Page 61 of The Kraken Games

“Who is this?”

Luna frowned at the clipped voice on the other end of her cell. She’d only just got her phone back after a friend of Marrick’s had fixed it. She’d been bitterly disappointed that there had been no special app to download, no message of any sort from Kai.

“You don’t know me,” the voice continued, nasally, definitely human. “My name’s Dulcie Clinch from the Tween Council of Towns. We’d like to congratulate you on your recent win of the Kraken Games. Quite an achievement.”

Luna stiffened, her antennae for bullshit suddenly on high alert. “Thanks,” she muttered.

“The officials, including Mayor Jordak, would like to invite you to a meeting with the Tween Council.”

“Why?”

She could sense the woman’s surprise on the other end of the phone.

“Well—the photos you sent to the Tween media were most useful, and we’d really like to thank you for that. A lunch has been arranged…”

“No, wait—w-what photos?”

The woman’s voice bowled on. “Never have we got such fantastic close-ups of a kraken in partial shift. Interesting to see the damage to his er, tentacles.”

Luna’s mouth went dry. “I—I don’t recall taking photos at any time during the games.”

The woman chuckled. “Oh Miss Storm, you are a one. These were very obviouslynottaken during the games. You were at the Hotel Amore were you not? Not thatIwould have known where it was, of course. But we have our sources. You clearly very muchenjoyedtaking those photos.”

Panic clawed at Luna’s throat. How? How had they got hold of those shots? Her mind drilled back. To when her phone went missing, how she’d found it on Wyatt’s desk, how he’d meddled with her code.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, ohfuck.How low would that selkie stoop?

Unable to speak, nearly choking on her own tongue, nausea surged up her throat.

“We’ve been trying to get close-up shots of krakens for years,” Dulcie continued brightly. “And in one week you’ve given us better material than anyone. We think you have a lot to offer us, Miss Storm.”

Luna slammed down the phone. Running out of the house, she sprinted to the edge of the marshes and fell to the ground, gasping and dry retching. If those pictures had been spread around Motham and beyond, to Tween and Twill, then the kraken would surely have heard about it.

The whole thing looked like a set-up. There was no getting around it.

Scheming human takes photos. Tells a kraken a sob story, having lured him with sexual favors. Cunt-struck he lets her win the games. Now said human uses that against him for financial gain.

What would they do to Kai? He’d talked of being put in isolation for losing, but this was so much worse.

Oh, gods in heaven. He would hate her forever. And she had no way to find him, no way to explain.

And as for her… well, the krakens would never talk to her now.

Luna curled into a ball on the shore and suddenly the dam inside her burst. Tears filled her eyes, spilled down her cheeks and she sobbed, great racking, howling sobs. She had lost her chance of ever finding out what had happened to Tomas. And now the humans who had always shunned her were touting her as some kind of hero. Wanting to wine and dine her and no doubt try to involve her in one of their schemes to infiltrate kraken waters.

And the kraken who had melted a sliver of the ice around her heart… what about him?

She would never see Kai again. Never feel his lips on hers, his tentacles embracing her, bringing her to an ecstasy she hadn’t thought possible with another being.

Her face buried in her hands, the tears fell in a steady stream, wetting her palms, her fingers, dripping onto her bare legs. Luna knew her tears stretched way back; all the pain she’d held in behind a wall so high even she hadn’t realized what devastation lay behind it.

A sudden high-pitchedkerrick, kerrickin the water nearby made her head jerk up.

What—the—hell?

Luna swiped the tears off her cheeks and peered over the bank into the marshes. Could it be… Kai? Her blood surged so fast she could hear the rush of it in her ears, but it didn’t drown out the clicking sound.Kerrick, kerrick.

All was still in the murky water. She wriggled further out, pushing back the weeds. And then, right in front of her,something arced out of the water, sleek and shiny in the moonlight. A long beak-like snout and a bright eye flashed past.

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