Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Observe the tide before you speak.
–An Incomplete Guide to Kraken Survival
Sebastian’s scent saturated my entire being. Cool night air after summer rain, with hints of smoky amber and aged driftwood. Today, though, there was a new, headier note.
I inhaled deeply, my head fogging. Was that… spiced wine?
We sat side-by-side in the armored sedan once again, only this time we were more than strangers. We’d won a dance contest, attended a class together. Touched. Now, I knew him in ways I hadn’t before.
Neither of us had spoken since leaving Lady Harpa. Her words still circled. Sebastian will do what he must, no matter the cost.
I could have asked him about that cost now, in the quiet of the car, but he’d just shown me his hand.
He lived only for Jokull’s death. That kind of man wouldn’t flinch from paying any price; his grandmother was right about that.
And he’d already declined to explain the specifics.
I could ask again, but he wouldn’t answer.
He was a puzzle. A man who might be mine.
He’d lost his parents and defeated a monster, yet unabashedly adored his grandmother.
He called me his princess but viewed love as a weakness.
Drew me close while keeping the most important parts of himself locked away.
And currently, his side was pressed into mine.
I tried to focus anywhere but him.
The car. Dark leather upholstery stitched with subtle silver thread.
Tinted windows sealed us off from the driver and the world beyond as the vehicle motored on with sleek grace.
I tried, and I failed, still teetering between wanting to hug the boy he’d been, nuzzle against the loving family man he was, and shake the cold-hearted legend who never kept a woman.
Reset time. Once again, I redirected my attention. Terrain whizzed by. Through the glass, I glimpsed warriors training along miles of palace land. Kraken berserkers sparring in disciplined formations, spears and tridents flashing, bodies moving with brutal precision.
A wave slammed against the dome, shaking even the vehicle, and I gripped the seat. “Jokull?”
“You do not need to fear,” Sebastian assured me. Yet tension radiated from him.
Oh, ja. The primordial approached.
“My soldiers are causing him problems, just as we discussed, and he’s… reacting.”
“Should we go and help them?” I asked, ready and willing to aid him however necessary.
“Until the rune is awakened, we keep our distance from him.” He stared straight ahead.
Noted. “Where are we headed?”
“That’s a discussion best had when we’re nearer our destination.”
Oookay. The car turned a corner, a thriving metropolis coming into view. I scanned, hoping to discover clues. While looking, I kept the conversation going. “Your grandmother is… interesting.”
He shifted closer to me, almost smiling. “She’s one of our most celebrated warriors. As brilliant as she is infuriating.”
Reminded me of Adelaide. I shifted closer to him, too. “We discussed you.”
His irises glittered. “I’m aware. She told you what she knew about my parents, I’m sure,” he said.
“Ja.” No reason to deny it.
“So.” One of his brows winged up. “Tell me about yours.”
Inward flinch. Not a story I usually shared. I always preferred to give only the surface details. Those with no trauma attached. “I’m one of ten daughters, and I’m smack-dab in the middle at five.”
“Ah. So you are the one who balances the scale. Who listens to both sides and facilitates peace.” Sebastian reached out to pinch a lock of my hair between two of his fingers, tickling my scalp.
So he’d expertly described me. So what?
“A female countless berserkers long to call theirs,” he said, his voice low.
A hot blush seared my cheeks. “I’m interested in only one berserker longing to call me his,” I told him. Then I cleared my throat because I’d revealed more than I’d meant.
His expression turned pensive. “I’m surprised you want a firebrand, considering what your father did to your mother.”
So he knew the worst of my family secrets. The memory I still shied away from. “Cedric was our primordial, and ja, he murdered my mother to be with his firebrand. But that only proves his lack of character, not the merits of the firebrand bond.”
Sebastian searched my face for a long while before smoothing the lock of hair behind my ear. His fingers lingered there, so soft, so gentle. “But you loved your parents, both of them. That kind of loss cuts deep and forever.”
The understanding swimming in his eyes threatened to undo me. Because in that moment, I didn’t feel as if I stood in the memory alone. He was right there with me.
“It really does,” I said softly.
His knuckles traced my jawline as he eased back. As soon as contact ended, he turned to peer out the window. “Our destination approaches.” He drew in a breath. “We are to meet with Jon, the kraken-shifter king.”
