“I don’t think that’s a whale,” Remo breathed. “I think that’s trouble.”

I let go of him and clutched the railing edge. “How far are we from the docks?”

Remo looked over his shoulder. “We’re right in the middle of the trip.”

“Oh fricky dicky, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?” I whispered.

Ernie shot down beside us. “I’ve got bad news and worse news.”

I looked at him. “Spit it out, Ernie.”

He grimaced. “Bad news is that out there is someone from Hera’s team. Worse news is, it’s Poseidon. You know, father of Theseus, who you recently offed?”

“Fricky dicky” didn’t even begin to cover things. “I don’t suppose we can hide?”

“He knows you’re here, and whatever he’s sending is coming straight for the boat. He won’t spare the people on here, Alena,” Ernie said, shaking his head. “I don’t know what we can do to stop him.”

I looked at the boat, the humans on it. While there weren’t that many, there were enough that it would be a huge loss if the god of the oceans decided to take the entire ship down.

I grabbed my jacket and pulled it off. Next came my shirt, boots, and pants. I shoved them all at Remo. “Meet me at the hospital.”

“Wait, what are you doing?”

I didn’t give him a chance to stop me. I scrambled over the edge of the railing, stood on the thin metal lip for a split second, and then pushed off into the open air. I hit the water feetfirst, the icy cold swirling over me. For just a moment I hung suspended in the ocean. I could almost feel the animosity from Poseidon rolling over me, making me unwelcome in his world. I kicked, propelling myself through the water as I thought of only one thing. Shifting.

CHAPTER 14

The change took me as swiftly as ever, but there was no smoke to disguise it in the water. I watched in fascination as my legs blended together, my arms stuck to my sides, and I slipped my human guise to grow into a Drakaina. I felt nothing, which made watching the shift even stranger to actually see.

Snakes could swim, I knew that much, and I’d banked my life on it.

The Drakaina in me approved, her pleasure rolling through my body. I swam to the surface, my tail propelling me as I sped away from the ferry boat. I didn’t dare even glance back. I knew without looking that Poseidon and whatever he’d sent after me would follow. What I didn’t expect was the creature that ripped out of the depths far below me, tentacles reaching for my multicolored scaled body.

I swam harder, the surface of the water holding me, as a multitude of suction cup–covered tentacles waved at me from every direction.

“You can swim as fast as you like, Drakaina, but in the water you are mine!” a voice roared and echoed through the water, battering against my skin with all the power of the ocean behind it.

A tentacle wrapped around my middle, and I coiled back, driving my fangs into it. It let me go, and I shot back to the surface, swimming with renewed vigor, sucking wind hard in case I got dragged under the waves. I might be strong and filled with venom, but I needed to breathe.

“Take her, kraken.”

Fricky dicky, someone please tell me I heard wrong. I was grabbed by the tip of my tail and jerked, full length, into the air. All thirty or so feet of me hung upside down. I spun to see the face and parrot beak of the kraken staring back at me. Its eyes were flat black and dead, as if there were no soul inside there. For just a moment I wondered if my eyes looked the same when I was a Drakaina, but I shook it off. No time to wonder anything but how the heck I was going to get out of here alive.

I lifted myself up as fast as I could, driving my fangs into the tentacle holding me. I bit down on the squirming flesh, thinking only of undercooked calamari. Over and over again I bit the kraken until it finally let go and I was dropped. I shot down, expecting to hit the water.

But the kraken caught me in its beaked mouth and bit down. This was it, I was going to be cut in half. I flexed my muscles, braced, waiting for the slice that would kill me.

The beast didn’t bear down with the full power of its jaws, but instead held me even as I could hear its heartbeat slow, death coming for it, my venom coursing through its thick flesh.

A coast guard ship zipped between us, and the kraken slowly lowered me down so I was eye to eye with the captain of the ship. Even if I hadn’t known already, I would have figured he was part of the pantheon. He had the same blond hair and blue eyes and glow of power around him, not to mention a distinct resemblance to his brother, Zeus. Then there was the school of fish that swam in circles around his boat, leaping and bobbing to the surface as if trying to get his attention.

“So you are the Drakaina who killed my son?” He glared up at me and pointed a trident that was barbed on each of the three tips. If I were a betting kind of gal, I’d say that the weapon would do me some serious harm.

I squirmed, thought about shifting, and before I could change my mind, the shift took me. I yelled as I fell from the air, flailing as I headed straight toward the deck of the boat.

The kraken shot a tentacle out and caught me by one ankle, holding me right in front of Poseidon.

We were eye to eye, even though I was upside down. He glared at me, his frown kind of looking like a smile from my vantage point.

The trident wavered in front of my face. “No last words? No begging for mercy?”

I clenched my jaw several times, at war with myself before I finally spoke the truth. “Your son was a complete donkey, and you should be ashamed. I didn’t want to kill him, but he was killing my friends, and I had to stop him.”