Chapter 23
Packing up Kai’s belongings had gone fast, mostly because Fian shifted to his octo-man form—or his cecaelia form as he called it—and collected things as Kai directed.
“What about clothing?” Mikano asked, looking around the room above the Jammery.
Kai leaned against the fridge and grimaced. “Burn it. It’s what he made me wear.”
“Right. We’ll pack up your consoles and games when we do our final walkthrough and check for any lingering spells.”
Fian tentacled over the couch so that he was next to Kai, a small bag and a laptop case in two of his eight arms. “I can pack your things.”
Kai leaned into the two tentacles that snaked around his middle. “Nah, let them. I’m just so tired. That hotel is sounding better and better by the minute.”
Fian looked at him with large ocean eyes. “Okay. Of course. Do you think—Kai, I’d really like to stay with you. Would that be okay?”
Mikano pulled out his phone, pretending he was reading a text or something, but Kai didn’t doubt the shark was eavesdropping.
“Yeah. I don’t want to be alone actually. And you said you wanted to show me your house.”
Mikano fake-coughed. “Carvings, Tickle.”
“Oh! Oh, yes. I will show you. And maybe a little tour as well. But let’s get you there first. Come on, Zazine is waiting.”
They were already on the stairs when Mikano said, “Don’t forget to tell the seahorse to give us a call. We want to talk to her.”
They hurried past the jams. Kai felt the urge to grab one, smash it, just because. He didn’t. I shouldn’t waste any more of my energy on this place. All those jams I made are bad enough already.
“Is Zazine going to be in trouble?” he asked when Fian opened the door for him.
“Not likely. If anything, she acted to spare you more shock than you had already experienced, and she knows my brother is an agent and that I was going to call him before long.”
“Were you?”
They were walking the few steps to Main Street, past abandoned cars whose drivers were…Kai didn’t know, but he had too vivid an imagination, especially after what had happened.
Fian looked at him. The sky behind him had turned the color of a healing bruise, beautiful but with an ache that lingered.
“Yes, but I wanted to make sure that you were fine first.” He glanced off to the side. “Now I’m not sure I succeeded.”
Kai’s gaze dropped to his feet, walking away from a place he hated. “I stopped being fine when I met Nick.”
The tentacles around Kai tightened. Fian didn’t have to say anything, and Kai was glad. He didn’t really know what to say either.
The White Anchor Inn sat close to the ocean, but further down the coast. Kai had trouble keeping his eyes open on the way there, and being wrapped in the warmth of tentacles didn’t make it any easier.
When Zazine pulled up in front of the three-story building with fairy lights strung around the porch and a big white anchor on the front lawn, Fian shifted back to his human configuration, and that roused Kai.
“We’re here. You two should get some rest,” Zazine said.
Fian nodded and picked up all of Kai’s things. “We will. I’ll make sure.”
They got off and waved goodbye to her. “See you in the Morpheusrealm,” she said and sped away into the night.
“Was that ominous?” Kai asked.
“No. Demons aren’t really ominous.”
Kai leaned against Fian’s side. “Your brother is sort of ominous.”
“Do you think so? I agree, but everyone likes him.”
Kai shrugged. “He ate people.”
“I prefer mushrooms.”
“Me too.”
They headed into the hotel, checked in, and finally got into a clean double room with an ocean view. Kai looked at the double bed, suddenly uncertain.
“I’m not sure how we do this. I’m not sure…”
Fian hugged him from behind, still human. “Nothing that you don’t want, Kai. Besides, this isn’t that kind of hotel. You’re very tired, and I’d like to show you around. I’ll take you to the Morpheusrealm from here.”
“Okay. I thought you’d have to go back out there.” He looked at the ocean that lay in the obsidian darkness, reflecting pale moonlight on every other wave.
“I can follow a dreamer too. It’s less common, and I’ve never done it, but it’s not hard.”
“Okay then.” Kai took a deep breath, once more reveling in the fact that he was free, that he could make his own decisions once again.
That he could move on from everything that had happened.
Fian rested his chin on Kai’s shoulder. “Should we—”
Kai liked him being that close, he realized, and turned. “I don’t even have a change of clothes. Or underwear.”
Fian blinked down at him. “Oh. We’ll go to the mall tomorrow.”
“And I have to build up my life again. One piece of it at a time. I don’t know if I can have someone in there just yet, but right now I feel safe with you. And I don’t want to be alone.”
Fian’s face flushed with color, blue and purple, demon colors. “I’m so glad. I just wish…” He shook his head and looked away. “I wish I’d found you sooner.”
Kai groaned. “That’s too deep for me right now. I’m going to bed.”
He stripped, not daring to meet Fian’s eyes, though Fian had seen him almost naked before in the changing room. Then he slid under the covers. He didn’t dare look at Fian.
The demon closed the curtains, stripped as well. He walked around the bed so he was facing Kai, his tentacles out.
“Can I come under the sheets with you?”
Kai scooted back. “Yeah.”
In an almost comical way, the tentacles made the sheets and duvet bulge. That’s cute, Kai thought, and before long, he lay there giggling.
