Bride of the Sea Monster - Eve Langlais Page 0,25

lips twisted into a smile. “Glad to know I’m not so bad myself.” I rubbed him some more. “You’re drying out.”

The truth, and yet I still felt my lips turn down as he slid back under the waves, only to have another tentacle rising to take its place.

“Handy,” I remarked as he settled in beside me. “How long will you stay like this?”

If a tentacle could shrug, his did.

“Crapshoot, huh? Bummer. Guess that means I’ll have to crawl back into your bed alone. Naked,” I emphasized. “But I won’t slip under the covers. In case you want to watch.” I glanced back at the sliding door. Took a step towards it.

He slid free and kept close to me.

“How much can you see when you’re like this anyhow?” I teased over my shoulder.

He rolled around me, barely skimming my body. I froze.

He nudged at my neck.

“Yeah, not sure I’m ready for tentacle sex.”

I could have sworn he shook with laughter. He reached into the room and flipped back the covers for me. Fluffed a pillow.

I laughed. “I guess you can see.” It got easier and easier to understand. Pausing by the edge of the bed, I offered a coy look over my shoulder. “Care to help me undress?”

The tip of his tentacle moved in eagerly but paused before it touched.

I frowned. “What’s wrong? Did you sense something?” Because he had an attentiveness to his posture that struck me.

I cast about, trying to see if the ship was in trouble, and only got that maddening wall of water.

Rather than strip my dress, the tentacle withdrew and exited from the room. Did he need to switch appendages already?

Another tentacle didn’t take its place, and I returned to the balcony. “Ian? Is something wrong?” Had I teased him too much? Gone too far?

Reaching the rail, I was just in time to see the last bit of him sinking under the water. He didn’t resurface.

Maybe he was scoping out some possible danger. Or went to sink a ship. Kraken were known for their ship-sinking abilities.

Then I heard it, barely discernible amidst the party music with its boom boom beat. A song. No instrument to accompany it, just a pure voice. It radiated through everything, each note the building block of a spell. The magic wove intricately. I could almost see it in the air, calling out, looking for someone who would truly listen.

That someone wasn’t me. I remained unaffected.

Not so for others. I heard splashes and realized why Ian had left.

The singing had drawn him in. The bloody sirens were stealing my husband.

There was nothing rational in that thought or my ensuing reaction. I called for my magic, drew on it to show me the futures, a way to bring Ian back. It ignored me at first, showing me only that stupid wall of water.

But I wasn’t content to let it waterboard me. The torture of not knowing was too much. I grabbed my ability with two mental hands and twisted. Forcing it to my will.

Show me.

Show me a way that had Ian coming back to me. Surely, there was a path where he didn’t abandon me, a puppet to the sirens.

Branch after branch flitted by in my mind’s eye, failure after failure to keep him from leaving. Until one narrow future where an amulet suddenly fell into my grip from above.

Now! I reached out, choosing to narrow my focus on that possibility. The metal lump landed in my palm, and my fingers curled around it.

There was magic inside the locket, and in that moment, in this particular timeline, I could use it. I couldn’t have said how it worked. Perhaps it was a combination of things: my iron will, the moon magic, desperation. Whatever the reason, I sent a message questing for Ian, shooting it across the water, a counter command to the song that required poking him for activation.

The magical directive skimmed, waiting for its chance.

A hump undulated over the water, and I jabbed it with my magical thought.

Where are you going? You’re supposed to be with me. Helping me undress.

The tentacle shuddered and slowed.

Sasha?

I could almost hear him reply.

It’s me. You left me.

I’m—

The siren’s song rose in pitch, and my grasp on him snapped.

He went under and, clenching the locket tightly, I fired more magic. Truly pushing myself, putting even more power into it. Tugging until I could hold no more.

A little hump of kraken appeared above water, and I speared it, digging in my magical claws, screaming my next command, pushing