He frowned. “Look, I’m not saying that I’m some epic war hero, but don’t you at least want someone nearby with a ride? In case you need to run?”
“I thought you came up here to club, not to man my getaway car.”
“It’s a getaway van, now missing a bobblehead.”
“I’m sure you can find another one at a garage sale.”
“Not vintage. Maybe if I come with you, I’ll find one stashed in the dark-elf lair.”
I leaned my elbow on the table and rested my forehead in my hand. I didn’t usually have this much trouble getting rid of men—they all said something about the package not being worth fencing with my sharp tongue and my surly disposition. Dimitri had touched my tiger. What else did he want?
“I think your mom would be super pissed if I let you get killed,” Dimitri admitted.
“You can’t keep that from happening.”
“You never know. The getaway van can do zero to sixty in under thirty seconds.”
“That’s acceleration that NASCAR drivers fantasize about.” I leaned back and dropped my hand. “All right, how does this sound? You hang out at Nin’s tonight, and I’ll text you if I need help.” I mentally put waterproof baggies on my shopping list for the night’s activities. Chopper and Fezzik would survive getting wet, but my ammunition and my phone were another matter. “Maybe you can get some business tips from her. She’s smart. She’s only been in the U.S. for a few years, and she came with something like a suitcase and fifty dollars.”
Dimitri’s face shifted through a number of expressions as he seemed to war with wanting to go along with me and this new enticement. “I guess that’s not that far from Lake Union,” he finally said.
Depending on the traffic, it wasn’t. I only nodded encouragingly. Then started doing more research. Right now, I had a fancy hunch and not much more. Before I went for a midnight swim, I wanted to be reasonably certain that the tunnel entrance was in the lake. I didn’t want to miss the dark elves because the entrance was three blocks away in somebody’s wine cellar. I was positive that Willard didn’t have until the next new moon.
19
As twilight dwindled and I sat between a planter and two kayaks on the dark deck of a houseboat with nobody home, I found myself missing Dimitri’s company. He’d dropped me off and promised he would head to Nin’s food truck but said I should call or text or email or all three if I needed help. I’d left my apartment keys with him, so I wouldn’t lose them in the water.
My phone was zipped away in a plastic baggy with my extra ammunition, everything stuffed into a buttoned pocket. I’d also grabbed a few magical grenades that Nin had once sold me, promising they were waterproof, and food, water, a first-aid kit, a lighter, goggles, and a waterproof flashlight. My mother would be proud.
Whether or not I would go for a swim remained to be seen. It would depend on if the kraken showed up and I sensed a dark elf in the lake.
Hours of research hadn’t revealed anything definitive about underwater doorways, but it had lent more credence to my hunch that one existed. There was a history of strange things occurring at night in Lake Union, not just the supposed Loch Ness visits. People had reported everything from glowing lights under the water to inexplicable high-pitched keens that woke up residents but that nobody could pinpoint.
I was tempted to call out Sindari for company, and because he would sense magical beings much sooner than I, but if I did end up in a dark-elf lair, fighting for my life, I would need him at my side then. The longest I’d ever managed to keep him in our world was six hours, and if we engaged in a lot of battles, his ability to stay here would dwindle further. I had to save him for when I needed him.
Gradually, it grew darker, as much as it would with street lamps and lit houseboats all around the lake, and the headlights of cars brightening the freeway high overhead as they whizzed past. I touched a charm I hadn’t used since I visited the wyvern’s cave, making sure there was life down there before I committed to climbing down. That seemed like weeks ago instead of days ago.
As I held the heart-shaped charm and murmured the activation word, the lake came alive to me, thousands of fish that I could now sense swimming around under the surface. A few larger turtles and seals also plucked at my senses, along with hundreds of people in the rows of nearby houseboats.
I’d never used the charm in the middle of the city, and feeling so much life in all directions was overwhelming. It took me a few minutes to sort through it and verify that there wasn’t anything giant in the lake. No krakens. Not yet. Just a few thousand fish. A lot of them were swimming around the bottom of the lake not far from my spot. That much interest had to indicate food. Maybe the Parks and Recreation people tossed munchies into the lake so people would have something to catch when they fished.
Cars honked up on the freeway as traffic backed up. Those people from lunch probably weren’t the only ones heading into the city for the baseball game. What if the dark elves were fans and, instead of luring krakens in for their blood, they were all sitting around a subterranean TV watching the warmup?
“Sure, Val,” I muttered.