“What?” Fian asked.
“It’s just all your tentacles. I think the bed is too small for you.”
“Small is good. I can fit in small spaces. Can I hold you? I’ll be gentle.”
“Okay.”
Several tentacles came for Kai under the sheets, winding around his ankles and legs, his waist and arms, and when Fian pulled him closer, he even managed to get one around Kai’s shoulders so that Kai was bedded on it.
“Is that okay?”
“You burrito wrapped me.”
Fian went red and brown and pink. “Well…”
“It’s fine. Can you get the lights?”
Fian hit the switch with his hand, and once the room was dark, Kai drifted off fast. He felt safe, tentacle-wrapped as he was.
Kai dreamed of flying through a starry sky, wildly beautiful, colors flashing and twisting into dazzling maelstroms.
“Do you like it?”
He turned, and on his right, chest bare and all his tentacles out, was Fian. He had one tentacle wound around Kai’s hand.
“It’s gorgeous. And we’re flying. What is this?”
On their left, the moon came into view, but it was larger than the real thing, so large in fact that Kai could spot people on there, small as ants.
“We call this the Sky Park. I think the name is bland, but I like the place.” Fian twisted and coiled his tentacles in the air. “And we’re not flying as such. We call this controlled falling. Which means we’ll land soon.”
“Falling?” Kai looked around, tearing his eyes off the neon sky.
Below, there was the ocean, much like the ocean he knew. He saw the beach, and then they hit a cloud, slightly moist and cool, feathery soft against his hands.
“Don’t be scared, we’ll be through it soon.” Fian was just a shape in the cottony white, but his tentacle still clasped Kai’s hand.
“I’m not scared. This is kind of nice. Oh!”
They sailed through the bottom of the cloud, the ground now closer. There were lights there, bright and strobing. Kai spotted several tents, like circus tents, a roller coaster, and overlooking the ocean, a large Ferris wheel.
“That’s the Carnival. It’s where I’m taking you.”
Fian had smile lines around his eyes, and the tentacle part of him was bluish blacks and purples, a few pink spots. Just like underwater, his chest was gorgeous.
Kai looked at himself, but he was dressed in the clothes they’d bought at the mall.
“Thank fuck I’m not naked.”
Fian giggled. “I made sure of that. I thought you’d prefer this to something made from seashells. Less friction, less opportunity to pinch anything that’s sensitive.”
“Thank you for that. Uh, we’re getting sort of close to the ground. Are we going faster?”
The air was blowing Fian’s locks into his forehead, and he reached for Kai with another tentacle. “We are, but that’s normal. It’s part of braking.”
“I thought the ground was part of braking? Speeding up usually isn’t.” Kai could see people now, could see their faces. Some of them looked normal, like him, others had fish faces, fish bodies, and scales of underwater beings. It was fantastical and colorful.
“It is, but—do you see that bubble?”
Fian pointed to their left where an oversized soap bubble floated through the air.
“Yeah.”
“Good. Let’s try catching it. I’ll give you a boost.”
Two more tentacles wound around Kai’s middle, and before Kai could reconsider, Fian flung him toward the bubble, which shimmered like a raindrop in the sun.
Kai squeed as he spun through the air like an astronaut might through space. He managed to keep the bubble in sight and adjust his trajectory so that he got both his arms onto the surface, then his legs.
The bubble didn’t implode but stayed stable. It was slippery though, like a soapy tile floor, and holding on meant spinning, slipping, head over heels. It was the best fun Kai had ever had in a dream.
“This is amazing!”
“Glad you think so.”
Dark tentacles reached the bubble, and while two caught on to Kai as well, this only meant that Fian and he were both slipping and sliding over the bubble’s surface.
At one point, Kai saw Fian’s face, smiling as he was but distorted by the bubble between them. He waved, and Fian’s tentacles flexed, coiling and uncoiling, a tentacle greeting.
Moments later, their bubble burst.
Kai screamed, and Fian tentacle-wrapped him as they fell, spinning through the air.
Their fall was broken by something fluffy and white, like a mountain of feathers but not.
“What is that?”
Fian’s tentacles were all over Kai as they sat up. “It’s a cotton candy cushion. Here, taste it.”
He wrapped the tip of a tentacle around some of the cotton candy and held it up to Kai’s mouth. Kai opted for pulling out a few strands of the stuff with his fingers before tasting it.
It was cotton candy all right, achingly sweet as it melted in Kai’s mouth. “Sugary.”
Fian looked pleased. “The Carnival is fun to explore I suppose.”
“Can we? Explore?”
Fian turned first light blue, then a darker hue. “If you want. But I thought maybe I could take you to my house? Just for a short while. Show you the place.”
“Oh, right. But we can come back here? I really want to check this place out. It’s like the strangest video game. And I want to fly again! Excuse me, I want to fall again.”
Fian nodded. “We can do all of that tomorrow night. The quickest way to my home is a short swim. Are you up for that?”
“Can I drown?”
Fian chuckled. “As if I’d let you drown, Kai.”