Page 41 of The Kraken Games

“What makes you want to fight kraken so badly?” he persisted softly.

“Gods damn it, leave it alone, can’t you?” she muttered, but suddenly that hideous day was happening right in front of her; a thick blue tentacle rising out of churning water, a little cot tossed around in the debris of their boat and Tomas’s terrified eyes, his little hands stretching toward her, as that tentacle wound tight around his cot. “Krakens sank our boat out past Orc Island. Killed my mom and dad. Took my baby brother. I’ve never seen him since.”

Kai’s dark eyes widened. “When?”

“Fifteen years ago.”

“No, not possible. That was five years after the Treaty was signed.”

“Well, you better believe it, because I was there, and your kind left me for dead in the water. A little kid. So much for your stupid kraken integrity, eh?”

He shook his head. “I would have known.”

“Why? Why would you? Do kraken share with their kids when they murder innocent people?”

He passed a hand over his eyes, as if trying to commute, frowning. “Even if… there was an accident in the sea near Thedaka when you say it happened, you’re mistaken about seeing a kraken. Maybe it was sharks or killer whales.”

Luna clenched her fists under the water. “A bright blue kraken carried off my baby brother. Tomas’s cot was coiled in its tentacles and dragged under the waves. I watched my parents float away, face down. And then I was left clinging to a plank of wood, left to die too.”

He was sitting bolt upright now. “My people would never do that. Not to a child, whatever their species.”

“Gods, you are so naïve! You really think that kraken are the good guys, the wise rulers of the sea. Well, have I got news for you. They’re not. They’re ship wreckers, murderers, child abductors.”

“You must have your dates wrong; we’ve always honored the Treaty.”

“Yeah, right. Protect your own, that’s what every species does, right?”

“So competing this year is some kind of warped act of revenge. Is that it? You want to kill me, huh? There are easier ways.” She saw one of his scarred tentacles twitch close to the surface. They were damaged enough to think someone or somethinghadwanted to kill him. To hell with that, she didn’t care beyond how his weaknesses could help her win.

“You’re safe. Idon’t stoop to murder. But when I beat your sorry blue ass tomorrow, I’m going to force your leaders to tell me the truth.”

His gaze bore into her. “Even if you won—which you won’t—our elders would never speak to a human.”

“Just watch this fucking space.”

They stared at each other for one more agonized moment. He opened his mouth as if to speak. Moved as if to reach for her or touch her or do something that might make her weaken, lessen her rage, her hatred. Make herwanthim. And she couldn’t let that happen. Jumping up, she scrabbled her way out of the pool, not caring that in her ungainly departure he’d get a freakin great view of her naked ass, not caring that the sharp rocks were cutting her fingers, or that the waft of her arousal would meet his kraken nostrils and betray the weakness of her flesh.

She grabbed the rope of her little boat. Frenziedly, she unhooked it from the rocky outcrop, jumped in and headed back toward the marshes.

CHAPTER 13

Kai was visibly shaking.

His reflection in the lit-up mirror showed the tension in his body, the tremor in his tentacles. They were also giving him the worst kind of nerve pain. He didn’t feel like a hero.

So far from it.

With shaking fingers, he applied the Leberon shell dust to his face.

In this morning’s round he’d almost been tempted to let the blundering great anaconda win, with its ungainly tail and big claws. He’d let it swipe him into the mud and lain there for a second longer than he needed as he heard the referee start to count. But in the end, he couldn’t let himself be defeated by an amateur lizard from the wastelands, just so he wouldn’t have to fight Luna today.

He’d gotten up in a swirl of limbs and tentacles and dragged that anaconda so fast into the dungeon it didn’t know what had hit it.

Afterwards, when Shen asked him what the hell had gotten into him, he said it was all part of his strategy. “It got the crowd roaring.”

Shen had eyed him hard, then shrugged and grinned. “Yeah, it was a good party trick. At least you kept them on their toes.”

“Just making sure I’m not predictable.”

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