Page 59 of Rescued By A Kraken
His attention shifts to Rose, who somehow manages to stand on my back, facing him without fear. “Do you love him, child? All of him?”
“With my whole soul,” Rose answers without hesitation, her voice strong and sure.
“Then I have a gift for you.” One of his tentacles – as wide as a submarine at its base – extends toward us, tapering down to a tip no larger than a pencil. When it touches her forehead, the air crackles with power.
Rose gasps as Thalassor’s power touches her, and suddenly – terrifyingly – her body lifts off my back and into the air. I reach for her instinctively, grasping at empty space as she floats out of reach. An invisible force holds her suspended, turning her slowly while strange ribbons of light dance across her skin.
Rose begins to glow, softly at first, then bright as sunlight on water, her hair drifting around her face like seaweed in a slow current. After what feels like a lifetime but is less than a minute, she slowly drifts back down to my back. She laughs – a sound of pure, unfettered joy that washes away my fear. She rises to her feet with the same natural poise she brings to everything and executes a curtsy to the ancient god.
“Thank you,” she says, her voice full of wonder, and before I can react, she does something unexpected – she dives into the water in an arc as graceful and smooth as a dolphin.
She disappears beneath the surface, but before I can dive after her, she bursts from the waves, her laugh ringing across the water. “Levi!” She spins in the water with practiced ease, as if she’s been swimming these waters her whole life. “What are you waiting for? We have exploring to do! I want to see everything – all the wonders you’ve tried to describe to me, every beautiful thing you’ve wanted to show me!”
I float, frozen in confusion, until Thalassor’s rumbling chuckle rolls through the water. “I have given her the ability to share your world completely. She can breathe beneath the waves now and withstand the pressures of the deep. She will never take kraken form, but she can explore the depths at your side for all your days together.”
Gratitude overwhelms me, but before I can find words to express it, he adds, “Live well with your mate, little kraken. That will be thanks enough.” Then he’s gone, disappearing in a swirl of dark water.
“Levi!” Rose’s voice calls from below the water’s surface, clear as a bell despite the water between us. “Come on! I want to explore everything!”
Joy barrels through both halves of my nature as I dive after her. She’s swimming through the water like she was born to it, her movements graceful and sure. When I catch up, she wraps her arms around one of my tentacles, beaming at me through the water.
“Race you to the bottom?” she challenges, and I can’t help but laugh, the sound emerging as a stream of bubbles.
Together, we spiral down into the abyss, toward all the wonders I’ve always wanted to share with a mate but never thought I’d experience. For the first time in my life, both halvesof me feel completely whole – the human heart that loves Rose and the kraken soul that can now show her every hidden treasure of my world.
Above us, the surface grows distant, but Rose shows no sign of fear or discomfort. She simply holds on tighter, trusting me to guide her through this new frontier. And I will – for all our days – I’ll show her every beautiful secret the ocean holds now that she can truly share it with me.
The briny deep welcome us both, and as Rose’s laughter echoes through the water, I know with absolute certainty that this is precisely where we’re meant to be. Together, in both our worlds, for always.
