Page 46 of An Invocation of Monsters

From the first incident, I’d known that to do otherwise would make me a target. If I’d ever been open about what I could do, it would’ve started off innocently enough.

I would be a miracle, a savior.

But that wouldn’t last forever. Nothing exceptional was allowed to live on its own and exist.

It would start with someone studying me, and progressing to me living the rest of my life in a room by myself, never able to leave, at someone else’s beck and call. Scientists, the military… they would all be clamoring to know more, more, more, until everything that was Elle was drained away.

I’d already brushed close to that fate once, and once was more than enough. I’d rather be on my own than let the secret out.

And maybe that was why I was drawn to these monsters.

They were, in a way, like me. Unusual, exceptional, living alone on the outskirts.

I just hoped that they wouldn’t see me as a commodity. I’d already risked my secret by healing Toth, but there hadn’t been a rush of monsters seeking me out since then.

He’d kept my secret so far.

But living that way, cut off from all others, had made me self-sufficient. I liked knowing that I was responsible for myself and no one else.

My hands were my problem. If I didn’t let anyone into my life, they couldn’t sell me out.

And most of all, I looked after myself. I prided myself on being able to stand my ground.

But the pale thing had terrified me so badly that not once did I consider making a fuss out of Drazan protecting me.

It was like a slap in the face, a wake-up call that maybe… just maybe… it was all right to let someone else intercede on my behalf every once in a while.

Even—especially—if that someone was a monster.

I leaned my head against his shoulder as he carried me, hiding my face, unsure if he could see my expression in the darkness.

It was so nice to just be held and let the fear dissipate.

The creature will not come out if we are here, Drazan told me, his bioluminescence flashing in shades of yellow, orange, and violet. It fears our kind. As long as you are with one of us, you will be safe.

The water was growing shallower, allowing the light of the stars to filter through it. I could just make out the ridged lines of Drazan’s skull, the twists of the tentacles wrapped around me.

When he broke the surface, and I took a gulp of air, there was no sign of the creature. The forest was silent once more, the sensation of malevolence no longer crowding my senses.

“What was that thing?”

A creature not of this world, nor yours, he said, sounding grim. It is an anomaly. An unwelcome intrusion into our territory. Whatever it is, it has no name.

Another shiver coursed through me. What could be so horrible that even the monsters of the Void would find it alarming?

And he had used the word I’d thought of—anomaly, a creature outside the natural order of things.

Do not worry, Drazan told me. We will not allow it to harm you.

“Can’t you… I don’t know… kill it?” I looked up at the monster’s face, trying to read the emotions in the color of his lights.

The yellow was still bright, but the edges were tinged with an angry, alarmed scarlet. I wasn’t sure how I knew, but I was positive that particular shade of red did not signify horniness.

Moving slowly, not wanting to alarm my eldritch bodyguard, I reached up to run my fingers along one of the bony ridges of his skull, touching the row of lights.

They were embedded within his skin, and I wracked my memory for what they were called in octopi and other bioluminescent sea creatures.

It came to me a moment later: chromatophores.

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