Page 46 of Kringle and the Kraken

There was silence, and I pulled my phone away from my ear to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. “Dad?”

He huffed out a huge sigh. “We knew. All the haven town leaders knew. We can feel that the magic there is volatile. That something is wrong.”

“Is that why you didn’t want me to come here?”

Another sigh, this one weighty with all the things he’d kept from me. “Yes. And I knew what you, a Shoal, going back there would mean. I wanted you to be able to make your own choice about whether you wanted to lead one of the haven towns. I wanted you to have the choice I never had. We were lucky enough to have two children. You know how rare that is for our species. And I was even luckier to find out that Lake wants to lead and protect Baleen when I choose to retire in a couple hundred years, but I also knew that wasn’t the life you wanted.”

“So you let me walk into this epic clusterfuck blind?” I had kind of been hoping that he had no idea, but I could see now that that was naive.

“Is it that bad?”

It was my turn to sigh as my father dodged my question. “It’s worse. Calder Delmar and his family before him have divided the town. The humans have no clue they live among sea monsters, and the magic is suffering for it. The population is barely over five hundred, and a lot of the sea monsters in the town are older. Many of the young people and families have left from what I’ve heard. Delmar is killing Lifeboat, but his plan is working in reverse. Instead of driving the humans out, he’s making our people leave by refusing to let them live openly.”

My father sounded like he’d aged a century when he spoke again. “I had no idea it was that bad. We’ve heard stories, of course, but I thought they’d been exaggerated.”

“That’s not even the worst of it. There have been two sea wraith attacks since I arrived. So far it’s just broken windows and property damage, but it’s only a matter of time before the attacks escalate.”

“Levi, maybe it’s time for you to come home.”

Hearing him give me the out was the thing I needed to steel my resolve. Maybe I hadn’t wanted to be the protector of a haven town, but maybe it was also time I started living up to my name, to take my place as a kraken leviathan and protector of Lifeboat, Maine.

“No. I owe it to the people of Lifeboat to stay. They deserve protection, and it is my job, as a kraken, and a Shoal, to right what our family technically put wrong.”

When my father spoke again, there was pride in his voice. “I knew you would find your way.”

Suddenly, everything was clear. He hadn’t told me about Lifeboat’s leadership problem because I wouldn’t have gone. He’d made me think he and my mother wanted me to stay in Baleen, so I would make the decision from my heart. He’d let me make the choice to go, as uninformed as I was, but now he was giving me the choice to stay, to fight for my people and everyone in the town I had fallen in love with. “There was never a choice, was there?”

“No, Levi. There really wasn’t. When you are born to do something, it finds you whether you want it or not.”

“Then I need your help. There is an old kappa here who told me how I can keep everyone safe until I figure out how to fix the ley line magic, but it requires some of my personal kraken magic. It’s a talisman meant for protection.”

“Yes. I know what she’s talking about. You need earth from within the haven town and seawater, plus your own magical essence. What is your question?”

“I can feel the magic inside me. I know it’s there, but I don’t know how to release it.”

My father laughed. “I guess you are still very young. You probably won’t really think about children until you’re at leastsixty or so unless you find a mate before then. You haven’t found a mate there, have you?”

He totally caught me off guard, and I inhaled too fast, choking on my own saliva while my father laughed in my ear.

When I finally got myself under control, my father asked, “Levi, have you found your mate?”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. “Yes, but I’m not sure you are going to approve.”

“What? Why not?”

“He’s human.”

Another long silence echoed on my father’s end of the call, and once again, I looked at the screen to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. Finally, he spoke. “I think that might be exactly what Lifeboat needs to bring the magic into balance. You will need to lead by example. If you introduce your human?—”

“His name is Kris.” It was important for my father to hear that not only was my mate human, but he was also a male. Krakens weren’t super picky about things like gender when it came to mating, but in my family, I would be the first to mate with another man. If Kris was even open to that. I was going to need to talk to him about it soon. It was weird that we’d talked about babies but not mating.

“Well, I think you and Kris need to show a united front when it comes to forging sea monster and human relations. If they see you are mated, it will be easier to accept that sea monsters and humans can be friends and more.” My father hadn’t missed a beat. Maybe I didn’t give him enough credit.

“Okay.”

“As for your other question, releasing your magic in a tangible form is the same as what we do when it is time to spawn. You must be in the water, in your full form, and fully submerged. Then you focus on the core of your being, where your magic lives, and you push it outward. It will travel through yourtentacles and will release into the water around you. From there, you will need to collect it. Glass vessels work best for preserving the magic. You will want to do your best to make the talismans in glass vessels as well.”

“That’s it?”

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