Author: admin

My pulse jumps, and I cast a nervous glance at the men going up to pay at the counter. “I’m not giving out my location. Just in case, you know. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I?—“ She stops me with a shake of her head. “I get it.” I lower my voice, trying…

“I was the only one in my family who could make sure the krakens suffered for what they did to my sister—long after my mother’s death.” The rope around my wrist loosens as she speaks. “We knew she wouldn’t survive casting the Curse, and the only way for it to continue was for me to…

Ordus Pain lances the bottom half of my body—a sharp, skin-deep, biting pain. The shrill ringing in my ear makes it hard to make out the muted words vibrating through the current. My head is filled with the thick clouds not even the sun can penetrate. I groan, waving my limp arm to address the…

The clerk nods, and her flip-flops clap against the tile toward the back of the shop. Deedee hustles me into a seat beside her and points at a wooden stool at a free table for Ordus. She moves empty plates and cups to the end of the table for the clerk to pick up when…

And the noise? God, the noise. The cacophony of honks and chatter and engines and clattering. It’s overwhelming. Ordus grits his teeth, jaw feathering, surveying our surroundings. His shoulders are stiff, and he has a white-knuckle grip on the waterproof bag holding our clothes, a hand towel, water bottles, sandals, and cash. It was too…

“Uh…” I glance over her shoulder into my cabin—or, at least, it used to be my cabin. I’m kind of offended my landlord cleaned out my shit and moved on so quickly. She shifts, blocking my view, casting a skeptical look over me. I can’t imagine I look all too approachable, with my sopping hair…

Angry, frightened, hot tears spring from my eyes and trickle onto fingers muffling my cries for help. My reality turns bleaker with every tree we pass, descending deeper into the island. No one’s coming to save me. No one ever does. Not anymore. Vasz is barking and nipping at Ordus, but what can a shark-dog…

Ordus nostrils flare, one hand falling to my shoulder. “They need me. They will not…” He can’t even look at me. “What did they say?” I prompt when his eyes grow tortured. Ordus suddenly sets me on top of a smoothed-out stone that acts as a makeshift table. The loss of warmth and stability rocks…

Something is happening again. The familiar coil of paranoia wraps around my lungs. The need to look over my shoulder hits me with full force. But it’s not as potent as usual. Before, there was the doubt, the never-ending question of whether someone hid around the corner. Now, I know nothing’s there. I want to…

Monsters stare me down like they want to eat me alive and gnaw on my bones like a drumstick. I’ve seen that look on the Gallagher men a hundred times. But now, I have no doubt I may very well be turned into octopus chow. They could be talking about how to season me right…