Page 90 of An Invocation of Monsters

“We owe you for Willow’s life.”

I didn’t cringe, although the sound of Mary’s voice was one of the most unwelcome things I’d ever heard in my life. I turned off the water and grabbed a hand towel, looking at her.

She stood in the middle of my room, cupping her own elbows. There was an odd look on her face, both knowing and strangely eager.

“You don’t owe me anything.” My voice was hollow and numb. “She would’ve died otherwise.”

“Nevertheless.” Mary sighed under her breath. “I’ve told her a hundred times to stop climbing that tree. She was extremely fortunate you were there.”

I shrugged noncommittally, hating this. The attention that came with the healing hands.

The fact that they knew, and if they told anyone else, I might end up someone’s guinea pig.

“It’s also unfortunate as we were going to hold another ceremony tonight.” She glanced out the window, scowling at the far-off cliffs. “We would like to induct you into the Society sooner rather than later, but it requires all of our members to be present.”

It seemed callous to care about that when Willow had almost died.

“It’s fine. I can wait,” I said, trying not to mumble again, even though I wanted to sink through the floor and vanish.

I wished my special magic power was being able to reach into people’s minds and erase their memories. I reached for the place where I kept my gloves, only to find it empty.

Right. I’d left the gloves back in the meadow, under the cherry tree.

I felt naked without them.

Mary smiled gently at me. “I know it's uncomfortable, being exceptional,” she said. “But as Joseph said, you are one of a kind. You’ll have to get used to it sometime, you know.”

I nodded, and Mary finally left. The relief that hit me when the door quietly closed was like a tidal wave.

“Kiraxis,” I whispered, getting down and crawling under the bed.

I just wanted to be held. Especially by a monster who didn’t just want me for what I could do.

He was there. I landed not just in the nest, but on a warm pile of muscular limbs. He grabbed me as I dropped, preventing me from impaling myself on claws.

“There’s got to be a better way to get down here,” I said, looking at Kiraxis’s gleaming red eyes, then grabbed him in a tight hug.

“What has happened, my little one?” he asked, all of his limbs curling around me.

He let out a low purr, and the sound and feel of it rumbling through my bones was instantly soothing.

I sighed, resting my cheek against his chest.

God, he was so warm. I felt protected in the circle of his arms. Like nothing in the world could touch me here.

“I healed someone. Now they all know.”

“You should not feel shame about what you are,” Kiraxis told me.

“But if anyone else finds out… they could take me away.” I didn’t know how to explain to him that I’d end up in the basement of a government lab. He had no frame of reference for such things.

“If they tried to take you, I would kill them,” he said in all seriousness. “I would tear their still-beating hearts from their chests and eat them.”

I looked up at him, and a smile tugged at my lips.

How could a threat to rip out someone’s heart and eat it actually make me feel better? What sorcery was this?

But it did. For the first time that day, I found myself relaxing.

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