Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

Levi

T he bakery bell chimes overhead as I duck inside, and even the warm embrace of sugar and fresh bread can’t lift my mood today. I school my expression, trying to bury the irritation that’s been my constant companion lately. Koko is not just a goddess; she’s also a friend, and it’s not her fault that everything has felt wrong since Rose left. Not just wrong – hollow. My skin no longer fits right, like a shell that’s grown too tight. Even my kraken form feels distant and disconnected for the first time in my life.

“Perfect timing!” Koko emerges from the back, looking impossibly pristine as always. Her golden hair is braided like a crown around her head, not a single strand out of place despite the heat of the ovens. She wears a floral dress that would look at home in a 1950s television show, complete with a ruffled apron tied in a perfect bow at her waist. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget she’s a goddess, but moments like this – when she looks like she’s stepped straight out of a vintage homemaking magazine, all grace and otherworldly perfection – remind me of exactly what she is.

Her smile is knowing, almost mischievous, but I’m too tired to puzzle it out.

“You said you needed me for something?” I manage to keep my voice neutral, though it takes effort. The past month has been endless – every morning without Rose feeling longer than the last. If not for this cursed connection to the ocean, I could be with her right now, learning to love her desert the way she learned to love my sea. Instead, I’m anchored here, limited to phone calls and the endless ache of missing her.

Koko’s smile widens. “Yes, and your timing is perfect.” She points past me toward the front window. “See for yourself.”

I turn, following her gesture, and spot Conall’s battered SUV pulling up outside. The ancient Ford groans as Conall unfolds himself from the driver’s seat – all six and a half feet of him, his red-brown beard wild and his flannel shirt stretched tight across shoulders broad enough to fell trees. He looks like the kind of person who wrestles bears for fun, but I know he rehabilitates injured birds in his spare time. However, I barely register him because the passenger door opens, and – I must be hallucinating – Rose steps out, looking tiny next to Conall’s mountainous frame.

I blink hard, but she’s still there. Still real. Still here .

“Go,” Koko laughs, but I’m already moving, already running. The bell nearly flies off its hook as I burst through the door.

Rose turns at the sound, her face lighting up, and then she’s in my arms. I lift her clear off her feet, breathing in the familiar scent of her shampoo, feeling her solid warmth against my chest. My heart seems to restart, everything clicking back into place – my skin, my breath, even my kraken half settling into contentment.

“What are you doing here?” I manage when I can speak again. “I thought you weren’t coming for two more weeks?”

She pulls back just enough to see my face, her eyes sparkling. “Koko called and offered to buy my ticket early.” Her voice drops to a whisper against my ear. “Did you know she was a goddess?”

I can’t help but chuckle. “Yeah. She saved my life once and welcomed me to Lublin Harbor. Almost everyone here is a magical creature of some kind, just to warn you. Koko seems to collect them.”

“Yeah, Conall told me he’s a bear shifter. I can believe it just based on his size.”

She laughs, her fingers playing with the collar of my shirt. “Lublin Harbor is full of surprises. A love goddess who bakes, a mountain man who turns into a bear…” Her eyes soften as she looks up at me. “A man who shares his soul with the sea.” She rises on her tiptoes, pressing closer. “I missed you.”

I catch her lips with mine, pouring a month of longing into the kiss. “God, I missed you so much.”

We thank Koko, who waves off our gratitude with that same knowing smile, and then we’re driving back to the marina. We barely make it through my door before falling into bed, making up for lost time with desperate hands and whispered promises.

Hours later, we emerge into the afternoon sunlight. Rose suggests a swim, and my kraken half surges forward eagerly – he’s missed her too. I grin at her and give her a quick kiss, then take a running leap off my houseboat deck. The moment I hit the water, the change takes hold – smoother than it’s been since she left, like slipping into a favorite coat. My human form melts away between one heartbeat and the next, limbs elongating into powerful tentacles and body expanding. I surface next to the dock, my head breaching the waves.

Rose squats down on the dock, running her hand over my head in a way that makes both halves of me hum with contentment. “I missed this you too,” she says softly. “Even though I know you’re both the same Levi.”

I carefully wrap a tentacle around her waist, lifting her onto my back, where she belongs. Captain Orin spots us from his boat as we glide out of the marina.

“Thank god you’re back!” he calls to Rose, waving enthusiastically. “He’s been in such a mood without you; the whole town’s relieved you’re here!”

I click my beak at him in warning, but he just laughs while Rose giggles above me.

