My new friend is coming for you, the voice taunted in my mind.
I glanced back as we plowed the last few feet to the bank. Yes, there was the dark shape of the kraken, and two tentacles reared up into the sky, silhouetted against the Space Needle and the lit cityscape to the south.
The tendrils came down toward us like axes.
“Go, go.” I pushed the girl toward the shoreline as I stood in the shallows, waiting with Nightshade poised.
I scrambled to the side, the water slowing me down, as the first tentacle hammered toward me. I sliced upward, cutting into it with the magical blade. But the thing was massive. Even as I sliced through it, the force of the rest of it striking the water created a wave that hurled me to the side. I stumbled, struggling to get my feet under me and my blade up a
