Page 13 of Stone Temptation

Maren arrived at my lighthouse eighteen months ago, looking for a place to crash. Feeling particularly lonely that night, I let her in, and we bonded. She used my sofa bed a few times a week, the rest of her time spent taking care of her strictly private business.

I never pressed her on anything, grateful for her friendship.

Maren finished her sweep. “She’s gone.”

“Thank God for that.”

Jumping in my car, Maren taking the passenger seat, I drove along the winding, mile-long lane of Brinecrest Peninsula, heading for town. Waves battered the rocky cliffs either side of the lane.

“Music?” I suggested.

“Do it.”

Snaky jumped in front of the car.

I slammed on the brakes. “Pickles!”

Not again!

“Hello there.” Snaky twirled.

My headlights revealed more of her orangey scaled body, along with a spattering of boils and weeping sores. The crimson eyes of her snakes glinted in the light of a lamppost, their collective hissing rising above the waves.

I honked my horn. “Go. Away.”

“This slithering piece of trash is going down.” Maren surged out of the windscreen, passing through the glass like a ghost.

Snaky screamed as she avoided the mermaid’s tail swipe.

“Luke!” Snaky cried. “I need you!”

Ugh. Why didn’t she just quit? This human wouldn’t be giving up his protection to become dinner. And I’d had enough of being the object of appetites today.

Another monster crested the right edge of the peninsula. An orange octopus with two crimson fish heads spinning like an owl’s.

“Ignore her,” the monster drawled. “I’m the fun one.”

I got out of the car. My vehicle was also fortified, but I wasn’t about to drive it at the monster, especially with the sea to either side of me.

“You’re too slippery for my tastes,” I said.

“Don’t knock me until you sample every tentacle.”

“I’m good.”

Tired of this, I approached the monster.

“No! Stop!” it yowled.

Too late. I brushed a finger across one of the eight tentacles. The magic within me sizzled across the monster, passing from me to the octopus.

“Bye, bye,” I said.

The monster roared as green light rippled across it, a burst of green dust removing it from the peninsula.

Gone. At least for now.

Maren headbutted viper features. The monster staggered back, then dove wailing into the sea.