“What the hell happened, Crow?”
“How long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough to see a sea monster get its ass kicked by Chris.”
“Ocean monster,” Ryder added.
“Then you’re up to date on everything that’s happened,” Crow said. “Good talk.”
“Spill,” I said, grabbing the sleeve of his hoodie. “What. Happened?”
“It was a cursed item,” Ryder said.
Crow pointed at him.
“How do you know?” I asked Ryder.
“Got the call. Came for you.”
Myra and Jean both walked over. The rain wasn’t any better and the wind was worse. It made standing here no fun at all. Myra wiped her hand over her face, the book already tucked away safely in her waterproof satchel.
“What was it?” I asked.
“A denizen of the sea,” Myra said. “Not an eldritch abomination, but one of the unnamed monsters of the watery void.”
“Huh,” Ryder said. “Watery void monster.”
“And it was here why?” I asked.
“This.” We all turned to see Chris Lagon jogging up to us. He had a wide grin on his face and looked like he’d just had the time of his life.
Chris had worked magic into his tattoos so that most people saw his scales as part of the intricate, beautifully inked designs, and otherwise ignored the slight differences that marked him as gilman instead of human.
But here, after a strenuous swim in the ocean, a fight with a monster, and now, a jog in the rain and wind, he looked wilder. His long hair streamed in dark rivers over his shoulders and back. Even the magic in his tattoos couldn’t dampen his natural form.
“Pandora thing.” He handed me what I, at first, thought was a collection of sticks.
They were not sticks but rather delicately carved pieces of wood linked together with what looked like chains of gold. I shifted them to figure out how they all connected and realized it was a child’s mobile, the arms of which were a giant squid. Hanging from each tentacle were little Nessie monsters and jelly fish.
Smack dab on the neck of one of the three Nessies was a familiar yellow butterfly sticker.
“Who had it?” I asked.
“Molly.” Myra took it from me and dropped it into a red and gold box before tucking it in her bag.
“Your waitress?” I asked Chris.
He nodded. “She wanted to hang it up at Jump Off’s. I liked it and said yes.”
“And when she took off the sticker?” I asked.
Chris shook his head. “I took it off, like an idiot. I thought it felt like magic, but I couldn’t be sure. And then, bang. Big-ass monster.”
“Bang,” Ryder echoed. “Big-ass monster.”
“Is everyone okay?” I asked. “Is your brewery still standing?”
“Everyone’s fine,” he said. “The curse called forth a monster from the watery void, and luckily that watery void was out here offshore instead of in my kitchen sink. Hey, weren’t you going on vacation this morning?”
