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“What happened in class last week? You looked like you’d seen a ghost, Aria,” he calls after me and I stumble to a stop at his use of my first name. Not Hart. Not sunshine. “We haven’t even spoken since—”
“Let’s just clear the area and we can talk after,” I say softly, cutting off what he’s about to say. He’s right, we haven’t talked since that day in class when he implied he might want something more than just hate sex.
“Fine, but we’re not going back into that damn school until we talk,” Denver says, disappointment clear in his tone. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”
Some of the weight lifts off my shoulders at that and I take a deep breath before I stride south towards the lake. I don’t dare look though, fearing he may see something on my face that will make him change his mind.
Relief washes over me when I don’t hear any footsteps behind me, and as I reach the edge of the tree line I carefully take my hands out of my pockets. Sparks of magic flicker at the tips of my fingers and I silently curse the pulsing energy for being so persistent. I push aside worries of the increase in magic, needing to focus on clearing the area and siphoning off some of it first.
I sweep my magic out around me and a spark of gold spreads out in front of me, not even needing the spell word to rocket off to the far reaches and report back to me. Squirrels, chipmunks, deer, birds, and rabbits are all that come back each time I send them out, but I honestly don’t expect to find anything anyways. It was really all for practice since the ancient magic around both the town and the school repels all monsters.
The pressure of my energy straining against my skin eases with each burst of magic I set loose, helping to clear my mind one step at a time. Most witches or warlocks would need to comb the area, their power unable to stretch out as far as mine can, so I know I’ll have time to spare before Denver comes looking for me. I could barely string my thoughts together before, let alone carry on a proper conversation with Denver, but now that brain fog seems to clear. My power still pushes me back in the direction I came but it also seems to tug me further and further south, needing to get closer to the lake as though it knows that’s where I’ll be able to unleash it.
The trees begin to grow sparse and the magic comes back with fewer and fewer pings of life as I get closer to the glistening lake now visible through the thick brush. I frown down at my hands and pause a step, pushing out the magic again, but still it comes back with nothing. An alarm bell seems to go off in my mind at that but my logic and magic war for dominance, one telling me to run the other way while the other beckons me forward with such ferocity, I’m not sure I’d be able to turn around if I wanted to.
Just as I pull my powers back in around me, a small black figure appears in a flash. I stumble back a step before the shape finally registers in my brain. A small black cat slips out from behind the last tree, its glowing amber eyes freezing me in place. My power swept past this area and didn’t come back with anything. The only way that could be possible is if this cat is not an actual cat. I almost laugh realizing that if she is what I think she is, Greyson is going to be disappointed.
I take a few cautious steps forward, the small stones shifting under my weight as the dead pine needles littering the forest floor turn into pebbles. The water softly laps at the edge of the lake, washing up on the shore by the gust of the light wind dancing around me.
The cat beckons me closer to the lake’s edge as it casually strolls in front of me, as though confirming this is where I need to be.But why would they show up now, and why this place?My lips part about to ask the cat when it turns back, its amber eyes locking with mine and freezing me in place. The cat gestures from me to the lake and without another sign it blinks out of existence, like it had only been a figment of my imagination the entire time. The cool breeze off the water feathers through my hair, snapping me out of my daze and reminding me of the reason I’m here in the first place.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, feeling at peace for the first time in almost a week, and let my powers loose. My eyes flutter open as my magic swirls through the wind, drifting and floating in the breeze as if it’s dancing and rejoicing at its freedom. I gasp as the power flows through me, dipping into the lake and bringing up the water to dance in a breathtaking show.
The water crashes, the violent splash too hard to be from the gentle streams of water flying through the air. I cut off the flow of energy in a snap, letting the magic swirl around me, forming a protective shield. I step back tentatively, and silently curse myself, because in my haste to dispel some of the power thrumming through me I forgot to sweep the searching spell over the lake too.
It has to be a fish or something though, right?
I take another step back, fighting past the urge of my power to remain still as my chest begins to ache. I rub at the center of it and frantically look around the trees wondering if Landon has found me already, but there’s no one else there. My heartbeat pounds in my ears, and I attempt to calm the rapid pace. I take another step back just as a thunder crash of water sounds even closer, now the faintest hint of something grey slapping against the surface.
No—it can’t be.
I pull my powers to me, readying to strike and get the hell out of here when a large blue-grey tentacle slithers against the stones like a snake. Taking a shaky breath, I will my strength into my legs, knowing I need to bolt, but a magnetic pull tethers me in place. My body fights against me, my mind screaming at my limbs to run but they won’t listen.
I’m going to fucking die.
I contemplate calling for Denver but immediately dismiss it. By the time he gets here, I’ll already be a shredded pile of limbs, so it will pretty much be like offering him up to the kraken like desert on a platter.
A flash of royal blue catches my eye as another tentacle slaps against the stones, his body cresting the surface right after.
I suck in a sharp breath as he—yes definitely a man, at least anatomically—breaks through the shallow water, his four tentacles lifting him to stand at least ten feet in the air. I tilt my head up to his massive form. He’s covered head to toe in blue-grey skin, but aside from that and the tentacles in place of legs, he could honestly look human. His head is slick with no sign of hair, but that doesn’t detract from how handsome the homicidal monster is with his chiseled cheekbones and strong jaw.
Despite how alluring the rest of his body is, I get stuck staring at his chest, and my own warms as a connection thrums between us, just as I felt with Landon, Damon and partially even with Greyson and Denver. Is this seriously my intuition? If so, I really should have gotten that checked before because she’s way out of whack right now.
My gaze drifts down over his sculpted pecs and rippling abs. My fingers itch to run up the ridges, needing to hear the sounds he’d make under my touch. Everything about him is massive ... times two.
It all makes sense that no one has lived to see one of these monsters before. Krakens are hot as fuck, and that information is going to die with me apparently.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he grumbles, the sound vibrating down to my very core. Immediately the icy fear freezing my veins sizzles into a burning desire for the sea monster about to devour me.
Great, now I want him to, but probably not in the way he has in mind.
Chapter Fifteen
Aria
“You’vebeenwaitingforme specifically or just someone to eat?” I snark back at him, and immediately regret the sarcastic comment. It’s probably not the best idea to antagonize the monster that’s about to eat you.
“You called me here,” he rumbles, a crease forming between his brow bones as he stares back at me. His tentacles slither closer to me and he closes the distance in a flash, passing through my shield like it’s nothing. The movement is so swift I suck in a startled breath and stumble back a few steps to put some distance between us. Despite the insistence from the connection thrumming between us to stay still, my survival instincts must finally kick in.
