Page 10 of An Inheritance of Monsters

Either that, or I had finally lost my mind.

I didn’t get long to contemplate that, because something touched my foot. Something as soft and silky as the thing that had dragged me under.

And I still couldn’t see a damn thing in the water beneath me, no matter how hard I looked.

It was a soft touch, like the one in the parlor, but this felt less… suspicious. More curious.

I wanted to know what Duskwood Manor held, what was touching me. So I took a deep breath, looked up the swirling stars once more, and ducked under.

Blackness all around me.

But there, just flickering from the depths… more luminescence. Iridescent blue, gleaming in faint circles.

There was a pattern to it, one I couldn’t quite make out.

Several of the circles grew brighter, flickering at me as something rose from beneath. I felt the water sliding around me as whatever it was displaced it, soft waves that nearly buffeted me away from the rising object.

Something curled around my waist, pulling me back. Bringing me closer to the glimmering, mesmerizing lights.

My mind distantly noted how soft the touch was, a gentle caress, and there was a faint sucking sensation against my skin. My hands found what was holding me, and at first, I thought it was a coil of thick rope.

But it was smooth and flexible, softly suckling at my belly and back. And the ‘rope’ tapered to a smooth point that flittered in my hands when I tried to touch it…

My fingertips found a soft, circular disc beneath. I traced it, realizing what I held.

The same motif found all over the island. An octopus tentacle.

The tip fluttered again, and bioluminescent blue rings flared to life along its length, illuminating everything around me. In the steady pulse of the light, I saw the tentacle against my belly, its smooth upper skin as black as ink.

I tried to follow it to the source, but my lungs were burning. As soon as I realized that, a burst of bubbles escaped my lips as my lungs reflexively tried to breathe.

Something slid over my mouth. Another smooth tentacle… creeping over my face, that same gentle, curious sensation as before.

And my lungs no longer burned. Another burst of panic gnawed at me when I realized I was awake and aware without breathing at all.

The tentacle was feeding me oxygen.

The rings lit up, flickering everywhere they touched me. I felt another slide against my toes, and another traced my thigh.

The monster they were attached to came into view as the rest of its body illuminated with rings.

Or…hisbody.

My first wild thought was that he was human, buthumanoidwas the closest I could come—and that was being generous.

He possessed a head, torso, and arms. Two gleaming blue eyes looked back at me, no sclera in sight… but his nostrils were slits, and where his mouth should be were several smaller tentacles.

But his torso was human enough, with broad shoulders and muscled arms. The tentacle drew me closer, and I realized he was examining me as intently as I was examining him.

He reached out, touching something above my head. My hair, waving in a dense cloud. The blue rings on his body suddenly flickered with new colors.

Yellow, orange, green… and finally the blue returned, interspersed with flashes of pink.

The octopus monster gently twisted a lock of hair around his finger, drawing it closer. I knew from the length drifting in his hand that he was looking at the peach color of my dyed hair.

The peachy pink flashes in his rings were growing stronger, almost dominating the blue.

And I got my confirmation that he was mostdefinitelymale. I couldn’t see much of his lower half very clearly in the dark water, but just below that chiseled stomach, his body flared into a mass of tentacles. Several were much thicker than the others, with blunt, crowned tips, twining around me and continuing his exploratory touching.

---