“Well maybe you need to think about it harder — who’s that?” I frowned and pointed to the horizon. “Is that…is that a person?”
“What? Where?”
“There,” I pointed straight out in front of us. “There’s a woman standing there.”
“Standing…on the ocean…”
I held my hand over my forehead to block the sun and squinted. It was a woman. And she was gorgeous. She was tall with long bright royal blue that fell to her hips and faded to a vibrant aquamarine. Yet then she turned her head and her hair looked purple. Her left arm was covered in a black tattoo that looked like flowers of some kind but she was a bit too far away to see. I couldn’t see her eyes either, but they reflected the sunlight the same way the ocean did.
“Gigi. Do not tell me you don’t see her.”
She exhaled. “I see her…how is she standing there?”
“Do you see wings?” I frowned. “Maybe she has wings?”
“What is she doing is the more important question.”
The blue-haired woman shouted something but it wasn’t in English and her voice barely carried to the shore.
Gigi groaned and grabbed my sleeve. “Maybe we should get The Coven?”
A wave rose up beside her and then a massive dark blue object shot into the sky. For a moment all I saw was the white cap on the wave and the color blue, but as it swung back down I saw suction cups and a sharp-pointed tip. The blue-haired woman grinned and then vanished into thin air. Four tentacles lined with teethed suction cups sliced through the water. A giant octopus head the size of a house rose up and let out a roar like some tiger-whale hybrid.
Gigi gasped.
I pointed to it like she hadn’t seen it and frowned. “Is that a fucking kraken?”
The kraken lunged forward, splashing through the shallow water and landing on the sand in front of us.
“Savannah!”
“Rhetorical question! Shit, RUN!”
But everything was moving in slow motion. I couldn’t get my legs to move fast enough. The ground shook under my feet like an earthquake. The kraken opened its mouth and roared again, revealing six rows of teeth that looked razor sharp. Tentacles sliced through the air. The tips of the tentacles opened like some Venus flytrap kind of horror.
Gigi screamed. Light flashed in my peripheral vision and then she turned into a penguin.
“DAMMIT, GIGI!”
I wrapped my arm around her penguin body and hoisted her in the air. She was heavy and slippery and definitely too big for my short-ass body but this wasn’t my first rodeo with her. I didn’t have time to think. It was fight or flight time and I knew I couldn’t fight a whole ass kraken by myself. I sprinted away from the shore as fast as I could, digging the balls of my feet into the ground, but the sand was soft so I kept sinking.
“HELP!” I screamed as loud as I could. “KRAKEN!”
The kraken roared and a wall of warm water slammed into my back. A shadow moved so I ducked down just as a tentacle swung over my head. I cursed. Come on, legs, don’t fail me now. The grass was just up ahead, if I could just get out of the beasts’ reach we’d be okay.
“TEGAN! TENNESSEE!” I shrieked.
The kraken roared and the ground rumbled. Gigi squawked and flapped her wings and my grip on her slipped. This some baby back bullshit, ma’am.
I looked back up and almost cried with relief. The entire Coven was gunning right for us, the blades of their weapons glistening in the sunlight. My heart was pounding out of control. My legs were burning and screaming in protest, but I wasn’t going to quit.
Tennessee was almost to me. That glowing sword in his hand was almost as tall as him.
Tegan materialized right in front of me and a portal opened up beside her.
I lunged for it when sharp pain pierced through my back and spread down my spine. I gasped and my back arched. My arms went limp and Gigi plummeted to the sand at my feet. A fire like I’d never known ripped through my body, scorching everything inside me. The blue sharp-pointed tip of the tentacle shot out of my stomach and the air in my lungs vanished. I was burning from the inside out. I tried to scream but no sound came. Tears streaked down my face. Dark red blood gushed like from a spout.