22. Carol

22

Carol

Inquisitive tendrils sought out the shape of her face. They brushed over the curves of her cheeks and nose, tracing the feathery lines of her eyebrows and the sensitive skin of her neck. One paused at her lips. She opened her mouth, and it found her teeth.

It wasn't erotic. She'd wondered if it would be. Kind of expected it, to be honest. Naughty tentacles were a thing for a reason, right? But the immense darkness of the kraken didn't have any sexual motives. It wanted to touch her. To know what she was by knowing the shape of her.

Its curiosity was a wonderful thing. She felt its amazement: a shark's teeth, in a woman's mouth? But it didn't hurt the way other people seeing her monstrous side hurt.

Because there was no disgust in its reaction to her. No knee-jerk horror, quickly papered over by tissue-thin politeness, or not so quickly and not even tissue-thin.

It was curious, and careful, and the shadows around her echoed with its shapeless thoughts. Here was the one it had hunted for. The great star from the sky. The coolest waters silvered by the shining moon. Here, hunting it.

It had never known such a thing.

Then it found the pulse on her neck, flickering just beneath the skin.

It froze. Its touch pulled away all at once, leaving her still surrounded by darkness, but alone.

It hadn't realized how delicate she was. How precious. No, it had always known how precious she was. But to come hunting after it, diving straight into the deep shadow-heart of its soul, when she was so small and fragile…

She laughed, soundless in the void of the kraken's soul. No one thought of her as fragile. Small, yes. No number of teeth could get around that. But fragile?

It could break her with less effort than it took to breach the shadows beneath ships. If its attention strayed—not that its attention could ever stray from her light, her shining starlight perfection, her sharpness and brightness—but if it did…

Strangeness rolled through the depths. A new experience for a creature as old as the oceans.

It was afraid.

She reached out mentally, sending her thoughts into the shadows. * Don't be afraid. I've never been afraid of you .*

The moon didn't fear it, either; but the moon never leapt silver-bright and shining within its reach. The moon kept itself safe.

Determination rumbled through the abyss. It would not hurt her. Its avatar wouldn't let it. The body of bones and sinew and fire, the soul like the chains holding a ship to anchor—he wouldn't let the kraken hurt her.

Carol blinked in the darkness. * Moss. You're talking about Moss .*

The avatar. Yes. The one who fought, and feared, and chained it more effectively than any other avatar had ever managed.

The kraken had only escaped him twice, seeking her brilliance, and each time, he had leashed it more tightly to his command.

Twice, she thought, and their minds were so close that she knew it heard her thoughts as though she were speaking them. When you saw me in the storm.

When it found her. A sliver of moonlight in the shadow of a sky-ship.

And now? But Moss hadn't leashed it. She was here, and it wasn't leashed. Where was he? How long had she been here? What was happening outside?

Oh god. The helicopter. Lance and the others. Were they safe?

He will not let me harm them, the kraken told her.

She blinked, the insides of her eyelids somehow less black than the endless shadows surrounding her.

The avatar would never let it loose again, after this. He had made a mistake, letting his shock create a chink in his iron will. The kraken had made a mistake, taking advantage of it.

But what a mistake, that had let her dive into the heart of it. It would hold that memory as precious as though it had held the moon itself, in the endless years of being chained in the deep that lay ahead of it.

It would remember her, beyond the great death that came for them all.

Beloved.

The shadows vanished. She gasped a breath that tasted like the ocean, like the world, and nothing like the inky void. The sun was too bright for her eyes. She reeled back, blinking as the ground slid beneath her feet, and Moss's arms were around her.

His warmth, his scent, his sheer physicality, overwhelmed her.

How had the kraken described him? A soul like the chains that hold an anchor to its ship. Moss had hidden his strength behind bashful smiles and bad jokes.

Did he even know how strong he was?

Her heart thundered in her chest, and every drop of blood in her body sang with longing. She leaned on him, his body holding her up and her body wanting his more than she'd ever wanted anything in her life.

Here was all the overwhelming, brain-melting lust she'd expected from diving into the kraken's soul. Not deep in the heart of a creature from the abyss, but in the arms of the living man whose soul was entwined with the monster's. Was entwined with hers.

He'd lied to her to keep her safe. She had to tell him he didn't need to lie anymore, and he didn't need to keep her safe, either. The kraken would never harm her.

He tipped her head back, his grip rough with panic. "What did you do?"

"The kraken won't hurt me," she tried to tell him.

"Hurt is all the kraken does! It isn't safe, Carol. It's a weapon. It was created to kill everything in its path so the Soul-Eater wouldn't be able to gorge itself on them. To kill everything between it and the Soul-Eater. Anything that stood in the way of its duty. And that's you, Carol. That's you."

"You're wrong."

"The kraken never has a mate—"

"I'm right here . The kraken has me , Moss. You have me." She grabbed him and kissed him, all soft lips and sharp teeth and bloody desperation. "Don't you dare take yourself away from me."

* I have to go. The shadow dragons are gone. If the Soul-Eater is free—*

She softened the kiss but didn't stop. *Then you're the only one who can save us. Not your family. I get that they know the history, same as you. But the kraken is the only one who's experienced it.*

*It's too dangerous.*

She found his hand and curled her own into it. All those calluses and scars—the life he'd had ripped away from him. Everything he'd lost.

And he was determined that he had to lose more.

That wasn't fair. And she was sick of life not being fair.

Moss was hers, and she wasn't going to let any other fate take him from her.

* The kraken said you're the only one who was ever able to control it. That you CAN control it. You said it's a weapon. A weapon that YOU wield.*

*What if I'm not strong enough?*

She let out a huff of breath that was more sob than sigh. * Then I'll swan dive into your head again and set things straight.*

* How can you trust me when I don't even trust myself?*

* It's the kraken you don't trust.*

He gave a hollow laugh. *It's both of us. I know all my weaknesses. And the kraken knows how to take advantage of them.*

*But you both want the same thing.*

He pulled away and stared into her eyes. "Do we?"

Shadows writhed all around them. She held his gaze.

"You both want to save the world. And you can't do that hiding in a cave at the bottom of the ocean."

He closed his eyes and bent his head until his forehead rested against her chest. "I wish I knew whether I believed you because it's the truth, or because it's what I want to hear."

"Move away from the woman and the dragon." Lance's voice boomed over the noise of the helicopter. Simultaneously, he spoke into her mind: * Carol, get to a safe distance. We don't know what this being is capable of .*

But she did.

Moss's arms were still around her; at Lance's words over the loudspeaker, he'd tightened his grip automatically. But that wouldn't last long. Her mate, this wonderful man with a soul like the chain holding a ship to anchor, would let her go because he thought it was the right thing to do.

She raised her head. His eyes met hers, their warm brown turned flinty with guilt and worry.

"It's okay," she told him, and then shouted: "Lance! Stand down! There's no threat!"

Moss winced, as though he wanted to disagree.

* I'm not in danger ,* she repeated telepathically, not trusting her voice to be strong or steady enough to cut through the roar of the helicopter. * This is Moss. He saved me when I fell from the plane. *

She took a deep breath. * And he's my mate. *