Chapter 14
Fourteen
Idon’t know how long we’ve been asleep before a crash against the side of the lighthouse startles me awake.
A little bit of drool dribbles down the side of my mouth onto my chin, and I wipe it with the back of my hand, realizing I’ve fully fallen asleep on top of Caleb. My face is pressed into his shoulder.
I stand up abruptly, out of sorts and struggling to realize what woke me up.
“Did you hear that?” Caleb asks sleepily.
“Yeah.” Something about it has my heart pounding.
It didn’t sound like anything I’ve ever heard before.
It was a wet squelching thunder clap, which makes absolutely no sense.
And the deep seated dread in the pit of my stomach along with the tingle of magic climbing up my spine tells me we need to figure out what that was and we need to figure it out fast.
“Caleb,” I say slowly, “I think whatever it was has something to do with what I told you earlier.”
“About Tokyo Drift?” he asks, quirking an eyebrow. His eyes are sleepy but his expression’s playful and I find myself smiling in return even though I’m completely stressed out about whatever the hell it was that just hit the side of the lighthouse. I did not like that sound.
“No, I’m talking about, you know—”
“Being a witch,” Caleb finishes for me. “Yes, I know. I was just teasing you. Take a deep breath. I’m here. We can figure this out together, alright? You’re not alone.”
Our hands are still entwined, something I hadn’t even realized until he squeezes my fingers gently. The fear in the pit of my stomach eases somewhat.
I take a deep breath.
“All right.”
“Let’s look out the window first. I have raincoats if you want to stylishly put on bright yellow rubber and go look outside,” he suggests.
“I don’t know that we want to go outside until we figure out what that was,” I tell him. “I don’t have a good feeling about this and one thing that I’ve learned is that I have to trust my gut when it comes to magic.”
A troubled expression crosses his face and it’s the first time I’ve seen him look worried all night. And I realize that maybe I’ve scared him a little bit.
“Sorry,” I say. “Whatever it is is probably fine. I just feel safer inside the lighthouse until we know.”
I swallow hard and his eyes dart to the column of my throat.
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” he says matter of factly.
“Well,” I hedge and then take a deep breath, “I have a sneaking suspicion about what that might have been and we really don’t want to go outside if it’s what I think it was.”
“Ivy,” he says. “Tell me.”
I blow out a breath, pursing my lips.
Gunner sits up from where he’s still sleeping then pads over to us.
“She’s pretty sure it’s a kraken.”
“Thanks, Gunner,” I say. “That was really excellent delivery.”
“You were just going to talk around it and take too much time and whatever that thing is out there you need to deal with it. We don’t have that kind of time right now, Ivy.”
“Is he for real?” Caleb asks.
“I’m for real,” Gunner says. “We’ve established that.”
“I don’t think that’s what he was asking.”
“Stop stalling,” Gunner says. “Get up and go look outside. Whatever that thing is, you need to fix it.”
I huff out a breath and stand up. My hands immediately feel cold without Caleb’s touch and I make my feet move over to the window that overlooks the harbor. I know what I’m going to see. That doesn’t mean I’m prepared for it.
“Holy ****** sheet,” I murmur.
Sure enough a massive eye, bioluminescent, glows in the darkness. Rain making the entire water line ripple. Staring up at the lighthouse.
Something slides against the window. Little round suckers trailing across the glass.
“Oh, I don’t like this at all,” I say.
“A kraken?” Caleb repeats. “Like a giant squid? Like the mythological giant squid?”
“Yep,” I say shortly, my voice way too high-pitched and unnatural. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about.”
Gunner rests his front paws on the wall so that he too can see out the window.
“Oh yeah, she’s out there. I don’t think this is good,” Gunner says matter of factly.
“Definitely not good,” I say.
“Well,” Caleb says, “at least the bread’s risen.”
“The bread,” I say. “Put it in the oven. Put it in the oven right now.”
Caleb gives me a strange look, but he doesn’t argue. He simply opens up the oven and puts it in.
“No,” I say, “take the damn towel off. Come on, the oven’s not even on.”
“What temperature?” Caleb says, flummoxed.
Gunner barks a laugh.
“I don’t know, try like 375. We probably should have preheated it, but we’re just going to have to hope this is good enough.”
“What are you going to do with the bread?” Caleb says.
“I don’t know. This is probably a stupid idea, but we can’t just leave that thing out there. That’s not safe. We don’t know what it wants. And if the wards are down—”
“Whoa. A ward? A ward like a medal, like a prize?”
