Page 68 of The Kraken Bride

Her eyes flicked to me. “I lived there for many years with my husband.”

“So Jokull chose your former residence for this dinner.” Beyond cruel. The primordial had hidden a weapon within a weapon.

She turned back to the window. “It is a very fine house. Jokull has always had excellent taste.”

Our captain docked the boat. A dock that led straight to the front door, where Jokull waited. I had seen him wreathed in mers and slaughter, a predator surrounded by fire, and I would’ve sworn that was the worst version of him. I would have been wrong. Cleaned up, in dark silks, with his hair bound back and his hands empty and open, he was almost handsome.

He looked like the perfect host.

My dragon roared at first sight, yanking at a chain I longed to let slip from my fingers.

Count the steps. Head up. I was the Pirouette Princess. I had performed for ten thousand strangers with a stress fracture in my left foot and smiled through every bow. I could survive one dinner.

“The Raving Pearl.” Jokull’s smile was slow as we approached, but it never reached the ash-and-gold of his eyes. “You wore green the last time we were together. I’ve only thought about it for six hundred years.”

“You have thought about a great many things, Jokull,” Harpa said, sweeping past him. I stayed close to her heels. “Most of them badly.”

His laughter followed us in.

The hall was magnificent. Candles by the hundred. A table set for three in the dining room with cutlery of blackened silver, plates of fish in citrus, roasted fruits, warm bread—a dragon’s meal and a kraken’s meal, side by side, because of course he had looked into what I liked.

And there, dead center on a pedestal of salt-white stone, sat the rune. I knew it. I’d never seen it, but I knew it, because it hummed to me, beckoning.

My breath stopped. It was smaller than I’d imagined. A palm-sized disc of something that wasn’t quite stone, black and wet-looking, and across its face symbols crawled, rearranging as I watched, refusing to hold still long enough to be understood.

I let my eyes unfocus the way I did when a corps of dancers was moving too fast to track and I needed the shape instead of the steps. The symbols slowed, but the meaning remained just beyond my grasp.

“Excellent,” Jokull said, and I realized with a lurch that he had been watching me, not the stone. “I wondered if you would hear its song.”

I schooled my features. Too late. Ja, I heard the song.

“His mother heard it too.” He pulled out my chair himself, courteous as any gentleman. “Sit, little lizard. We have so much to discuss.”

“Can you not hear the hum?” I asked, removing my cloak and easing down, forcing my attention off the rune. For now.

“I cannot,” he answered, surprising me. “Only those the rune wishes to live in can hear it.”

Ooooh. So, in theory, I’d gotten it right. If we found no other path to walk, I could take Sebastian’s place. But there was a wrench I hadn’t considered until now. What if the rune needed his permission, as it needed mine?

I’d just have to be stubborn enough to hold out.

But there was still a chance we’d find another way. Tonight.

Dinner passed in stages. Uncomfortable silence kicked us off. Uncomfortable only for me. I tried to initiate conversation, but Jokull and Harpa appeared perfectly at ease, sipping soup, each in their own little world.

When I’d had as much of that as I could stand, I spoke louder, practically—definitely—shouting. “Why would you agree to give us the very toolset to be used for your doom?”

Both looked at me and frowned with varying degrees of disapproval.

Now that I had their attention, I lowered my tone. “What’s the true purpose for this dinner?” Other than tormenting Sebastian. And us.

Harpa rifled through the cupcakes on a dessert tray. “Could you not afford strawberries this late in the season, Jokull?”

Of course, he answered her first. “Give the blueberries a chance. Their tart sweetness might surprise you.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, ignoring him. “Peach.” She lifted her chosen treat.

Jokull watched her a moment longer before smiling at me. “I believe you have the wrong impression of my abilities. You think I can be harmed or overpowered. Let me prove otherwise.” He looked to Harpa. “My lady, you have my permission to kill me in any way of your choosing without consequence⁠—”