21. Moss

21

Moss

He woke to the smell of woodsmoke over salt, and a dragon shoving a mussel shell into his ear.

"Damn it, Maggie," he muttered, swiping haphazardly at the mussel shell and only managing to drive it further into his ear. " Ow. "

He sat up, shedding sand and dried salt, and caught sight of Carol.

She sat on the other side of the campfire, eyes wide, like a startled deer. If deer had eyes from the depths of the sea.

My mate , he thought automatically, and something twisted deep inside him—part victory, part apology.

He frowned. That had felt like the kraken. But—

"You're awake." Carol flushed and winced, like there was something wrong with stating the obvious. God, he wanted to kiss her. Why wasn't he? What was he doing, lying on the beach while she did all the work of moving the campfire out of the cave and cooking and…

His blood chilled as memories resurfaced. Slowly. Reluctantly. As though something was trying to hold them back.

"I shouldn't be here," he said quietly.

She nodded as though he was confirming something she'd already thought. Shit. What had happened while he was gone?

Right. He'd gone. That was what had happened.

"You shouldn't be here," she echoed, her voice a ghost of his. "Is that the first honest thing you've said since we washed up here?"

"No."

"What else, then?" A pause, and right before he was about to answer, she said, "Is it a long list?"

"We're both hiding things," he said, suddenly and stupidly on the defensive.

"I'm not a—I don't even know. You've been lying about being an octopus shifter. Whatever you are, it's something more like those metal bird shifters than—than me. I'm not special. I'm just—" She closed her mouth so quickly, he was worried about her biting herself. "The world keeps becoming stranger and more complicated than I ever imagined, and you're… you're part of that world. Not my world."

There was a strange pleading in her eyes. He swallowed. "I'm both."

"What does that mean?"

It took him a moment to respond. He still felt woozy. He hadn't expected to wake up on shore. Hadn't expected to wake up at all. Not in any way that mattered. Not in his own body, but trapped within the kraken's bulk, miles beneath the surface. In a world so dark and empty, death would have been a blessing.

But here he was. He'd burned himself out to reach his cousins and make sure help was coming for Carol.

And then…

"How did I get back here?" he asked in an undertone. Already knowing the answer.

Carol looked unsettled. "Your inner… your animal brought you back." She hesitated. "Not the octopus. Because you're not an octopus shifter."

"I was. I used to be." The words came out raw and hurting. Carol's eyes widened. She darted towards him, her hand automatically finding his.

"You lost your—no. That doesn't happen." She searched his eyes. "That's why you acted the way you did when you talked about it."

"How did I act?"

"Like you were trying to pretend someone hadn't died." She tucked her hand into his, interlacing their fingers. "I'm so sorry. My shark and I aren't exactly besties, but if I lost it… I can't imagine that. I didn't even know it was possible."

"It isn't. Not normally. Our inner animals might back off, if something happens they don't like, or they might get too close—" He nodded at Carol, whose eye twitched. "But the only way we lose them completely is if they're taken from us. And there are two ways that can happen. One. The mythic enemy of all shifters, who hasn't been seen in a thousand years, steals part of your soul right out of you."

Carol wet her lips. "And two?"

"Two. Your ancestor made an ancient vow to protect the world from that enemy. They begged a blessing from the Weaver of Souls, who wove a new pattern for them and their descendants. A monster who could protect the world by sea, the same way the shadow dragons would protect the land and sky."

He looked down at their joined hands, Carol's so small, his own big and scarred. "The enemy, the Soul-Eater, needs to touch us to take our inner animals. So my ancestor and the Weaver created a creature who can tear someone apart without touching them. A monster with tentacles of pure magic, to destroy without being destroyed itself."

"Or catch someone as they fall."

"I thought it wanted to kill you." His voice was ragged. "I thought it had taken me there in the storm to kill whoever it found—and it found you."

"And now it's brought you back to me."

"This isn't how it's meant to work. It shouldn't have brought me back. It shouldn't have found you at all. The kraken never—" He couldn't look at her. Couldn't bear to see her face when he told her they should never have met. "That's the deal my ancestor made. They took the monster into their own soul, and vowed that when they died, their descendants would take up the mantle after them. A soul-beast that reincarnates, the same as the Weaver of Souls, the same as the Soul-Eater. It's our sworn duty. Whenever the last kraken shifter dies, it finds a new host."