“So, what they say about small-town gossip is true, huh?” she asks, patting my skin. I tap her side once with a tentacle – ‘yes’ – and savor her laugh.

We spend hours playing in the open water, diving and surfacing, my tentacles cradling her safely as we explore. Eventually, we settle into our favorite position: Rose lying on her back atop me, trailing her fingers over my skin and tracing the old scars that she seems to heal with her touch.

The peace shatters when I feel it – an overwhelming presence that makes every instinct scream danger . I wrap a tentacle around Rose’s waist, making her yelp in surprise as I prepare to flee. But before I can move, the water before us begins to rise.

Rose gasps as a mountain of flesh emerges from the depths. My heart pounds as I recognize him, even though I’d only ever seen him once, and I was delirious and half-dead at the time. Thalassor, the leviathan god himself. I know I can’t hope to defeat him, but maybe I can get Rose to the safety of Lublin Harbor, to Koko’s protection?—

“Be still, little kraken.” His voice resonates through the water, deeper than the ocean trenches. “I mean no harm to you or your mate. Indeed, I am pleased to see one of my children has found their true match.” His massive eyes, each bigger than my entire kraken form, fixes on us. “I have Mokosh to thank for her assistance in this.”

Rose’s hand presses against my skin, steadying herself as Thalassor continues.

“Your dying call woke me from a long slumber, and I am glad. The kraken needed my help –they had forgotten the old ways, forgotten that they need humans as much as humans need them. Although they are slowly getting better under my guidance and the king’s rule. Did you know your kind originated from my union with a human mate?”

His attention shifts to Rose, who somehow manages to stand on my back, facing him without fear. “Do you love him, child? All of him?”

“With my whole soul,” Rose answers without hesitation, her voice strong and sure.

“Then I have a gift for you.” One of his tentacles – as wide as a submarine at its base – extends toward us, tapering down to a tip no larger than a pencil. When it touches her forehead, the air crackles with power.

Rose gasps as Thalassor’s power touches her, and suddenly – terrifyingly – her body lifts off my back and into the air. I reach for her instinctively, grasping at empty space as she floats out of reach. An invisible force holds her suspended, turning her slowly while strange ribbons of light dance across her skin.

Rose begins to glow, softly at first, then bright as sunlight on water, her hair drifting around her face like seaweed in a slow current. After what feels like a lifetime but is less than a minute, she slowly drifts back down to my back. She laughs – a sound of pure, unfettered joy that washes away my fear. She rises to her feet with the same natural poise she brings to everything and executes a curtsy to the ancient god.

“Thank you,” she says, her voice full of wonder, and before I can react, she does something unexpected – she dives into the water in an arc as graceful and smooth as a dolphin.

She disappears beneath the surface, but before I can dive after her, she bursts from the waves, her laugh ringing across the water. “Levi!” She spins in the water with practiced ease, as if she’s been swimming these waters her whole life. “What are you waiting for? We have exploring to do! I want to see everything – all the wonders you’ve tried to describe to me, every beautiful thing you’ve wanted to show me!”

I float, frozen in confusion, until Thalassor’s rumbling chuckle rolls through the water. “I have given her the ability to share your world completely. She can breathe beneath the waves now and withstand the pressures of the deep. She will never take kraken form, but she can explore the depths at your side for all your days together.”

Gratitude overwhelms me, but before I can find words to express it, he adds, “Live well with your mate, little kraken. That will be thanks enough.” Then he’s gone, disappearing in a swirl of dark water.

“Levi!” Rose’s voice calls from below the water’s surface, clear as a bell despite the water between us. “Come on! I want to explore everything!”

Joy barrels through both halves of my nature as I dive after her. She’s swimming through the water like she was born to it, her movements graceful and sure. When I catch up, she wraps her arms around one of my tentacles, beaming at me through the water.

“Race you to the bottom?” she challenges, and I can’t help but laugh, the sound emerging as a stream of bubbles.

Together, we spiral down into the abyss, toward all the wonders I’ve always wanted to share with a mate but never thought I’d experience. For the first time in my life, both halves of me feel completely whole – the human heart that loves Rose and the kraken soul that can now show her every hidden treasure of my world.

Above us, the surface grows distant, but Rose shows no sign of fear or discomfort. She simply holds on tighter, trusting me to guide her through this new frontier. And I will – for all our days – I’ll show her every beautiful secret the ocean holds now that she can truly share it with me.

The briny deep welcome us both, and as Rose’s laughter echoes through the water, I know with absolute certainty that this is precisely where we’re meant to be. Together, in both our worlds, for always.