Oh, wow, my first encounter with his ally and former enemy. “Just so
I understand. I’m here as your consort, proving you’ve got skin in the game?”
“Exactly right.” He offered a wry smile. “Your job is to peer at me as if I’m the most fascinating creature in existence—já, just like that—and I,” he leaned closer to brush the tip of his nose against mine, “will sometimes pretend not to notice.”
He’d brought out the big gun: his playful side. Unable to rally the strength to resist, I purred, “Bastian? If you can go five seconds without smoldering at me, it will be a miracle.”
Chuckling, he gave my chin a gentle tap. “After our meeting with the shifter king, I intend to take you on a date. I want to give you the full consort experience before things get... not fun.”
Cue my brain blipping. Full consort experience? That explained the tuxedo. But first things first. “I’m guessing some of the not so fun stuff starts now.”
He settled more comfortably into the seat. “Recently, the primordial sent his calling card. An entire horde of shifters slaughtered. Their corpses were delivered to Jon. That’s the only reason he’s willing to work with me.”
The horrors, stated so matter-of-factly, hit harder somehow. “The primordial must be stopped.”
“And we will stop him.” Staring straight ahead, Sebastian gripped his knee. His breathing deepened. “Before our meeting with Jon, there’s something I wish to show you.”
To cause such a strong reaction…
What could it be?
He tugged at the index finger of his glove. “You know Jokull held me prisoner. What you do not know is what happened during my imprisonment.”
He pulled at the middle finger next. “There’s a long list of…”
Ring finger.
“...tortures he inflicted upon me.”
The material over his outermost finger flapped slightly before he yanked at it, tugging the glove off all the way.
“He made me watch as he ate my pinky.”
The air grew heavy and warm. The windows inched closer and the roof lower, as if the car shrank around us. Even the hum of the engine felt intrusive.
Sebastian held up his now gloveless hand, revealing the missing finger.
I flattened my palm over my tightening chest. Oh, Sebastian. This wasn’t just a wound, but a reminder of the primordial. A reminder the kraken king carried every day after his escape.
He stuffed his hand into the glove, stiffer than he’d been moments before. “I hadn’t yet reached the age of immortality, so I didn’t regenerate the appendage.”
Poor Sebastian. When immortality locked, it locked you as you were.
“He ate the digit to taunt me. Dessert after enjoying my father. And that’s all I’ll say on the subject,” he said, his lips a grim line.
I swallowed. “Why tell me now?”
“So you won’t be lost when Jon insults me.”
The kraken king had suffered more than I could ever have fathomed. Ja, I’d signed on for this mission mostly for the reward, but now…
Now, my dragon stirred. Jokull must die screaming. How dare he do this? And how dare the shifter think to taunt Sebastian?
Every time he looked upon his hand, he must relive everything that happened, and something in me needed to replace that memory with something else.
Desperate to touch him, I slid into him, almost draping myself over his frame, and plucked the glove free. He didn’t try to stop me, just watched, brow furrowed, as if he couldn’t figure out what I was doing.
I linked our fingers, saying, “We need to get you used to my touch.”
A heartbeat of silence. The tension in his shoulders eased. He gave a gravelly, “Já. Very smart.”
He peered at me. I peered at him. The air thickened.
Tightening his grip, he turned his head to gaze out the window again.
The king allowed me to hold his hand the rest of the drive, not severing contact until the car stopped.
And then he only let me go long enough to don the glove before immediately reclaiming my hand.
He didn’t release me when the driver came around and opened his door.
Not even as he emerged and helped me out.
Not even as I wrinkled my nose at the smell. Rust, salt, and old blood.
Nein, he used our handhold to tug me closer and urge me to bury my face in the hollow of his neck.
I breathed him in, everything else blocked as he walked us to a different warehouse than before.
Once I centered, I forced myself to focus forward.
This warehouse squatted at the edge of the district, an enormous structure made of dark steel and reinforced stone, its walls streaked with salt corrosion and scorch marks.
Floodlights mounted along the roofline cast harsh white beams across the yard, illuminating armed guards stationed at regular intervals, spears at the ready.
No banners. No royal markings. Only function and force.
Those men. Shifters, all. Glowing white ringed their irises, and any visible skin possessed a bioluminescent sheen. But most telling? They were double the size of kraken berserkers, as if their bodies could not contain their beasts, so they stretched to accommodate.