Page 17 of Their Pretty Little Monster

“I saved you the best part… pieces of its heart,” he declares, almost proudly in how widely she grins.

Bile hits my throat, and I pull it away from my mouth. “I can’t eat this.”

“Why? He was about to rip you apart as his meal, so instead, you enjoy the spoils of our win.”

“Right,” I say, the sarcasm dripping. “Because none of this is weird. You being a monster and eating lizard hearts after you slay them.” My words are precise, aimed with purpose. “And you’re no Viscount, are you?”

He chuckles, wiping his mouth again with the back of his hand. “The truth is, I am what you call a monster, though in my world, like you call yourself human, we are Shadowfen. And I am a Viscount on your planet, recently appointed as Nightingale Village’s new leader after the last Choosing Ceremony.”

I toss his words around in my mind—Choosing Ceremony, monster, Viscount—implications of something sinister. Does that mean Alina isn’t safe? It leaves me shuddering, but there’s nothing I can do about it when I have my own set of problems.

I picture him fighting the sea lizard and now eating it like a caveman. Yet, when I look at him, I’m reminded of how scared everyone in Nightingale Village was of him.

My thoughts bounce back and forth in my head.

“Many things aren’t what you think in your village,” he murmurs. “Your previous Viscount and those foolish Barons withheld information from everyone in order to control you. But that’s fine. Things in the village will change.”

“So, monsters rule the villages?”

“Well,” he pauses for a moment as if determining what to tell me. I suspect he’s holding a lot of secrets from me. “Cain, a monster, is the Elite City King who rules over the Elite City and all the humans who live there. These families are Elites, or royals, you could say, and each of the villages, like Nightingale Village, reports to them. You have a right to know as you are not returning there.”

I swallow hard at his certainty, except he has no idea how hard I’ll fight for my mother, the only family I have left.

“How will you do this, if you’re here? I had no idea monsters still remained in our world after the Day of the Choosing, or could even become Viscounts.”

He shrugs. “In some rare cases, we can step into positions of human authority, and as I mentioned earlier, I will return to your village soon enough. They’ll barely notice my absence. Time works differently here than in your world. One of your days is a month for us here.”

My mouth drops open, unable to comprehend how that works, yet I’m instantly thinking of my mom and how I have more time to work on getting back to her without her being alone for too long. I’ll be back before she has time to miss me…

He continues, explaining how monsters come and go through their own portals on the day of the ceremony to collect their Offerings—humans like me—before taking them back to their world.

“Most humans view us as Gods,” he says, the corners of his mouth curling upward, clearly enjoying the idea of being revered.

He takes another animalistic bite from his meat, and never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a God devouring a lizard so savagely. An extremely handsome God at that, but still savage.

“I-I don’t know what to say.” There’s a torrent of information in my mind, feeling as though it’s going to explode with all these revelations.

“But enough for now. These aren’t matters you need to worry about anymore. Now eat. You’ll need your strength,” he instructs, his tone softening slightly. “The rain’s eased outside, and the Howler is making its way over to pick us up.”

“Howler?” I echo. Reflexively, I nibble on the meat skewered on my stick. My reaction is immediate—I flinch, pulling it away, but not before I’ve bitten off a piece and swallowed it. A sigh escapes me because, much to my dismay, I love the taste. It’s sweet, salty, and fatty. How can a drooling lizard taste so good?

“Sea vessel,” he clarifies, pulling me from my musings about the surprisingly delicious meat.

“Oh! And the… Howler is taking us to your home?” I ask, my curiosity spiked.

He pauses, a strange expression crossing his face, a slight crease at the bridge of his nose.

“The vessel, Howler, is my home. We live on the sea, for now, anyway.”

I blink at him, processing this new information.

“So, like pirates.” I offer a lopsided grin, my mind conjuring up images from one of my mother’s storybooks.

“I guess, if that’s easy for you to picture it,” he answers nonchalantly, then bites into his food.

I watch him for a moment, only to realize when I glance down at the stick in my hand that I’ve eaten mine without really paying attention. He hands me another meat stick, and I shake my head, but he insists. Reluctantly, I take it, admitting to myself that I’m weak for lizard meat, no matter how absurd that sounds.

Compared to what I’ve gone through today, I’m not even shocked anymore.

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