Page 36 of The Dark Sea Calls

Just as a red tentacle wrapped around his middle and pulled him into the darkness with a scream.

Chapter 8

“Kraken!” I screamed, pushing away from the surface, racing after the tentacle, and praying it didn’t disappear into the darkness.

Rainn took out his knife and began sawing at the appendage, but the Kraken whacked Rainn’s body against the edge of the fissure, causing his knife to drop down into the crevice. Rainn screamed my name as he begged me to run.

“You said that we could be here!” I shouted. “You promised not to harm us!”

The Kraken chuckled.

I loosened another scream, putting all my emotions into the high-pitched sound. All of the raw pain and fear I had collected and locked away in the chambers of my body. I was not powerless. Even if I didn’t have grand magic like the Troid or Òran Sídhe—unable to weave spells into thread or strength enough to take on a hundred Fae without breaking a sweat.

I had my way with the water.

Though the dark sea was unfamiliar, it reluctantly rose to do my bidding. The water gathered in a funnel, wrapping around my scream and punching the tentacle, leaving a cloud of blood.

Rainn rushed forward, swimming as fast as he could.

“Change forms!” I shouted, unsure if he could hear me against the Kraken’s shrieks of pain. “Change!”

Rainn ignored me and continued towards me just as another tentacle reached out for the Selkie.

I growled in frustration, flinging my hand out, using the water like another limb as I knocked the tentacle away.

Though the tentacle didn’t grab onto Rainn, it whacked him in the middle and knocked him further into the darkness like a child playing ball. I knew Rainn was a fast swimmer, but I didn’t know if he was conscious. I couldn’t leave him.

Ducking and weaving through the red tentacles, I couldn’t see much in the darkness. I searched for a flash of silver, either Rainn’s hair or his seal form, but I found neither.

Swimming deeper, I continued down down down, through the crevice. The fissure walls grew closer as the water grew colder. Every inch of my skin began to sting like I was being pricked with a million needles. Frantically searching the rocks for any sign of Rainn.

I couldn’t breathe. Consumed by panic that I couldn’t even begin to understand.

I didn’t dare scream his name in case the Kraken pried the fissure apart like a clam to eat us both. Finally, I spotted him. A flash of pale white flesh against the rocks, propped up on a jutting ledge. His eyes closed, and his head was at an angle that didn’t bode well for either of us.

I rushed to Rainn’s side, grabbing his face and slapping his cheeks as I urged him to wake up.

Above us, the scant light from the opening of the crack blinked as the Kraken cast its shadow and retreated into its home.

Where both of us were trapped, cold, in the dark.

There was nowhere to go. The Kraken was so gigantic that it seemed to coat the chasm like an ooze. Taking up any space it had been given with its meaty tendrils and the eerie sound of its suckers as they kissed the water, tasting it as the blind beast searched for us.

“Rainn,” I pleaded. “You have to wake up.”

The booming voice in my skull was strangely compelling, even with its faulty logic, and I felt the press of its heavy and ancient magic on my skull. Clouding my thoughts with its compulsion. It took every reserve of strength to shake off the Kraken’s spell.

Its tentacles stretched around us, moving stealthily in the darkness like single-minded predators. I wrapped my arms around Rainn, trying to shield him.

Arden had mentioned that being eaten by the Kraken was a fate worse than death.

I had no intention of letting the beast get its beak around my Selkie.

I had spent too much energy too quickly. My way with the water only went so far, and my muscles burned too heavy to even lift my arms. I didn’t think I could swim to the surface, let alone avoid the thrashing tentacles. Not considering that Rainn was not waking, I would have to carry him too.

I didn’t know how far the chasm went. Deep into the Aos Sí’s crust and the dirt, a place where no creature could live. Maybe I could hide in the darkness, find a hidden cave further down, and bide my time until my energy returned. Find something to attach Rainn’s heavy body to my back and climb to the surface on the sheer ledge on either side.

---