“Witch-dar?” Alexei repeated, raising an eyebrow. “Is that a thing now?”
“It is when I sense something paranormal in a room where nothing paranormal should be,” she said.
Alexei glanced around, but didn’t seem to see anything out of the ordinary. “Are you still feeling it, whatever it is? The place looks pretty normal to me.”
Beka opened her awareness, but didn’t pick up on anything other than a tiny sprite who had apparently come in to get out of the cold.
“No,” she said. “Whatever it was, it is gone now. But there was something.”
“I believe you,” Alexei said. “Of course, it might not have anything to do with our other situation, but just in case, let me know if you sense it again.”
“Will do,” Beka said. “I have a bad feeling… But never mind. Let’s talk about how we can have the dolphins spy for us without putting them in any extra danger. And how often you can go out and chat with them without people starting to think you’re up to something.”
“I am up to something,” Alexei said with a grin. “I’m up to getting another drink, since Bethany is finally letting me have beer in here again.”
*
A few days later, Alexei wandered over from the guest house to help get Calum out of bed and scrounge a cup of coffee. An ever-larger Lulu trudged along behind him, then plopped onto the kitchen floor with a sigh.
“Still no sign of babies?” Bethany asked, patting the dog sympathetically on the head while handing Alexei a mug that sent divine caffeine-scented steam into the air.
“She says maybe today, maybe tomorrow,” Alexei said absently, most of his attention focused on the dark nectar in his cup. “But I’m not sure if she really knows, or if that’s just wishful thinking.”
“She told you that, did she?” Bethany said, sounding amused. “I didn’t know you spoke Dog.”
Alexei sloshed hot coffee over his hand, suddenly much more wide awake. “Ah,” he said. “Better than I speak Dolphin, but that’s not saying much.”
“Uh huh.”
Now that he was more alert, Alexei thought he heard an odd off-note behind the laughter. Peering over his mug at her face, he saw lines of tension that weren’t usually there, the skin stretched taut around her eyes and mouth.
“What’s up?” he asked. “Is something wrong with your dad?”
“No,” Bethany said. “I haven’t even gone in to see him yet this morning. Just some bad news in the paper.” She handed it to him. “I was debating about whether to tell my father or just hide it in the recycling before he got up.”
Alexei drained his mug and clunked it down onto the counter so he could take a look. The newspaper was folded to the third page, where a brief article showed the picture of an older man with his arm around a young boy, standing proudly in front of a small fishing boat. The headline read “Third Generation Fisherman Lost at Sea.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexei said. “Someone you knew?” He scanned the rest of the article quickly and felt a gnawing in his stomach that couldn’t be blamed on the coffee.
“One of my father’s friends from his days on the water, although they haven’t kept in touch much since my father’s accident. Or, to be more accurate, my father didn’t encourage anyone who tried, so they all eventually gave up and left him alone, the way he wanted.” She sighed, her shoulders drooping a little.
“Henry was a nice guy. That’s his grandson in the picture with him. The kid worshipped him.” She wiped away a tear without noticing. “It’s an occupational hazard, and the families are always prepared for the worst, but the officials can’t seem to figure out what went wrong this time. The weather was fine, there was nothing wrong with Henry’s boat that anyone knew about, and Henry was never reckless or careless. I talked to his daughter a few minutes ago and they’re completely baffled.”
“Are they sure he isn’t just missing?” Alexei asked, even though he knew the answer.
“Pieces of the boat were spotted by another fisherman,” Bethany said. “Small pieces. They haven’t found Henry or the other two men who sailed with him, but they don’t really expect to. There were sharks in the area where they found what was left of The Maryann.”
“I’m sorry,” Alexei said, handing her back the paper. She crumpled it up and stuffed it in the garbage, then blew her nose. He put his arm around her and gave her a brief hug, trying not to be distracted by the scent of her shampoo, a mix of lemon and lavender that went straight to his head. He wished he could do more, and an unwelcome echo of remembered helplessness made his muscles bunch and quiver.
“Me too,” she said. “Let’s go get my father out of bed, shall we? For once I might actually be grateful to hear him gripe at me about my lousy cooking.”
*
“Do you think it was the kraken?” Beka asked him later. He was still at the house, minding Calum while Bethany was at the bar, so Beka had come over. They sat in the back yard, conversing in low tones. Calum was asleep in his recliner in front of some game show, and Lulu lay panting at their feet, occasionally shifting position in a futile effort to get more comfortable.
“Maybe. Probably. This guy was an experienced sailor and he disappeared in about the same area as the dolphins reported seeing their monster. About ten miles away, but in the ocean, that’s not that far.”
“Why that area of the sea?” Beka wondered out loud, more to herself than to Alexei. “It’s open ocean with nothing around except fish, before the fish disappeared. Why would a kraken suddenly be hanging out there?”
“And where did it come from? I mean, if the thing had been around all this time, I’m pretty sure someone would have noticed.” Alexei tugged on his beard. “Did the Merpeople and Selkies come up with anything else useful?”
“They’ve just got stories left over from hundreds of years ago. The elders didn’t know anything more than the folks we met with,” Beka said. “So if there was one, it either went away or went into hibernation or something, and now it’s back.”
“Huh.” Alexei tried to wrap his brain around a gigantic hibernating squid-monster. “So what brought it back or woke it up again? And why?”
“All good questions,” Beka said a trifle grimly. “None of which I have any answers to. I’m not even sure where the hell to look for any, but we have to do something, or I suspect people are going to keep dying, and their blood will be on my hands.”