I leaned against one of the wood planters, the fragrant flowers of whatever bush it held competing with the dank fishy smells of the lake.
Chances were it would be hours until something happened—if anything happened at all. Doubts filled my mind as I waited, gazing around at all the city lights. Would they be visible from under the surface? Maybe this was still too much light for a dark elf. Was it more likely that the alchemist would choose the darker shores of the Arboretum or the Union Bay Natural Area to lure the kraken to?
But their tunnels were over here. Or so Willard had said. Did she truly know? Or had she been repeating unsubstantiated rumors?
I drummed my fingers, tempted to leave and look for a darker spot along the waterway, but I made myself stay put. If I caught a ride somewhere else, I might miss the kraken. I might—
An awareness came within range of my senses. The kraken? No, it was the dragon.
He was in the sky, not the water, flying over the city, his black body and wings invisible against the clouds. If not for my ability to sense the magical, I wouldn’t have known he was there. But I looked right toward him as he flew over the lake, and glimpsed two glowing violet eyes looking back down toward me.
“What a stalker,” I grumbled.
Zav continued flying north, toward Green Lake. Maybe he was simply out looking for bad guys. Or maybe he was looking for his own entrance into the dark-elf tunnels. Or maybe—
I sucked in a breath as I sensed another large presence. This time, it wasn’t the dragon, and it wasn’t with my innate senses. It was through the charm. A huge life form was swimming this way from the Ship Canal.
The kraken.
The charm didn’t identify life forms—it only gave me an idea of how large they were—but I knew with certainty that this was it. Tonight, there would be reports of a Loch Ness monster again.
I rose to my feet and re-checked my gear, making sure everything was buttoned, zipped, or buckled in. The kraken swam into the far side of Lake Union. Would it continue through and on toward the quieter and darker waters on the way to Lake Washington? Or would it dive down, lured to one of those wrecks?
It was heading toward the same area where so many of those fish were hanging out. I lurched to my feet. What if the dark-elf alchemist was the one feeding the fish? What if this was her bait? Something so yummy that the fish were coming in droves and the kraken had been lured in from miles away.
Something magical? I strained my senses, wishing they were stronger. Again, I was tempted to pull Sindari out, but I didn’t want to waste his time here.
My gaze fell upon the kayaks. “Let’s take a little ride out there, shall we?”
If I was right over that spot, I ought to be able to sense something magical. Magical fish bait? Who knew?
I found a paddle and eased the kayak off the deck, my weapons clunking the sides as I slid in. As I shoved off, I took note of what the house looked like from the water, so I could find it again and return the kayak.
The lake was calm without much of a breeze, so I didn’t have trouble paddling toward the fish meeting spot. The dragon’s aura plucked at my senses again. I paused and glared upward. If he came close, I would wave my paddle at him and tell him to get his scaly butt down here to help me.
But as I frowned up into the cloudy sky, I picked out two auras, not one. The dragon and a smaller but still magical creature. Another wyvern?
A distant roar floated to my ears, almost drowned out by the surrounding traffic noise. Whatever it was, they were fighting. I could just make out the smaller winged figure, a tail whipping in the air as it faced Zav. It wasn’t a wyvern. It was a manticore. It dipped as Zav arrowed toward it, then flew upward, using its talons to slash at the dragon’s underbelly.
I sucked in a concerned breath before I caught myself—there was no way I was concerned about that big arrogant jerk. If I was, it was only because of whatever spell he’d cast on me.
He didn’t need my concern anyway. A blast of raw power slammed into the manticore before the talons raked Zav’s belly. It hurled the smaller foe all the way down to slam into the rooftop of a tall building. The dragon streaked down after him, probably smashing deck chairs when he landed. The walls around the rooftop were high, so I couldn’t see what happened after that. I didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the manticore or glad that Zav was stealing away some magical criminal for judgment in another realm. Either way, he wasn’t here to stalk me, after all. And he would be too busy to help if I got into trouble.
Not that I’d expected or wanted his help.
I slowed the kayak, bobbing gently in the waves as I peered over the side. A faint yellow glow was visible, and I was close enough now to sense a hint of magic. Whatever bait was luring the fish—and the kraken—it wasn’t natural.
“So now what?” I murmured.
The bait and the kraken were interesting, but neither was what I wanted. I closed my eyes, trying to sense other magical beings in the area. The dragon and the manticore were far enough away to have faded from my limited range. But there was something else…