Kylian by Ann Gimpel

Author:Ann Gimpel [Gimpel, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Ann Gimpel Books, LLC

11

Seeing Ione and the Kraken like that warmed me. Once the Kraken had been respected and feared. If I had anything to say about it, he’d roam the seas again as a free monster, not anyone’s lackey. Aidyrth scudded in for a landing. She’d barely quit moving when Jake, Shira, and Arrow jumped from her back. We all converged on the Kraken and my bondmate.

Ione stretched out all four paws in the way cats do and sauntered toward me. “Demons have been making his life miserable,” he announced.

Scarcely surprising news, but my ears perked up at the opportunity to gain information. “How many? And what manner of demon operates freely underwater?”

“Beisht Kione, Charybdis, Leviathans.” Ione grimaced and shook himself. Not much unnerves him, but letting wicked names roll off your tongue has that effect.

Those weren’t demons in that they didn’t answer to Satan in any universe I was aware of, but they were definitely monsters. I strode to the Kraken. He’d craned his neck around, keeping both red eyes trained on all of us. He trusted Ione but had no reason to extend that fragile confidence to our group.

I met the creature’s direct gaze. “All sea monsters pass through here from time to time. What is different now?”

The Kraken opened his enormous mouth and roared. The noise stopped the rush of the incoming surf for a moment. “What’s different you ask?” He mimicked my inflection. “They’re after me is what’s different. I was on my way to the Arctic Ocean when Ione found me.”

“Why is it safer there?” Aidyrth joined the conversation.

“Too cold for them.”

“But not for you?” she persisted.

“I don’t like it, either, but I like being pursued even less.”

I narrowed my eyes in thought. “If Poseidon is dead, will they leave you alone?”

His scales rattled against each other as he shrugged. I tried to make sense of what I knew. Poseidon had never been chummy with anyone except the Kraken, and that relationship had only survived because of its one-sided nature. None of the abominations Ione had listed would bow and scrape to anyone. So Poseidon had no use for them.

Why were they doing his bidding now?

“What?” Mother jabbed me in the side.

“None of this makes sense.” I added my quick-and-dirty assessment of hierarchies in the sea, the one I’d just sketched out in my mind.

Aidyrth positioned herself so she was in front of the Kraken. He unkinked his neck to eye her as she asked, “Will Charybdis and the others be near the dungeons?”

A quick head shake with more rattling scales.

“Any idea why they’re after you?”

“Because of Poseidon.”

“They never liked him,” I cut in. “No one did, so why would they be stalking you, the one who moved his game piece off the table?”

“Let me see what I can do,” Tessa said. She’d moved next to me without me noticing. When I glanced her way, her eyes shaded to bronze for a brief moment.

“You’re not going alone,” I told her.

“Aye, I am.” She started for the sea.

Aidyrth grabbed her forearm with a talon.

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