Page 30 of The Kraken Games

He stood abruptly, flexing his tentacles, ignoring yet another spasm in those two bastards.

Shen raised an eyebrow. “Where are you going?”

“Out. I need to go for a walk, get used to this land-based shit.”

Shen still looked at him oddly. “Don’t get yourself into trouble.”

Kai shook his head. “I’m not Acha, remember?”

No, he’d already fucked up more spectacularly than Acha.

And the games hadn’t even begun.

CHAPTER 9

Kai strode across the river bridge that linked the marshes to the docklands and through the busy quayside precinct, ignoring the nudges, the heckling and wolf whistles, before remembering he was supposed to play to it all. He switched on the charm, the smiles, took the notepads and pieces of torn paper and autographed them. Posed for a photo or two.

“My cousin is going to beat ya,” grinned a burly minotaur. “Nils will take you down, mate. Purple Lantern district team.”

“His fat bovine hooves will get stuck in the mud in the first minute.” Kai grinned back. It was all good-natured banter, all for show.

Pose. Pose. Pose.

Act. Act. Act.

Finally, the group thinned out.

A goblin still lagged behind, wanting to chat. “I ain’t in a hurry to go back to my shit job,” he muttered. “Treat you like dogs in that fucking warehouse.”

Kai’s ears pricked. “I don’t suppose you know a human who works around here. Woman. Does warehouse packing.”

“Why d’you ask?”

“Ah—just… I spoke to her the other day at Sweet Clams, she wanted my autograph.”

“That’d be Luna. But she wouldn’t think highly enough of anyone to want their autograph.”

Yeah,thought Kai,that fit.

“Maybe she wanted it for a friend,” he said. “But she didn’t have paper, so I said I’d do it next time I saw her.”

His companion laughed. “Well, apart from Marrick and Harper, she don’t have no friends either.”

Her soft moans and cries came back to Kai and his breath stuttered in his throat. What they’d shared was a hell of a lot more than friendship.

Pull yourself together.

“Come with me, I’ll show you,” the goblin said. “It’ll make me popular, rolling up with the kraken contestant.”

When they got inside someone shouted at the goblin to get his lazy ass back to work and he speared off with a thumb over his shoulder. “You’ll find her in zone D.”

Kai made his way toward the D sign, dodging a lifter as he walked. Gods they moved this shit around fast.Somuch shit. Stuff that humans were sending out in ships. Ships that avoided the kraken waters, but for how much longer? And all of this industry dropped pollution into the ocean. It had taken years to clean up Thedaka from the muck that spread out from East Motham these past two centuries. Only in the last decade had it started to return to the grandeur of old, its structures gleaming once more, its coral and plant life rejuvenating.

He was crazy to be seeking out a human, after the animosity of centuries between their species.

“What you want mate?” a burly centaur asked as he shifted crates.

Kai took a deep breath. “Is Luna around?”

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