Chapter 21 The Slumbering Behemoth
The slumbering behemoth.
“Have you noticed? The old gods are slowing down. During the Rise, they used to destroy entire cities in a day. They used to set the sky on fire or upheave entire islands. They spelled the end of countries and armies. And yet now, almost twenty-five years later, they spend most days roaming continents or oceans. Some of them even appear to slumber for longer periods of time. Is it because they have vanquished their enemies and lack stimulation? Or are they getting ready for their long rest once again? One can hope. It might be just wishful thinking from me.”
STELLAN
Rage and sorrow overtakes me as I realize Alastair is dead. No one can come back from that, not even a mutant. His arm fell on the rocks, along with a good part of his shoulder and chest. The hand twitches, the nerves still fighting death.
Perri whines with such anguish, I want to burn the world down. He drops to his knees just as the zealots leader brandishes his blade again. Vex throws herself between Perri and the revenant, and the blow glances off her artificial body. I empty my gun—three bullets—in the enemy’s body.
He grunts and recoils, but then laughs like a mad man. “Oh please. You cannot stop me with your cursed weapons. I am a demigod.” His eyes are fully black now.
A mutant, I realize. We’re facing one of Alastair’s brothers.
Alastair… He’s dead. He’s fucking dead. Just when we…
When I was starting to accept him—to love him.
It was hard, letting someone in after so many years of sharing my heart only with Perri.
I thought I had no more love to spare. Turns out I still have so much to give to the man with pale eyes and a smile to die for.
Love isn’t something that can be quantified, limited, controlled…
It’s wild and unpredictable, just like him, and I fell for the whims of love.
But now he’s been taken from us.
I can feel the rage twist my features. I want to tear this mutant apart like an animal.
Perri rolls away from the altar, his coat catching on the rocks, and he raises the shotgun and shoots as soon as Vex gets out of the way.
A good part of the mutant’s thigh explodes under impact, and he growls. “You miserable humans! You’ll witness the wrath of the new world!” He uses the stone altar to stay upright.
Perri pulls the trigger again, but nothing happens. He’s out, too.
Vex places herself in front of the cultist once again, arms raised, but she doesn’t attack.
Perri told me her programming stops her from hurting humans, but it doesn’t prevent her from trying to protect us.
In the sea of anguish and rage I’m drowning in, I can feel a breath of affection for the robot.
The mutant backhands her and she falls on the rocks without making a sound.
I throw my empty gun and pull out my serrated knife with one swift motion. Time to end this and avenge my king. I launch myself at the mutant and bury my weapon in his gut.
He laughs. “It’ll take more than this to kill me.” He grunts and tries to bite my ear off.
I pull my knife out and bury it again between his ribs. The smile finally drops from his inhuman face. His brown hair is splattered on his temple with seawater and his clothes are in tatters from Perri’s gunshot.
I spit in his face. “Go to hell.”
He growls. “Hell’s doors are closed to me and my reign is here, with the other gods.”
Fuck, he’s batshit crazy.
I pull my knife out again to stab him one more time, but he blocks my next attack. He twists my wrist, and pain explodes in my entire arm. I drop my weapon. He grabs me by the throat and pushes me down to the altar. My head and back hit the stone.
Perri screams and jumps on his back, trying to strangle him from behind with the shotgun.
The mutant raises his deadly blade.
That’s it, he’ll cut me down like he cut Alastair.
Perri… I want to say, run… But the asshole is crushing my windpipe with an iron grip. Perri’s still trying to strangle him in turn.
My vision blurs but I see a creature rising from the waves behind them. A monster with dark skin, white hair, and blue tentacles writhing where his left side used to be. His pale eyes are wide and terrifying.
A monster rising from the abyss to enact vengeance.
“Take your hands off what’s mine,” he says in a deep, distorted voice.
The cultist finally lets me go to look behind him, fear, at last, registering on his inhuman face. “You…”
Alastair pries Perri off the mutant’s back with surprising care, his tentacles wrapping around his arm, before pushing him behind him. Perri is sobbing. I think I am, too.
The zealot tries to bring his blade down again, but the monster is faster.
Alastair’s tentacles stop the weapon, and he gets a hold of the mutant’s head with his remaining human hand.
With the help of his blue tentacles, he rips his head clean off his shoulders, tendons and skin tearing with a disgusting sound.
