Stop Kracken About (Magic and Mayhem Universe: The Kracken’s of Krackens Hole #2)

Chapter 1

The rock was still warm from the day’s sun, even as evening crept in and painted the sky in soft bruises of purple and gold.

Edith curled her tail tighter around her feet and adjusted her wings, tucking them neatly against her small, scaled body.

The sea stretched endlessly before her, restless and glittering, tiny waves rolling into the cove of Krakens Hole with a rhythm that felt almost like breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

She matched it without thinking.

A salty breeze brushed over her snout, carrying the scent of seaweed, distant storms, and something older, something that hummed in her bones in a way she couldn’t quite explain.

She tilted her head, watching a particularly large wave crash against the rocks below, sending a spray of foam high into the air.

“Show-off,” she muttered under her breath. But her heart wasn’t in it tonight. Because she shouldn’t have been thinking about her past. She had been doing so well.

Truly… she had tucked it away, folded it neatly into a corner of her mind labelled Do Not Touch Under Any Circumstances, and for the most part, she’d left it there.

Until the bar. Edith’s claws tightened against the stone. The memory rose again, harsh and unwelcome.

The low hum of conversation. The clink of glasses. Binky laughing at something ridiculous, probably at Bas pretending not to enjoy the revelry, if Edith were being honest. And then the door had opened.

Cold air. Two figures had walked in, both hooded, and their presence felt wrong… but also a tinge of recognition hit her. It wasn’t them as beings but their aura, like a signature that preceded them.

Edith’s stomach had dropped so fast she’d been surprised she hadn’t physically toppled off the table. She hadn’t needed to see their faces. Hadn’t needed to hear them speak. Some things you just… knew.

The way they moved; too precise, too controlled. The way the room seemed to shift around them without anyone quite noticing why. Twin shadows. Twin hunters.

The kind you didn’t mistake. The kind you didn’t forget.

Edith swallowed hard, her throat tight, even now.

She had ducked her head immediately, forcing herself still, willing herself to be nothing more than what everyone believed she was. A small, unremarkable dragon with no secrets worth chasing.

She hadn’t looked again. Couldn’t. Because if she had, if she had confirmed it. She wasn’t sure she would have been able to stop herself from running.

Even now, perched safely on her rock, miles from that moment, the fear sat low and heavy in her chest.

“There are only a few reasons they’d be here,” she murmured, her voice barely carried by the wind. And none of those reasons were good.

Edith exhaled slowly, a faint curl of lavender-tinted smoke slipping from her nostrils.

“They wouldn’t come for nothing.” They never did. Which meant…

Her claws scraped faintly against the rock.

“No,” she said quickly, shaking her head as if she could physically dislodge the thought. “No, it could be coincidence. It could…”

It wasn’t. She knew it wasn’t. Her luck wasn't that perfect.

Hunters like that didn’t wander into places like Krakens Hole by accident. And they certainly didn’t do it together unless the job mattered. Unless the target mattered.

Her.

The word echoed, cold and unwelcome. Edith squeezed her eyes shut.

You can’t stay like this forever.

Her claws tightened. “Yes, I can,” she whispered fiercely. “I absolutely can.”

The sea, as always, offered no opinion. Her gaze softened as she stared out at the horizon, but the calm didn’t quite reach her chest anymore. Not now. Not after tonight. Because the past she had so carefully buried… had just walked through the front door.

Suddenly, all the reasons she had run… all the reasons she had hidden… all the reasons she had chosen to stay small came rushing back. She hadn’t always been small. Hadn’t always been this.

The image came unbidden; towering cliffs carved with ancient markings, the heavy scent of smoke and iron, the echo of wings beating across a sky that belonged to dragons and dragons alone.

Home. No. Not home, it had never felt like home… more like a prison. Her tail flicked to the side as she remembered her father’s voice, cold and immovable.

“It is decided.”

A marriage. An alliance. Pretty much a cage that had been dressed up so beautifully as duty.

Her mother, silent beside him, offering nothing but approval, not that she ever did anything else. She lived and breathed for my father’s approval.

Edith’s chest tightened, fear threading through the memory. She had been trapped, been given zero choice, so she had decided to run.

The memory surged within her, wind, panic, freedom, terror, all tangled together as she fled into the unknown, choosing anything over the life they had planned for her.

And she had ran and hid, then decided to shift and instead of her usual form, she had made herself invisible… small and forgettable.

It had worked for a while, at least. Just long enough to find Jessica, and long enough to build something new. Something real. A real home with people that loved her for her and not the bloodline she could provide.

Her gaze flicked toward the distant lights of Krakens Hole, just beginning to glow against the darkening sky. Her home… the word still felt fragile. Precious and yet dangerous.

Because now… now there were hunters in her town. And they knew how to find what was hidden. Edith curled in slightly, her wings pulling in close.

If they’re here for me…

The thought didn’t finish. It didn’t need to. Because she knew exactly what it meant.

Not just for her, but for everyone she cared about. A faint tremor ran through her and made her tremble slightly.

“I’m not going back,” she whispered, the words steady even as fear coiled tighter in her chest. “I’m not,” she repeated with more strength in her tone. As if in response, the waves seemed to crash against the shore a little louder.

She would not return to them. And definitely not to that life.

But staying came with its own cons… staying wouldn’t be as simple as she wanted it to be.

Another wave crashed against the rocks, even louder now, as if echoing the storm building inside her, the tide turning and the wind picking up. Edith lifted her head, eyes narrowing slightly as something new settled beneath the fear.

Resolve.

“They don’t get to take this from me,” she said quietly, steel behind her words.

Not this place, nor these people, and definitely not the life she had chosen.

Her tail flicked once, sharp and decisive. But even as determination steadied her, the fear didn’t leave. Because she knew those hunters, she had briefly seen them do other jobs for her father, and she knew what they were capable of.

And if they had come all this way… they most certainly wouldn’t leave empty handed.

Edith took one last look at the sea before pushing herself to her feet.

“Right,” she muttered, forcing a lighter tone that didn’t quite reach her chest. “No point sitting out here dramatically brooding while potential doom lurks in the pub.” A pause. “That sounded worse out loud.”

With a small huff, she turned toward the path leading back to Krakens Hollow, the warm glow of lights pulling her forward.

Toward safety. Toward whatever came next.

And this time… she couldn’t pretend the past wasn’t coming for her.