Page 11 of An Inheritance of Monsters

From their firmness, and the tiny slit at the end of each one, I could picture what they were meant for all too clearly.

The tentacles reeled me in, drawing me closer. One of them covered my mouth again, feeding me the air I desperately needed.

And another crept upwards along my thigh. A faint tickling sensation started at my shoulder and slid over my chest, tracing the contour of one of my breasts.

Everywhere he touched, heat tingled beneath my skin.

I was very quickly understanding that for whatever reason, this monster clearly didn’t intend to eat me.

One of those thicker tentacles snaked up over my belly, nearly between my breasts. I started in his grasp, then wondered… I was stark naked and he was touching all over me.

Why couldn’t I touch him?

I tentatively reached for him, nearly drawing back, then ran my hand over it from the tip, marveling at the way the firm muscles contracted beneath my palm. A ripple went through it, the flesh stiffening under my hand when I stroked again.

The monster jerked, his tentacles tightening around me, rings flaring red.

Juno.

A deep male voice sounded in my head. I looked back at the monster in shock, my hand frozen, wondering if he’d spoken.

The tentacle around my waist squeezed a little, questioning.Juno…?

I nodded, opening my mouth. “I’m Juno.” A bubble popped out, flittering upwards to the surface. No sound.

The monster cocked his head, then placed his hand on his chest.Zirin.

I was going to respond to this gentle monster. I really was.

But something far beneath us flared with yellow light and I looked down.

At a lot of rings… stretching as far as the eye could see, each bigger than a house. The sheer size of the beast below staggered my mind.

And I completely panicked, thrashing in his grip and fighting upwards.

The tentacles released me, the monster drawing back, his rings going dark. I kicked hard, as though I could claw my way through the water and away from whatever the fuck was beneath us—

I broke the surface, gasping for air.

And landed bodily on a heavy porcelain surface in the dark, water splashing out and landing on tiled floors.

I hung over the side of the tub, heaving and coughing, and questioned if I’d accidentally consumed one or two of Sierra’s shrooms while digging for trail mix earlier.

But as I scrambled out of the tub, slip-sliding through puddles of water towards where I thought the lightswitch was, something in the mirror caught my eye.

I stopped, hand on the switch, and stared at myself.

Or rather, at the swirls of pale blue and green luminescence streaked across my skin like paint.

It had all been real.

Chapter4

Voraal

Someone new.

After an endless century, there was someonenewon the island.

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