I risk a quick peek inside, and my gut twists as I see exactly what I’ve been hoping and dreading in equal measure.
Inside are small cells with a single cot and an odd-looking machine I don’t recognise. There’s a dark stain on the floor and another on the walls that turns my stomach.
“Looks like we've found the labs.”
Chapter 32
Torin
My gut clenches tight enough to ache as I cling to Finch’s damn tentacle as we travel further and further from the ship. Further and further from Reva and the others. That part is by design, although that doesn’t settle the writhing unease in my chest from being separated from her.
I’ve never actually seen Finch’s other form on land like this. He rarely sees the light of day, preferring to stick to deep waters where people are likely to sail right over him, not realising how one tiny flick of a tentacle can leave them nothing more than a splintered pile of wood.
He’s absolutely enormous. Big enough that part of him can remain with the ship, appeasing the curse that’s keeping the rest of the crew onboard.
It’s a common theme in all our lives, that Finch always seems to be a dozen steps ahead of the rest of us. Mostly because he’s on his own board, playing an entirely different game to the rest of us.
And most of the time, it’s fine. Infuriating, but things tend to work out in the end. Sometimes there are a few hiccoughs along the way, like a few missing limbs or an unexpected midnight dash from the authorities.
This time though, thingshaveto work out.
After all, Kit is not just Reva’s mate; he’s also Finch’s brother.
Which means he’s the kraken’s brother too.
There are very few people Finch recognises in his other form. He becomes a creature of the deep ocean, intent on hunting his prey and destroying anything to get it.
But he knows Kit. And if anything happens to him, it won’t just be the sorceress who’s at risk of the kraken’s wrath.
Finch raises three of his monstrous tentacles, smashing them against the ground. With one movement, walls and pavements collapse into rubble and clouds of dust.
Crash.
Smash.
Growl.
The amount of noise we’re making is enough to send me deaf. I rub at my aching chest and take an unsatisfactory breath that only seems to fill half a lung. I’m fighting to tamp down the restless itch crawling under my skin that seems to come from out of nowhere.
You’d have thought that with the level of destruction Finch has caused already, we must have drawn the attention of the sorceress by now.
So where is she?
I cling to Finch, his body oddly cool beneath my hands. This place was exactly how I recall. Bleak and unremarkable, the exact type of place that people would take one look at and decide to turn around again.
Underground, there’s a whole other world. The labs where they tore me open and pumped foul shit into my veins. Vast halls used as training grounds where they made us half mad with rage before letting us loose on one another.
I don’t blame Finch’s monster for wanting to raze the entire place to the ground.
There’s still no sign of the sorceress, and as we travel even further from the ship, my forearm starts to burn like someone’s stuck a blistering poker onto my flesh.
I yank up my sleeve, expecting to find some kind of bug attached to me. But there’s nothing there.
It’s only because I’m staring right at it I see the moment the mate mark disappears from my skin.
One minute it’s there.
A second later, and it’s like it never existed.