"What about their fated mate? Your ancestor's— all of your ancestors?"

"The kraken doesn't have a mate."

"But we're—" She pressed her hand against his back, and he felt it, the faint pulse of magic between them. The thread like a breath of starlight. "We are . I'm not imagining this."

"The kraken never finds their mate. As soon as we become the new kraken shifter, we're meant to head south. Take up our post beneath the ice."

"For how long?"

"Until we're called. Or if you were asking how long this has been going on…" He shrugged. "A thousand years?"

"A thousand years ? A thousand years of—of what? Waiting for this enemy to escape? Has that ever happened?"

"You'd have heard if he did."

"So he's still there. And it was all forgotten—the Weaver, the Soul-Eater. You. Generations of your family have sacrificed yourself to this! Is that what your ancestor signed you up for?"

"Maybe he didn't think it would take this long for the asshole to break out," Moss tried to joke.

Carol was pale, her face gray beneath the blazing sun. "What could be worth cursing your descendants for a thousand years?"

"The end of a war that burned through shifterkind like a plague." He was on solid ground now, reciting the stories he'd grown up on. "The war against the Soul-Eater had been going on since shifters first existed. He's our first and oldest enemy. Without the Weaver, he would be the end of all shifters."

"He steals shifter souls. Our inner animals."

"And the Weaver gifts them to us. But the Weaver can't heal those whose souls were have been torn apart, stealing her gift. And he hates her for what she gives to us. Classic, right? Two great powers, enemy gods, at each other's divine throats."

"This is the lost shifter mythology you were talking about? One figure who gives us these powers, and the other who takes them away, killing each other?" Carol's voice was hollow.

"They fought each other over and over in a thousand different bodies, him killing her, her raising armies against him. Over and over, across continents, across centuries." He shook his head. "The kraken was a new weapon in a war that had almost destroyed shifterkind countless times. The shadow dragons forged a prison to trap the Soul-Eater, and my ancestor guarded it. Maybe they didn't even expect it to work. Nothing had before. But this did. So long as the Soul-Eater remains trapped and not killed, he never reincarnates. Nor does the Weaver. They only ever came back once both of them were dead."

He hesitated. He'd learned this as a victory. Why did the words feel so heavy? "They won. We won. Shifterkind was saved, and who saved it, and from what, were forgotten."

"And for hundreds of years—a thousand years —whenever the kraken shifter died, one of your family went to take its place?"

"The kraken's a weapon. In times of peace, it's best kept sheathed." He swallowed, his throat thick. "Besides. The Soul-Eater's still alive. The shadow dragons' magic keeps it trapped alive , that's the point. The risk is still there. The prison needs a guard, and the kraken is that guard, waiting to be called."

"And that's why you're not meant to be here. Why you have to leave. Why you did leave." The tightness in her voice cut him like a knife through the ribs.

His shoulders slumped. Only the warm pressure of her hand, still pressed on his back, held him up. "I've told my family where to find you. And to tell MacInnis where you all are. You'll be safe. And I…"

Carol took her hand away. The cold where it had been ached. Get used to it, kiddo, he told himself, trying for gruffness, trying to be the bluff warrior he was meant to be. The eternal guard, heading towards his fate with his head held high.

Not lost, alone and already grieving.

Then Carol was in front of him, her hands on his shoulders for less than a heartbeat before she raised them to cradle his face. He fell into her eyes, drowning himself, memorizing the movement of light on her dark irises and knowing it was pointless.

No memory would be as sweet and intoxicating as the reality. And even that memory would fade, becoming something twisted with longing and regret.

The kraken never had a mate, and this was why.

"You said the kraken waits. Where?" Carol demanded.

"The deep dark, below. The edge of the ice. Between the shadow dragons' fortress and the rest of the world."

"So it's imprisoned, too. For hundreds of years. No wonder it felt so… lonely." Sympathy softened the tense lines of Carol's face, and shock rippled through him.

"You talked to it?"

"It pulled you out of the sea, Moss. Dragged you out and left you in my arms, after you disappeared on me. You say the kraken never has a mate, well, it sure seems intent on keeping us together."

"This is my fate. I won't let you share it. You have a life out here—"

"So do you!"

"I won't make you come with me."

