Chapter 72
July
The fish smacked the lower half of his body against rock once more to be sure the…thing…that had burrowed inside him was dead. It should have been dead when he’d pulped the body against a rock, but he’d felt its head continue to gnaw and burrow, gnaw and burrow.
No way for him to explore Susurration Sound while those things were migrating back to the sea.
And no way for him to get to the sea. He couldn’t seem to adapt to salt water, and the passage called Dead Water didn’t have enough fresh water over the salt to keep him safe from ships coming from and going to the Fate River.
So he swam in the river, and he attacked fishing lines whenever he could and avoided nets that might tangle him up.
And he remembered he just needed to get through this change of seasons, just needed to get through the summer.
After that, he would be who he had been.
Reg…Reginald Hamp…ton. Yes. Reginald Hampton III.
Once he was back on land and in control of his life again, he would send the Arcana, his fuck-up brother, and everyone else who was an inconvenience to roast with the devil.