Page 76 of Love & Heart Braking

“I shall go,” Bain announced.

Devereaux growled. “Not a chance.”

Fenton rolled his eyes. “Both of you can damn-well go. Just put your dicks away first.”

Nicely said. “Gug will need to join, too, so I can trace her connection through Nepos and to the estate.”

She shifted in her seat. “How close? I’ve been warned that any attempt on my part to save him will mean his death.”

“They’ll never kill your husband,” Soleil said. “Not unless he got free, and they had no way to contain him again. The twelve don’t like others playing with their toys.”

“You’d know,” Bain muttered.

There was a collective intake of air.

My friend hissed. “Yes, I fucking would.”

The braid between them shrank a little, and my chest ached. Their true love connection was faltering. What the heck happened between them the other day? They’d been doing so well.

“There would be the obvious barrier of the water,” Lerome said, not perturbed by the tension rolling off three of our members.

“I’m a good swimmer,” I said. “I’ll need an air charm.”

Gug shook her head. “If they have protections, they’ll dissolve an air charm—and any magic will raise the alarm.”

“What about magic within us and our intent?” I asked her. Pretty sure Rodney had a charm on our apartment that responded to ill-intent.

“Stronger protections may include alarms for nefarious motive, yes.”

Soleil said, “The twelve don’t use those. If they did, the alarms would go off each time another of the eleven families walked onto the property.”

That made a twisted kind of sense.

Devereaux finally budged his predatory attention from Bain. “So the Dethnels won’t know we’re there unless we’re seen. We’ll need to enter the water as soon as we reach the property. If we move on land, we’ll be spotted immediately. That’s why they keep the estate so flat.”

I shivered at the thought of all that murky water and the tentacles slithering beneath. “Anyone have the lowdown on a kraken’s powers?”

Gug had to be the oldest here, and she answered. “Most of their abilities rest in physical, water-based strength. They can breathe underwater indefinitely. What comes across as cumbersome on land translates to speed and might beneath the surface. Each of their tentacles is an arm, and can move and act independently of the others, and their beaks and teeth are vicious. The older kraken can sense movement through their suckers. Their ink, if you get trapped in the plume, will kill you.”

Awesome.

Devereaux sighed. “Krakens are masters at problem-solving and at deciphering even the hardest puzzle. That’s what makes them so good at binding people in contracts. Once they find a solution, it goes into their memory bank, and they can never be outwitted using the same tactic.”

Okay, that was cool.

Soleil crossed her golden legs. “They have three hearts, and to kill them, you must wound all three.”

“Where are they located?” Bain asked her.

Where did killing land on his moral compass, I wondered.

She didn’t look his way. “In their heads.”

“What’s the best way to get to the hearts?” the unicorn pressed.

My friend finally looked his way—from what I could tell with the blur charm on anyway. “Most people would aim for the base of their head at the back being careful not to puncture deeply enough to hit their ink gland. One may choose to damage their gills first to weaken them. But you may opt to go for the hearts via the anus,” she surged to her feet, “because you’re a fucking asshole!”

Soleil stormed out.

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