drive me mental.
This couldn’t be happening. Ian stuck as a sea monster. Me with my heart breaking. There had to be something we could do. Someone with the right kind of magic.
Lucifer kept baiting Shax until the man finally stomped off, leaving me with the Lord of Hell, who was chuckling to himself, so evilly pleased with how things turned out. Bastard.
“I cannot wait for him to sink that first ship. We will make the Titanic look like child’s play.” He gleefully rubbed his hands.
“Why don’t you sink it yourself?”
His slitted gaze slewed my way. “Because acting directly on this plane is forbidden. Hell is my playground.”
Hell was his source of power.
Power…
Didn’t the devil have the strongest magic of all? Magic enough to help Ian? Not that he would agree. I needed leverage to force the devil.
I know just the thing, the seeing said smugly.
The seeing grabbed me, and my head tilted back. My lashes fluttered as my eyes rolled to show only the whites and the voice that emerged wasn’t actually mine.
“The child of your loins, the Branch of the Terrible Ones…”
A roaring filled my head as I spoke what I saw, relaying the vision to the devil alone.
By the time I’d stopped speaking, the Lord of Hell wasn’t laughing or smiling. He wore the grimmest of expressions.
He eyed me. “Well played. What’s it going to take to keep this prophecy quiet?”
I smiled.
17
Killian Kraken: She loves me.
The realization stunned me. Almost as much as the fact that I floated in the ocean as a man and not the kraken.
I sputtered in the water and almost drowned, which would have been ironic.
A striped ring hit the sea beside me with a splash, and my uncle yelled, “Grab a hold, and I’ll reel you in.”
I didn’t really need the help, but given a glance upward showed my wife leaning over the rail, I eagerly held on. Somehow, she’d saved me. Perhaps it was the fact that she’d shouted her love for me. I’d heard it even clinging to the bottom of the ship.
Maybe that had done the trick. It didn’t matter. The curse had dissolved, and while I could still feel the beast inside, it was a subdued version.
Master of myself once more.
Hauling me over the rail, my uncle blocked my wife as he hugged me, slamming me on the back, his words thick with emotion. “Dammit, I thought I’d lost you. Good thing your wife drives a hard bargain.”
“What did she do?”
Shax shrugged as he pulled away. “I don’t know what she told the devil. All I heard was elevator music, but it must have been good, because next thing I knew, Lucifer was waggling his fingers and blowing smoke harder than a steam-powered engine. Then…poof!”
The Devil used his magic, but what did it cost? I looked past Shax to Sasha. She wouldn’t look me in the face. Instead, as if she weren’t adorable enough, she eyed the deck and her toes.
It meant she never saw the hug coming. I lifted her off her feet, and she squealed. “Ian!”
“Yes.” I slid her down the length of my body.
“I’m glad you’re back.”
“Me, too.” More than she could know. And yet she still refused to look at me.
“Was the deal with the devil that bad?”
“What? No. It’s just…” She hesitated.
Uncle Shax sighed. “Bloody hell, girl. What she’s trying to say is now that the curse is broken, you don’t have to remain married to her because you’re—”
“Stupid.” Yes, I called my wife stupid before I kissed her and said, “We aren’t getting a divorce because I love you, Sasha Bianca Farseer-Kraken.” I tried out her name for size. It fit well. So very well.
Judging by her smile, she liked it, too. “I love you, too, Mr. Killian Melt-My-Panties Kraken-Farseer.”
“Isn’t it traditional for you to take my name?”
“Are you really going to impose a patriarchal standard on the woman who saved your life?”
“Kraken-Farseer it is,” I muttered as I kissed her.
She kissed me back, a happy sigh leaving her, her body melting into me.
I pulled away for just a second. “Say it again.”
“Say what, husband?” She played coy.
Who knew it would affect me as if she’d said something dirty? “Wife.”
She cupped my face. “I love you, Killian Kraken.”
“I love you more. But I need to know how you broke the curse. What did you promise the devil? Maybe we can find a way around it.”
The smile she offered proved mysterious and naughty. “Didn’t cost us a thing. I just gave the devil something