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Carrying all your fears away.
Rest now, young one, in the tide,
Where the ancients do reside.
Under stars that shine so bright,
In the sea's embracing night.
Where the seahorses parade,
And the light through water fades,
There, our tales of magic lie,
Underneath the ocean sky.
Close your eyes, let dreams take wing,
To where the mermaids softly sing.
In the depths, you're safe and sound,
With love and magic all around.
Sleep, young kraken, without care,
In the sea's protective glare.
May the currents guide your rest,
In the sanctuary of our nest.
He was singing me a children’s lullaby. I supposed I ought to be embarrassed, as a grown woman—but the linguist in me was charmed, because I was fairly certain no other human had ever heard a kraken’s song before.
I started trying to commit the thing to memory, but I couldn’t before I fell asleep.
chapter 21
ELLE
When I woke up in the morning I was alone, but also well-rested in a way I hadn’t felt like in months.
Maybe the dream orgasms had done me good.
Or . . . being sung to sleep like a kraken baby.
I groaned at myself, and wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to look Ceph in the eyes today, just as I was struck with an entirely different kind of horror.
Why had he sung me a lullaby? What if Cepharius had a wife and a family? Oh God. How inappropriate was I being? He was just here to do a job, whereas I was using this trip as Elle’s Avoiding-Real-Life-and-Doing-Research Extravaganza, with a dash of Fucking Horny.
Get it together, Elle. English tea sets!
I managed to tamp everything down, eat breakfast, and then get back to the dock—and Cepharius was waiting for me the moment I walked through to the water’s other side.
“Good morning, Elle.” I couldn’t see him, but I didn’t need to—I felt his mind near mine.
“Good morning, Cepharius,” I said back cheerfully, following my helmet’s map. I could still see some of my footprints from the day before—while the silt’s rain here was never ending, it wasn’t always fast.
