Page 34 of The Kraken Games

And she had another advantage. The photos of those damaged tentacles. “Marrick, I—have to tell you something…”

“Yeah?”

“Er…” She stalled, unable to bring herself to do it. Finally, she shrugged and muttered, “Just, you know, I don’t say thank you often enough. But thank you. For all your help. For believing in me,” she finished gruffly.

“Don’t go soft on me, moon girl.” Marrick laughed.

After they’d washed off in the clearer water upstream, and put their clothes back on, Harper and Noah came bounding over. Harper hugged her. “Yuck, that mud stinks, eh?”

“Yep, not the best. I need to go home and have a real good wash.”

“Why don’t you come and eat at the café?” Harper urged. “It’s my night off. Half price mate’s rates.”

“Good idea,” Marrick said. “We could go to the club first, get cleaned up and then get a bite to eat with these guys.”

Luna shook her head. She couldn’t face being with people tonight. Sometimes the effort to maintain social interactions exhausted her. Always checking in, trying to stay on top of the emotional and social cues. She sometimes wondered if she was made this way or whether it was because she’d grown up without affection, without touch.

What would it be like to get close to someone,reallyclose? To be cared for, nurtured? Somewhere inside her she remembered a mother’s gentle touch, her father sitting her on his knee as they navigated across the ocean. Kissing her babybrother’s soft, sweet-smelling cheek. But it was like another Luna.

These days, she had to brace herself for the touch of others, unless she was fighting.

Or fucking.

Gods, she was a weirdo for sure. That’s what Edith had constantly told her. “You’re a weird little critter, aren’t you? Ugly little thing too.”

So many mean things Edith had said to her, as Luna had worked her fingers raw, cleaning house, selling shell pots at the fairy bazaar on weekends, cooking meals—all the things Edith was too lazy to do herself. Really, she had just been Edith’s slave for her whole childhood, in return for a crust of bread and a hard bed to sleep on.

“We could go back to my boat, if you prefer.” Noah’s words pulled her back to the present. His eyes were kind. He got that she didn’t want to go out. Such a nice selkie, so rare in Motham—most of them were complete shysters. “I could cook up some fish I caught earlier today.”

Luna’s mouth watered. “Tempting, but no, thanks. It’s been a long day and I need to sleep.”

Ha, sleep. That was something she didn’t do well either. Because of the dreams. The nightmares.

But she didn’t tell anyone about them. Didn’t get help. Therapy. What a total waste of time that would be, even if she could afford it. Talking wouldn’t bring her parents back or help her find Tomas, it would just open the wounds deeper.

Harper pulled a sooky face. “We want to look after you this week, make sure you’re okay, babe.”

“You stocked up my fridge. Thank you, that’s more than enough.”

Luna had been touched when Harper and Noah had turned up two days ago with bags of food and filled her cupboards andfridge. “Let me know when you need more. We don’t want you to have to worry about feeding yourself for the next couple of weeks,” Harper had explained.

She didn’t deserve their friendship.

What did she ever give back? To them? To anyone?

All she did was train, train, train.

And if she won… and managed to get the kraken to tell her the truth about that night.

If she found out that Tomas was dead.

What would give her life purpose after that?

CHAPTER 11

On the morning of the first day of the games, Kai was awake before first light. As dawn peeped over the horizon, he took to the water off the jetty. Submerged finally, he let his tentacles release, feeling them move around him like a halo in the water.

He was going to be blessed by Razad and the elders at the Sacred Caves.

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