“No, no, no. A ward. It’s a protection barrier spell. I think that’s what the rune is on your light, I mean. Like, the rune anchors the ward. And I got all distracted because you kissed me and then I was thinking about, you know, kissing and—”
I trail off completely flummoxed and disconcerted and out of sorts from the way Caleb’s looking at me… like he’s also considering kissing me again.
“Just turn on the oven,” I blurt.
Caleb snorts and I hear the oven beep as he sets it on.
Meanwhile the eye in the water is fixed on us, glowing light minty green that’s at odds with the strange power I feel humming right from the spot where the giant beast must be sitting.
“How the heck does it even fit there?” I say. “Something like that should be like way deep in the ocean.”
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” said Caleb. “But dogs also shouldn’t talk and we’re dealing with that. So, you know.”
“Fair,” I say. “A little bit rude, but fair.”
You have to laugh, which seems completely out of odds with the fact that there’s a giant magical kraken sitting right next to the lighthouse in the water and there’s a slimy tentacle somehow next to the lighthouse or still on it. I don’t know. I don’t like it either way.
“What if it tries to pull us into the water?” I say.
“Is that something that happens a lot to witches?” Caleb asks.
“Dude, I don’t know. I’m out of my depth.” I pause. “No pun intended.”
Gunner sighs, an exasperated sound.
A grumpy exhalation pops out of me. Gunner and I spare a second looking at each other.
“I can’t decide if I’m upset that Gunner never talked to me or impressed that he was able to hold it in for so long,” Caleb says.
“I think you should be impressed,” Gunner tells him. “Obviously it’s pretty impressive. Also, I wanted to talk to you, Caleb, but there wasn’t really any reason to. You’re already really nice to Ivy and me both. I’m just glad you guys are falling in love again.”
“Gunner,” I say, reprimanding tone.
“What?” Gunner says, scratching the back of his ear with his hind leg. “I’m just telling it like it is.”
Caleb gives me a long, amused look.
“He has opinions,” I tell him.
“Of course I have opinions,” Gunner says. “I’m smarter than both of you. Why wouldn’t I?”
Caleb barks a laugh at that, and I can’t help laughing too until another tentacle slams against the lighthouse.
“Oh man,” I say. “I don’t like this.”
“How long do you think before the bread’s done?” Caleb says. He walks over to me, lacing his arm around my waist.
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “Probably 30, 45 minutes. It’s not a huge loaf. The cast iron pan isn’t heated though, so that could slow the temp. You know, I don’t think it has to be perfect though. I think that we just need to bake it.”
“And then what? Eat it?” Caleb asks.
“Maybe. Maybe that is what we do,” I say slowly.
My phone rings, and it hits me. I haven’t sent any updates to my sisters.
Oh no.
“Shit,” I say. “I forgot to tell anyone that I was here. They’re probably freaking out.”
“Well, call them now,” Caleb says. The voice of reason has always been his thing. I’m not sure how long it’s going to take me to get used to having a voice of reason again besides Gunner, but he eggs me on just as much as he reasons with me, so that’s a little bit of a different thing.
“But like, do you think the kraken could pull us into the water from the lighthouse?” I ask him. “It’s on a rock, right, Mist Point? That’s what you told me.”
“The lighthouse is safe, Ivy. You’re safe. If it can withstand decades of storms and flood waters and everything else the coast has thrown at her, I don’t think a giant magical kraken could pull us into the ocean.”
“Umm. I think that the giant magical part might make a little bit of a difference,” I say.
“Ivy, call your sisters.”
“Fine,” I say.
It doesn’t take me long at all to cross over to where my purse is thrown on the floor, and I tug my phone out only to find that it’s only got about fifteen percent battery left, which of course it does. Why would it have more battery?
“Do you have a charger?” I ask.
“Of course I have a charger,” Caleb says.
“Right, of course you do.”
Sure enough I have about six missed calls from my sisters and twenty text messages. I scroll through them pretty quickly and decide to just give up and call Rose, the one who’s called me the most.
She answers on the first ring.
“Where the hell are you? Are you safe? Are you okay? The whole downtown is flooded. Everyone’s freaking out on social media.”
“I’m fine. I’m at the lighthouse with Caleb. We tried to get Hazel’s car but we couldn’t get to it, and we turned around and went straight to the lighthouse so we could ride out the storm.”
“Well, you could have texted us,” Rose says, clearly annoyed.
“You tell her,” I hear Posey shout from the back.
“Yeah, tell her to get some—” Hazel’s voice floats through the phone and I cringe, really hoping Caleb didn’t hear that. It’s not like I have them on speakerphone, but it would still be embarrassing.
Unfortunately for both of us, though, he’s still staring at that glowing eye in the shore.