Mikano pulled out his phone again.“Good call.That’s probably best.There is one that’s nice nearby, White Anchor Inn.Yeah, they have rooms.I’ll book you a double room for the night through Human Liaisons.Kai, your contact?”
Fian watched them exchange numbers by simply touching their phones to one another.
“Tickle, you’ve got this, right?And Kai, you don’t mind having him around, do you?”
“Huh?Of course not.”
Fian’s tentacles tightened as ahead of them, he saw Zazine get out of her car and walk around a mail truck that stood abandoned in the middle of the road.
“We’ll just have to get some of Kai’s important things.”
Mikano nodded.“That’s fine.I’ll follow along.”
Fian turned to Kai.His landbride looked tired, but those black circles around his eyes, they had vanished.
“Ready?”
Kai smiled.“Ready.”
“What the fuck happened here?”Zazine hollered over, but Fian was okay letting Mikano explain, just this once.
23
PackingupKai’sbelongingshad gonefast,mostly because Fian shifted to his octo-man form—or his cecaelia form as he called it—and collected things as Kai directed.
“What about clothing?”Mikano asked, looking around the room above the Jammery.
Kai leaned against the fridge and grimaced.“Burn it.It’s what he made me wear.”
“Right.We’ll pack up your consoles and games when we do our final walkthrough and check for any lingering spells.”
Fian tentacled over the couch so that he was next to Kai, a small bag and a laptop case in two of his eight arms.“I can pack your things.”
Kai leaned into the two tentacles that snaked around his middle.“Nah, let them.I’m just so tired.That hotel is sounding better and better by the minute.”
Fian looked at him with large ocean eyes.“Okay.Of course.Do you think—Kai, I’d really like to stay with you.Would that be okay?”
Mikano pulled out his phone, pretending he was reading a text or something, but Kai didn’t doubt the shark was eavesdropping.
“Yeah.I don’t want to be alone actually.And you said you wanted to show me your house.”
Mikano fake-coughed.“Carvings, Tickle.”
“Oh!Oh, yes.I will show you.And maybe a little tour as well.But let’s get you there first.Come on, Zazine is waiting.”
They were already on the stairs when Mikano said, “Don’t forget to tell the seahorse to give us a call.We want to talk to her.”
They hurried past the jams.Kai felt the urge to grab one, smash it, just because.He didn’t.I shouldn’t waste any more of my energy on this place.All those jams I made are bad enough already.
“Is Zazine going to be in trouble?”he asked when Fian opened the door for him.
“Not likely.If anything, she acted to spare you more shock than you had already experienced, and she knows my brother is an agent and that I was going to call him before long.”
“Were you?”
They were walking the few steps to Main Street, past abandoned cars whose drivers were…Kai didn’t know, but he had too vivid an imagination, especially after what had happened.
Fian looked at him.The sky behind him had turned the color of a healing bruise, beautiful but with an ache that lingered.
