d concluded after seeing the photo. Then Jack had taken over and given a first-hand account of the trunk he’d found at the cliff-base.
I hadn’t heard a word since. The anticipation was absolutely killing me.
“Hey.” Daisy yawned and scratched the rat’s nest on her head as she crossed to the fridge, just up from her nap.
“Hey.” I leaned harder on the table. “How’d it go earlier? Did you have a good time?”
She pulled open the fridge door and stared into it. “It was fine.”
“Fine? Well…what’d you do? You left in your pajamas for crap’s sake.”
She shrugged. “Not much. We hung out in shadowy ar
eas and watched people.”
“Like a creeper?”
She pushed the door shut. “Yeah, kinda. It was weird—women glanced our way the most. Only one picked us out, but quite a few looked around.”
“Women are used to creepers hanging in the shadows and staring. It’s sad but it’s true. So…you’re cool with it so far?”
She scratched her butt and slouched against the kitchen counter. “Yeah. When are the guys going to get here with dinner? I’m starving.”
Mordecai trudged in a moment later, his eyes puffy and dark bruises covering his arms from another bout of hard training with Jack after our jaunt to the beach. He’d also taken a nap.
“You’d think it was eight in the morning with the way you two look,” I said, a strange uncertainty filling me. I felt like I’d been pushed out of the loop. Like their lives had taken a turn, and they no longer needed me. It made me want to rush them and clutch on for dear life.
As always, I handled it badly. “Did you get any school work done? Because you can’t spend all your time fighting and gallivanting around the city like creepers. You need to work your minds as well as your bodies.”
Daisy rolled her eyes at me, and that was so much better than fine or one of her shrugs that I breathed a sigh of relief. Attitude I could handle. Indifference made me edgy.
“Yes, we did our homework,” she said, glancing at the clock on the stove. “But seriously, where’s dinner? It’s seven o’clock. They’re usually here making it by now.”
Mordecai opened the fridge and stared into it.
“You’re wasting electricity,” I barked. I could only last for so long. “And I get paid soon. We’re going to have to get used to making our own meals again.”
Mordecai turned toward me as Daisy’s eyes widened.
She pushed forward off of the counter, suddenly alert. “Why would you do that to us?” she demanded.
“Who are we to turn down free services?” Mordecai asked. “Usually we’re all for people giving us things.”
I stared at them incredulously. “I thought you guys would agree with me.”
“Agree with you, after all the hell they’ve been putting us through?” Daisy glowered at me. “No way. They owe us dinner.”
“Besides,” Mordecai said, “I think they like it. Even when they show up in a bad mood, they’re smiling by the end.”
I dropped my head into my hands. “Except we’re giving them one more toehold in our lives. Kieran is my boss, his guys are training you—we need an off-switch. We need to get back to our family.”
“We’re still a family. We’re just inviting in more family for a limited time, provided they buy groceries and make us nutritious, delicious meals from scratch.” Daisy blinked those giant blue eyes at me, utterly serious.
“Besides, you kind of gave Kieran a bigger toehold earlier, so I doubt a dinner or two will matter,” Mordecai murmured.
“Why?” Daisy asked, turning to Mordecai. “What’d she do?”
Mordecai looked at the ground.
Suspicion crossed Daisy’s face as she turned back slowly. “Lexi, what did you do?”
My phone rattled against the wood of the table, giving me a more than welcome distraction. A text message flashed across the screen.
Thane: You don’t have a BBQ, right?
I snatched the phone as Frank’s muffled voice drifted through the door. He’d come back, apparently. I paused to listen, but couldn’t make out any words.
No, I typed, my fingers flying across the screen. Have you heard from Kieran? Did he say anything about his mom?
Dinner is on the way.
“Why would he ignore my question?” I muttered, staring.
“What’d he say—”
A knock cut Mordecai off. I stood and handed over the phone, ready to badger the Six until they told me something. “No one’s told me anything since I left that message for Kieran this afternoon.” I crossed to the door. “I have no idea what’s going—”
The air left my lungs as I pulled the door open. Butterflies swarmed through my ribcage.
Kieran stood on my porch, surrounded by thick, swirling fog. A dark blue T-shirt, matching his eyes, clung to his impossibly muscular body. Damp hair hung limply across his forehead, giving him a wet look that sent heat blasting through my core. The smell of the ocean flooded my senses as I gaped at the large trunk suspended between his strong hands.
“That’s…” My eyes glued to the finely-worked wood and the swirling images etched into the top and sides. A seal frolicked through the carved waves, interrupted by the name Lyra. “Is that your mother’s name? Lyra?”
“Yes. May I come in?”
