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The pistol in my hand starts to click when it's empty.
Rasmussen is dead, full of holes. He twitches and blood pours down through the grating at our feet.
My head feels like Jell-o, but I know there was something I was supposed to do. If only I could think of it.
A bellow of rage shatters the night.Fabien!
With only my right hand working right, I pull myself up the ladder one rung at a time. When I reach the top, it's already over.
Fabien has Octavian in the grip of his tentacles. Octavian's eyes have rolled back in his head.
Wherever he is now, I don't envy him
But Fabien doesn't leave him. He keeps choking until Octavian's feet stop kicking. What he drops to the rooftop is a corpse.
"Lily!" Fabien cries.
A moment later, he's all over me. Tentacles cover wounds and wrap me for protection.
"I love you," I whisper. "Tell me...please...one more time."
"Hush," he says. "You're going to make it. Hold on, I'll wrap myself around you and bring you to safety."
When I cry out from the pain, he adds, "Here, you don't need to be awake for this."
And he puts me out like a lightbulb.
I'mon a beach in the bright sun. Clear blue waves lap at the white sand. Palm trees whisper in the gentle breeze.
But where am I?
"A little beach in Greece that I saw once," Fabien says.
"You're here, too? Is this Heaven? Did we die?"
Fabien laughs.
"You're dreaming. Now, do you want food? Flying? A little sunbathing?"
I look him up and down. He looks, honestly, hotter than I would’ve thought in board shorts. His body is muscular and writhing. His greenish skin has gold flecks in it that I can only see in the sun. The tentacles around his head hang like surfer hair to his shoulders. His larger tentacles kiss the sand as he walks with them.
"Is something wrong?" he asks.
"No...I just don't know how I got this far without knowing you don't have legs."
"Ah," Fabien says, smiling. "Most people don't. My tentacles form into shapes like legs when I walk on land."
"They're beautiful. Andyou'rehot."
"I think that's my line," he says, his gaze traveling over the curves of my body, stopping to appreciate my bikini.
"Is this a private beach?" I ask.
The people walking the beach in the distance vanish.
"It is now."
I reach back and untie the bikini. It falls to the sand at my feet.
"Let's get in the water, big guy."