This mutant’s blood is red. I wonder which lab he was born in, and what kind of life led him here, to build a temple by the sea and worship the old gods.
Was he the one who started this mad cult, or did he grow up in the shadow of someone who molded him into what he became? We’ll never know, nor do I care to ask.
I watch with fear and fascination as the headless body falls at my feet. The King looks in the eyes of his dead brother one last time before throwing his head into the waves.
Try coming back from that, I think.
Then Alastair turns towards Perri, then to me. He looks… strange. Just like he was on the beach last week, when he hunted me down on the sand. But he’s still the Alastair that we love. I don’t fear or hate this version of him.
I reach for him with a shaky hand just as Perri reaches my side. My face is wet, from brine or tears, I don’t know. Alastair sighs deeply, and at last he gathers us swiftly in his arm and tentacles. We find ourselves smothered against his cold chest. He breathes us in and growls.
“We’re fine,” Perri sobs. “We’re fine.”
I wrap my arms around both of them and squeeze. I wish I’d never have to let go.
When I open my eyes briefly, I see Vex over Perri’s shoulder.
She’s watching us with a smile, and I gesture for her to come closer.
“Thank you,” I whisper. Perri was right, she deserved to be saved.
When we get back to the Traveling Market, I’ll make sure to change her programming so that she can be as free as any of us to fight for what—or whom—she loves.
Alastair’s body is vibrating, and the tentacles on his left side are writhing. They feel unsubstantial, crudely made of regrowing skin and blood. His mutations are mind-boggling.
“Are you okay?” Perri asks him, face still squished against his chest.
Alastair’s voice is deeper than usual, and he takes time to answer, as if the human part of him he’s fighting to take back control. “Yes. I’ll heal and regrow my arm.” He buries his nose in Perri’s hair.
I pull away just enough to bring my face close to his and kiss him softly. He groans and kisses me back after a heartbeat. Fuck, why did I ever resist this man? What was the point? I don’t remember.
“Excuse me,” Vex says by our side. “I think we might have a problem.”
The three of us detangle immediately, adrenaline still coursing through our bodies. Have the other cultists reached the island?
But Vex is pointing towards the ocean. At first, I don’t know what to look at, but then I see it. The inlets surrounding us are moving.
What the—?
“Holy shit,” Perri whispers.
The pale rocks move and rise from the water.
“Is that an old god?” Vex asks naively, just as what appears to be the tip of a giant gray tentacle emerges from the water.
“The Kraken,” Alastair says.
I curse. “You have to be kidding me.”
All this time, the Kraken was slumbering in the sea surrounding us. That’s why the cultists built their temple on this island and why they brought the sacrifices here. It wasn’t just for show.
“Shit, shit, shit…” Perri chants. “What do we do? He’s waking up.”
Alastair watches the old god, transfixed. “Our blood in the water must have woken him.”
The giant tentacles are the only parts of him we can see, and I shudder just thinking about his body hiding in the depths.
My mind is racing. How can we escape the island? Taking the boat might be too dangerous. I’d rather not offer ourselves on a platter for the Kraken. But staying isn’t a good idea, either. The island isn’t big enough to keep us out of reach from the old god if he goes on a rampage.
I’m spared the dilemma when the Firefly appears in the sky above us, his mirror panels reflecting the white sky. It hovers a few feet off the ground, snowflakes whipped in the air, as the door slides open.
“Get in, assholes!” Jude roars. “Hurry!” He throws a fearful glance at the giant tentacles rising from the sea behind us.
Oliver offers me a hand to pull me inside, followed by Alastair, who is too far gone to realize he’s accepting help from his mutant brother.
Vex jumps on board easily, and she helps Perri up.
As soon as we’re all inside the Firefly, Jude closes the door and we’re off.
I let out a shaky breath as we put distance between us and the old god.
“Fuck, they messed you up alright,” Jude says, looking at Alastair’s regrowing left side. “Kinda creepy but awesome.”
I glare at him and put myself between him and my king. “Observant as ever.”
Jude laughs. “What can I say? I’m as sharp as a blade,” he jokes. “Where should we take you?”
“We left the truck along the coast south of here,” Perri says. “Can you take us there?”
“Of course. Any wounds need tending urgently?” He eyes us all.
Beyond a few scrapes, Perri and I are fine. Alastair is struggling but I doubt a first aid kit will do anything for his regrowing limb.
I shake my head. “We’re good.”