"And why do you have to go? You said it yourself. The Soul-Eater's been imprisoned for centuries. "

"And if he breaks free, we're doomed."

Carol stepped back. Whatever she saw in his face made hope drain from hers. He'd finally found the determination to do what needed to be done, and there was nothing he could do to stop her pain.

"So that's it? You wait under the sea, forever, for a call that never comes?" She shook her head. "What call, anyway? Everyone who made this plan has been dead for a thousand years!"

"The shadow dragons—"

"The shadow dragons aren't going to call you." Her voice was strong and thick with dreadful certainty. "They're all dead."

Moss reeled away from her. "No. That's impossible."

"Maggie and her uncle are the last ones left. That's why we're taking her and the eggs to him."

"You said they didn't have any parents. But—" He clawed both hands through his hair. "There must be others. Antarctica is their fortress. The shadow dragon clan has lived there for—for…" His hands dropped. He stared at nothing, numbly. "For long enough for their numbers to dwindle."

Carol's face was pinched and white. "You knew dragons existed, but you'd never met one. I thought you knew—" She broke off.

He laughed bitterly. "That they were gone? No. I thought we were each staying in our mythical lanes, grimly abiding by the rules of our ancient pact."

"Moss—"

Certainty thudded in his chest, like the locks turning in a cell door.

He turned to her, his expression grim. "This doesn't change anything. It's more reason for me to go. I have to find out what happened. If the Soul-Eater is behind this."

"This wasn't him. It was us."

Disbelief surged inside him. He held it back. She couldn't mean—

He'd trusted her.

She shook her head. "I mean—it wasn't him; it was shifters. Modern shifters. A-a man who took Maggie's uncle captive and kept the eggs as hostages to keep him in line." The words tumbled out half on top of one another, but she swallowed and kept going. "He had Julian's family killed. They were the only other ones left. Her uncle, Julian, he was going back there. That's where we were following him when the birds attacked us. But he's the only one."

"No." The word was barely a whisper. "No. They're meant to call. Why didn't they call for help?"

"They might not have had time."

He shook his head. None of this could be real. She had to be mistaken. "No one can find the dragons' fortress. It's magically shielded—"

"We know how to use dragon magic to see through their shields. The man who killed them figured that out."

He stared at her. His throat was too tight to speak. Even if he could, what would he say?

And as he stared, the kraken rose up inside him, honing itself into something small enough to look out through his weak human eyes.

"Take Maggie and go," he pleaded.

"What? But—"

The little dragonling appeared over her shoulder as though summoned by her name. "Pree-pree? Pree-pree?"

Carol winced as tiny claws pricked her skin. "No—Maggie, this isn't a great time—what do you mean, go ? Go where? We're stuck—"

"Pree!" Maggie's spines flared up excitedly. She nipped at Carol's face, trying to get her attention. "Ee- oooo !"

"Maggie, no , I can't right now."

"Pree!"

"I'm sorry, Moss, I should have told you earlier—"

Her words barely registered, and when they did, he felt nauseous. Tell him earlier? He should have told her.

And now it was too late. It was all too late.

"If the dragons are gone… If the fortress is undefended—if the prison isn't under guard…"

The words rolled off his tongue like a curse. And the kraken heard them. Ice emanated from its coiling limbs, a judgement that would destroy the world.

"Moss—" Carol was reaching towards him.

"Pree!" Maggie demanded.

And somewhere far away, the thwup-thwup-thwup of a helicopter's blades broke through to put a final line through their stolen time together.

He inhaled, nostrils flaring, ocean senses stretching out—and understood what Maggie had been so excited to tell them.

Carol hissed in a breath. "That's—"

"Pree oo-aooo !" Fuzzy images of Lance MacInnis and the blonde-haired white woman who must be Keeley—his mate —danced in Moss's mind. He groaned, pushing them aside. Maggie's happiness was a soap bubble of fizzy delight.

She had no idea what was coming.

This was it. His deal with the kraken was over.

The helicopter meant rescue. It meant Carol would be reunited with her teammates. Her friends. Little Maggie would be back with her foster parents. They would follow her baby dragon sense to track down her uncle and get the surviving shadow dragons away from the corrupted fortress.

They didn't need him anymore.

Worse. They needed him gone. Because if the Soul-Eater was free, somewhere in these waters…

His jaw ached. Those bird shifters with razorblade wings. He could still help against them. If they showed up again.