“Yeah. Yes, of course.” I stepped out of the way as I heard an appreciative whistle.
“We don’t get women around these parts who look like you,” Frank said in a strange tone.
A form appeared out of the mists, ethereal and beautiful, with a sad smile and a flowing cream dress. She drifted toward me with her hips swaying and confidence radiating from the perfect lines of her body.
Kieran’s mom, Lyra, no doubt summoned by her son’s turmoil and the trunk he’d rescued from the cliff.
A moment later, the image was ruined by Frank following behind her, his eyes on her butt and an appreciative smile on his face.
“Really, Frank?” I asked, annoyance dashing my mood. “That behavior is inappropriate.”
“What?” he said, stepping onto my porch with his hands out. “She’s a beautiful woman. I’m just acknowledging it.”
“She doesn’t want a dirty old man like you acknowledging anything, Frank. Guys like you are the reason women can’t ever relax.”
“Oh, come on now,” Frank said, attempting to follow Lyra into my house. “I don’t mean—”
I slammed the door in his face.
Kieran stood in the kitchen, still holding the trunk, nearly as wide as the doorway and over a foot tall. It must’ve had a good amount of weight to it, though Kieran didn’t show any strain.
“Here.” I patted the table, pushing aside a random piece of junk mail that hadn’t found its way to the garbage. “Set it here.”
Sorrow etched his face and anger sparked in his eyes. He set the box down gently, as though it was the most precious commodity in the world.
“That’s it?” Daisy said, giving Kieran a wide berth as she made her way to the table. “You did it?”
I glanced at Lyra, whose sad gaze was focused on her son.
“Yes, that’s it. That’s the skin.” I didn’t have to affect a trance to feel the hum of the spirit trap. “Or…the spirit of the skin, I guess.”
“It’s in there?” Kieran said, his deep voice gruff, struggling with emotion.
I fell into the depth of those stormy eyes, feeling the aching misery beyond the shallow anger. His grief was sharp and fresh, slicing through him. I could feel the anguish in his soul, crying out for a life raft in the turbulent waters of loss.
“The spirit trap is keeping something in there,” I said, going to him without thinking. I put a supportive hand on his arm. “I think we can assume it is the skin.”
“Can you…” His voice hitched and he clenched his fists.
Daisy and Mordecai both drifted out of the room without being asked, knowing instinctively to give him space. Demigods weren’t in the habit of showing vulnerability. They might not like Kieran at times, but they both understood human suffering.
“Can you break the hold?” Kieran whispered, his body tense. Tremors ran through him. I couldn’t tell if they were from sorrow or rage.
“Yes. But…” I slid my hand down his forearm before slipping it into his. Without hesitation, he entwined his fingers with mine. “Are you sure you want to do this now? Your father will know. He’s…a little off his rocker where your mother is concerned. That fountain, the picture, the placement of the box…”
“The fountain…” A crease formed in Kieran’s brow before his eyes went distant. Startled
, he glanced down at the box. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. It’s the likeness of her when she was younger. Before you. It’s the form she uses now.” I looked at his mother, waiting beside him.
She met my gaze and tilted her head forward. I couldn’t tell if it was a bow or a nod.
“He revered me, at one time,” she said. “He treated me like the most precious thing on the planet. I was too young to know that it was an illusion. That the thing he loves above all is himself. I was a treasure, but only as long as I was under his control. I learned the hard way what it was to defy him.”
“Yes, you did,” I mumbled.
Kieran started before looking down at me, his gaze so open. His depths laid bare. “Is she here?”
“Yes. She followed you in.” I told him what she’d said about his father. I figured he’d want to know, in case she’d never told him of the good times. In case he couldn’t understand why she’d fallen for a guy like his father, who’d put her through hell.
He blew out a deep breath and nodded. “I want to do this now. She’s waited long enough. Even if you can’t find the person who did this for my father, at least she’ll be free. But…” He squeezed my hand. “Can I have a few moments with her? To say goodbye.”
“Yeah, sure. Of course.” I slipped my hand out of his grasp. “Totally. Just let me grab the kids and we’ll head outside. Let me know when you’re ready.”
I left him standing there, a powerful, strong man—a prince of the magical world—in my tiny, run-down kitchen, nearly brought to his knees by the passing of his mother. The image crawled into my heart and settled, bringing tears to my eyes. He did share some of his father’s traits— he was possessive, demanding, and downright terrifying. But he also had so much of his mother, like compassion, morality, and a beautiful soul.
Unlike his father, he didn’t love himself above all others. If I’d ever doubted, I now saw the proof before my eyes. He would sacrifice his wellbeing to bring peace to his mother. He would let go of the hope of his own throne to make sure she found her permanent resting place.
