Page 29 of Kringle and the Kraken

“Okay, you were right.”Levi stuffed the rest of a piece of Clara’s shortbread into his mouth. “This is damn good.”

“I hate to say I told you so.” Crumbs flew from my lips as I spoke with my mouth full.

Marvin pushed between us trying to get to the tray, then shoved the lid back over the shortbread. “Save some for everyone else.”

“That’s easy for you to say. I bet Clara makes these for you all the time.”

Marvin harrumphed. “Not even close.” He patted his ample stomach. “She says I need to watch my sugar intake.”

“That’s probably good advice.” I lifted the lid and slipped another cookie from the tray. “Advice I’m definitely not going to take.”

Levi elbowed me in the side. “Me either. Grab one of those for me.”

I did as he asked, passing him the cookie. He made a big show of inhaling it, closing his eyes to savor the buttery sweet scent before taking a big bite. “So good.”

Marvin watched Levi carefully, something that almost looked like awe swimming in his eyes. When Levi was done with his cookie, Marvin patted his arm. “Levi, I wonder if I might have a word.”

“Of course.”

The older man walked a few paces away, Levi trailing behind.

“Kris.” Pete called my name from across the room where he and Abe had assembled some of the archival boxes where theykept all the KELPS chapter’s research. When I arrived at the table, Pete asked, “What do you think we should put out? We want to make a good impression.”

I didn’t bother pointing out that the event had already technically been going on for thirty minutes and I doubted any new attendees besides Levi were going to show up. Instead, I looked at what he’d laid out on the table.

His pride and joy was a grainy, sepia-toned photo of what appeared to be a giant squid in the water right off the coast, technically right in my backyard, as the very edge of the lighthouse was also visible in the photo. The picture had been passed down to Pete from his predecessors, the previous KELPS chapter leaders, and he’d made keeping it safe his entire personality.

“Obviously, that has to be on display.” I pointed to the photo, and Pete and Abe both nodded. “What about some of the captain’s logs?”

“Oh, yes. That’s a great idea.” Abe reached into the archival box farthest from me and grabbed a cracked leather binder with his white-gloved hands. The members of the KELPS preservation team took their archival duties very seriously and insisted on handling the artifacts with the utmost care. Abe flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. “I love this passage.” Laying the book down, he ran his hand over the yellowed page. “Look at how detailed the drawing is.”

As always, he spoke about the kraken artifacts as though I’d never seen them before, his tone reverent.

“I wish I could have seen what they saw back then.” Pete pulled another piece from the box. “I think if I saw a kraken I could die happy.”

A choked sound from right behind me, made me turn. Levi held a hand over his mouth, his eyes wide as he coughed. Heheld a cup of eggnog in his hand, the creamy drink threatening to slosh over the side.

“You okay?” I thumped him on the back and carefully extricated the cup from his grip.

He cleared his throat, his eyes still streaming from the coughing fit. “Didn’t realize it was spiked.” But his gaze was locked on Pete’s photograph, his skin a shade paler than normal, while around the room everyone hissed, “Shh.”

Levi glanced at me in confusion before his eyes fell back to the photo. “We’re technically not allowed to have alcohol on the premises.”

“Oh.” But I could tell he wasn’t really listening. Pete had caught on to Levi’s fascination with the picture and jumped into his spiel.

“That picture was taken right off the coast here in Lifeboat in 1897.”

Since I’d heard the story a million times, I headed back to the snack table to see if I could steal another piece of shortbread.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

LEVI

When Marvin,a kelpie, had pulled me aside, I’d been expecting a talking to similar to the one I’d gotten from Mayor Delmar about not getting too close to Kris, but instead, the older man’s eyes had filled with tears of joy and gratitude that I had finally returned to Lifeboat. He wrapped his callused hands around my wrists, his fingers brushing my tentacles, which reacted immediately, lifting a little to twine around his fingers as he led me to a table and made me sit.

He wiped at his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I just never thought I’d see the day when a Shoal returned to Lifeboat. Praise to Poseidon. It’s a Poseidonia miracle. One a lot of us have been hoping for.”

A quick glance around showed that no one was paying any attention to us, so I let my tentacles linger for another second. “You’re the second person to say that to me this week, but I don’t understand why.”

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