Help? Who was he kidding? Moss Taylor couldn't do shit against mythic shifters like that.

And the kraken would be as much a danger to the people he was protecting as to any attackers.

No.

No more excuses. No more skulking around the edges of his duty. Carol and Maggie would be safe.

Safer without him.

He closed his eyes briefly. The shining ribbon of the mate bond flared, a moonlight dream held together by hope. It should never have lasted this long. And now he was going to shatter it forever.

Carol would be free.

Alone, but free.

Alone?

The kraken stirred. Moss veiled his thoughts, but too late. It saw what he was planning to do.

Shadows clustered around the delicate band of light connecting him to Carol like barnacles. He drove them away.

It was a distraction. While he was focused on the mate bond, the kraken broke free of his body.

He doubled over. Pain lanced through him, as though the kraken was cutting its way out of him. Its voice was gone. He could only hear its rage, a vast howl of anger, and feel the pain.

Which meant there was still enough of his human body to feel pain. He hadn't shifted yet. There was still time to—

"Moss?"

His heart cracked into a thousand pieces. Carol stared up at him, her face pale and worried behind the tangle of her windswept hair.

"You have to run." He took a step away from her, as though a single step would help. More tentacles tore free from his body, monstrous things of shadow and magic. The air darkened around him, as though the sun itself cringed away from this creature from the deep. "Run!"

"Moss, it's okay."

Her words didn't make any sense. The kindness in her eyes didn't make any sense. She was walking towards him.

"Please," he begged. "Take Maggie and go."

"We both know I can't take Maggie anywhere. The only way she gets off this island is on that helicopter. Lance and Keeley are on their way—"

"I'll kill them." He backed away, waves breaking around his ankles. "I'll kill all of you."

She took his hand. He wasn't fast enough to snatch it away. The moonbeam ribbon between them glowed stronger than ever.

But still so delicate. So breakable. He still had time to fix this. If he left her now—

"It's okay," she said again, as though any of this was okay. "I get why you tried to leave now. We can talk about it later. But right now, there's no danger. We're safe." Her expression hardened. "The people in that helicopter aren't the enemy. You know that, right? They're on our side. On your side."

She was talking to the kraken. She thought the kraken would attack the helicopter. It wouldn't. It was attacking the real threat.

The one thing that might keep him from fulfilling his duty.

No wonder it had dragged him back here. How could he uphold his ancestral oath if he knew his mate was waiting for him back in the surface world?

"You have to get away from me." He could barely form the words. Every muscle in his body was locked, straining to keep the kraken from escaping.

And it wasn't working.

The kraken was freeing itself, wrenching loose in a frenzy of shadows and magic. Moss stumbled to his knees in the boiling surf.

Carol knelt with him, her hands on his face.

"No!" he wanted to cry. His lungs were frozen.

"It's okay," she said again. "Let me help."

She closed her eyes. He wanted to push her away, to scream at her to save herself, but he was trapped, his human body frozen in place in the last moments before it gave way beneath the kraken's rage.

* Don't be afraid.* Her voice was like cool, fresh water. Didn't she know how much there was to be afraid of? The kraken had almost had her once.

She pressed further, sweet water finding the gaps in his mental armor. * It's all right, Moss .*

No. If she reached any further—

* Kraken .*

The monster surged up, engulfing her. Her physical form slumped in his arms.

Her mind was lost in the dark.

Victory rang through him, fierce and exultant. She is ours! the depths roared.

Carol's mind was a spark, flickering against the darkness of his soul. He screamed, fighting towards her the same way he'd fought the storm to save her, but the monster clutched her more tightly, dragging her away.

I won't let you have her!

He tore at the darkness inside himself, pain exploding through his skull with each blow because it was his own soul he was ripping apart, his own soul that wanted to take Carol into the darkest depths of itself and keep her there. Blanketed in darkness. Crushed beneath the weight of its power.

Safe.

Safe?

She wouldn't be safe. The kraken wasn't safe. It was a monster. A tool of destruction forged to be wielded as a last resort. His grandfather had warned him. Every story, every lesson, had told him not to let the creature slip from his control.

He should have locked himself up the moment the kraken chose him. Immured himself in ice and darkness, waiting for the dragons' call.

But he hadn't. He'd wanted to taste freedom. And now his mate would pay the price.