Without waiting for a reply, Mazu climbed over Radley, much to his dismay. He held his hands up in the air as the kelpie sat on his lap and rolled down the window.
“Be careful,” Cricket told her, and the kelpie turned to meet her eyes.
“May you be as quick as a tsunami, Lady Snapdragon.”
And then Mazu literally dove through the window and through the wall of water surrounding them. Radley quickly rolled up the window as the ripples cleared.
They both remained silent for a moment as they sped through the long tunnel of water. It was as if they drove through a spinning funnel, the road built right in the center as the water swirled around it. Through the wall, the water was mostly dark except for phosphorescent creatures moving amongst themselves. Large shadows passed by in the distance, a few closer but not close enough to make out details.
“She’ll be okay, right?” Cricket mumbled, staring at a large shadow in the distance for a second before focusing on the mysteriously dry road again.
“She’s a kelpie. This sort of water is her home,” Radley answered, his eyes wide.
To their left, a shadow drew close to the edge, and they could make out the shape before the details came into focus. Cricket’s eyes widened, and she found herself flicking her eyes between the road and the massive shark keeping pace with them.
“Is that a fucking megalodon?” Radley croaked, his eyes so wide, Cricket wondered if he was going to soil himself. She wouldn’t blame him. Her own bladder felt weak at the sight of it. There was true horror on their faces as it followed along.
“I think so,” Cricket whispered, her voice barely loud enough to hear. The thing was easily fifty feet long, so massive, it blocked out the ocean behind it.
“Thank the forest that thing can’t move on land,” Radley breathed, keeping his eyes on it. His fingers were on the weapons panel, as if he’d forgotten they were there. Hopefully, he didn’t accidently press something.
The meg slowly moved away from the wall, the shadow getting slightly smaller, but before Cricket could breathe a sigh of relief that the giant shark was no longer following them, the shadow turned again, aiming for the tunnel ahead of them at a speed that unmatched the Ferrari. Still, she tried anyway, her instinct forcing her to downshift and shoot forward. Radley either hadn’t seen what it was doing or didn’t understand it, but Cricket did. She’d watched enough shark weeks.
“What—” Radley got out, his brows furrowed, just before the meg broke through the tunnel of water, massive teeth opened wide toward them.
Cricket screamed and ducked despite being inside the car. However, her scream wasn’t even the loudest in the car. Radley’s scream threatened to burst her eardrums as the meg attempted to bite them but missed by a split second as the Ferrari shot beneath it, saltwater splashing along the windshield from its body. The shark slammed into the opposite side of the tunnel and passed through back into its home.
Heart beating so hard it threatened to burst from her chest, Cricket stared at the straight road ahead of them, her eyes still wide. She turned to look at Radley where he sat plastered against the interior of the car, his chest moving up and down so hard, Cricket suddenly worried he was having a panic attack.
“Radley? Are you okay?” she rasped, her voice barely more than a thick croak. Her voice even quivered.
“Am I okay?” he grunted. “A big ass shark just tried to eat us! Of course, I’m not okay!”
“Do we need to stop?”
“Fuck no! Not with that thing out there stalking us. Are you insane?” He immediately reached across to start buckling her harness around her. “This needs done up. Luna, we shouldn’t be without seatbelts.”
Cricket couldn’t help but laugh as he latched her harness before fumbling with his own, making sure they were tight before he held on.
“You screamed pretty—”
“Stop,” he growled. “We don’t speak of this again.”
“Speak of what?” Cricket chuckled. “How a megalodon almost made us dinner or how you shrieked so loud, our windows should be shattered?”
Radley scowled. “I hate you right now.”
Cricket laughed harder. “The big, bad wolf afraid of a fish—”
The tunnel exploded around them, and Cricket broke off into a scream, thinking the shark had come back to finish the job. Instead, as water slammed into the side of the car, she saw it wasn’t the meg at all.
No. It was a massive fucking tentacle as it wrapped around the car and stopped them from moving despite her foot being on the gas pedal. The car revved as the creature snatched them up off the road just in time for a large face to break through and peer inside the car. A giant eyeball stared between them, freezing Cricket in her seat. Radley wasn’t screaming, not with sound, but his mouth was open in horror. Cricket didn’t scream. She couldn’t.
Not when she was looking into the eye of a kraken.