Lance’s gaze was sharp. Around the table, the rest of his team watched Moss and his cousins with similar expressions of wary curiosity.
Not as wary as they should have been, though.
“Why would the woman downstairs mistake you for this being?” Lance asked.
Pania began to answer, but Moss nodded to her. He would take this. “Because the Soul-Eater’s a monster. All the animals he takes from his victims become a part of him. It makes sense that she saw me and thought she’d found him.” His voice was gravelly.
Across the table, Carol looked thoughtful. “We thought they attacked us because they were after Maggie. If they were trying to find the Soul-Eater all along, why target the plane?”
“The dragons guard the prison that holds the Soul-Eater. Their magic controls it. If these bird shifters want the Soul-Eater, they need to take out the shadow dragons first.”
She blanched. “Kill them?”
“How would they have known we had Maggie with us?” Keeley asked.
Lance growled. “If this means there’s another goddamned mole in the company—”
“We were a private flight heading to Antarctica. You don’t need to be a genius to track flight plans. They might not have even known for sure that we had a dragon on board, if they’re targeting anyone heading that far south.” The woman who’d spoken was a cheerful brunette seated next to the scarred lion shifter, Mathis Delacourt. Moss recognized her distantly: Chloe Kent. Mathis’s mate. She hadn’t been on the plane with Carol and the others, but she’d flown in as soon as she heard her mate had been in danger.
Right now, she was scowling. “Are we the only people who were targeted? I haven’t heard any news of other attacks, but maybe I need to look deeper…”
The others carried on with the questions. No answers. Only speculation, and worry.
“Francine and Julian will be in danger.”
“Have there been any reports of other lost aircraft?”
“We’ve already delayed too long. We need to—”
Someone swore. Moss drifted further from the conversation, deeper into the churning waters of his own mind.
A mind from which the kraken was markedly absent.
It had leapt to defend them against the bird-woman quickly enough. Then as soon as it was no longer needed, it had retreated further than ever before. It felt exhausted. As though every time it emerged tired it more, drawing from energy reserves it no longer had. But…
That was a trap, right? A lure to put him off his guard before it struck.
Again.
It kept using the same tricks. And if he didn’t do something about it, he was going to fall for it. Again.
“—how it all fits together. Dragons. These Stymphalian bird-people. And now a kraken.” Lance took off his glasses and rubbed the permanent line between his eyebrows.
“Thekraken,” Ataahua corrected him primly. “Seriously. Be glad there’s only one.” She nudged Moss, a wordless gesture of support. “And be glad it chose my cuz here, and he didn’t make it to the deep before you ran across the knifey birds.”
Across the table, Carol frowned.
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know how it fits together any better than you do.”
“But you’re more familiar with the pieces,” Carol said quietly.
And he’d hidden them from her, while they were alone on the island. Guilt constricted his throat. He coughed, leaning forward in his seat to address the whole room.
“The Soul-Eater was imprisoned thousands of years ago. The shadow dragons—Maggie’s people—their magic keeps it trapped. And the kraken is the world’s last defense if the shadow dragons’ fortress falls and the Soul-Eater escapes.”
Carol frowned. “Why?”
“Why… defend the world?” Her steady gaze unnerved him.
