Creature Discomforts (Descendants) Read Online Free Page B

October when she, Sid, and Kendra had faced a coven of sirens and their kraken. She wouldn’t have been able to defeat the coven—and she probably would have lost Kendra—if not for Kai’s help. It’d been a few months since she’d seen the merman, yet she’d recognize him anywhere. Though his skin was a darker golden brown than Kendra’s, his pointed chin and light eyes were a replica of her best friend’s.
    Kai pushed dark hair from his forehead and nodded to Rachel. “Hello, again,” he said, his voice so deep that Rachel imagined she could feel it under the water pulsing at her chest.
    Daphne inclined her head toward Kai. “I’m Daphne Chase,” she said, her voice suddenly going very ceremonial. She touched two fingers to her forehead just like the Corpus said was merpeople custom. “You must be Kendra’s father.”
    Kai returned the greeting. “An honor to meet another Descendant. Your daughter has been a good friend to mine, and that speaks well of your kind.”
    “Speaking of, where is Kendra?” Rachel didn’t touch her fingers to her forehead or speak with her mom’s careful formality. She’d been in battle with Kai, after all. The time for ceremony seemed past.
    Something like a snarl rumbled in Kai’s throat. “Still below with that guppy,” he said. He cleared his throat and flashed a guilty smile. “Though, that’s why I’m here. I, ah, I normally consider the mar-beasts to be the realm of my people, but I wanted to get your opinion on something peculiar. Kendra is always so excited when she visits, I don’t want to worry her with my paranoia.”
    Rachel cocked her head, regarding Kai. His clear blue eyes squinted in the last dying light of the sun, and the deep gold tint to his skin flashed like fish scales. “What’s wrong?”
    Kai worked his jaw and spoke carefully. “Not wrong, per se. I wondered, have either of you noticed anything odd with the terra-beasts?”
    Beside her, Daphne frowned. Her body was completely submerged up to her chin to keep warm, but Rachel could see her mom tapping a finger against her breastbone—a nervous tic when she was thinking—under the surface. “I did have a half-were come by for a strong sleeping draught from my greenhouse. Poor girl had driven half way across the state to find me. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days.”
    Rachel dipped her lips below the water for a moment to warm them before she spoke up. “I tracked a wendigo this last week. The second one in less than six months. That’s definitely strange, according to the Corpus.” And Sid , she thought, though she didn’t add that bit.
    Kai’s eyes were unfocused, like his mind was far away. His gills rippled in the salt breeze, and he absently wet them with cupped seawater from his palms. The light was failing fast now, and the three of them were cast in blues and grays.
    “Why … why do you ask?” Rachel tried to keep the tremor from her voice.
    Kai let his large hand rest atop the water and waved away the question, sending ripples washing over Rachel’s exposed shoulders. “I’ve noticed some creatures acting strange,” he admitted. “Though it’s probably nothing.”
    “It’s not another kraken, is it?” Rachel pulled her feet up into a ball near her chest. She could still remember the tentacles. The way the soft flesh had hardened to steel in just a second and pummeled the wind right out of her. If the merpeople hadn’t been there to help … Rachel didn’t like to think what could have happened. But it didn’t , she reminded herself. The merpeople sent the kraken back to the deep where it belonged. Rachel shook her head free of the memories and focused on Kai.
    “No,” he answered her. “Nothing that dangerous. Globsters have been spotted near shore; some of the hippocampus herds have been unruly. They’re acting as if they can sense something we can’t, as if there’s a coming storm.” He waved his hand over the surface of the water again.