Page 37 of An Inheritance of Monsters

Something about the hue of that light told me he was pleased. I wasn’t sure how to explain it, but the color told me that he was content.

But bits of bright blue were among the indigo now, along with quick pops of yellow. Something was bothering him.

“What is it?”

Your colors didn’t change. Zirin still had a lock of my hair wrapped around his webbed finger, the peachy color bright against his dark skin.You did want me, didn’t you?

“I did.” My blush deepened. “A lot.”

I wasn’t used to explaining my feelings to men, or anything really after the important stuff was done. Maybe that said more about me than them.

But I was perfectly happy to sit here on Zirin, happily fumbling my way through the words like a teenager.

But your color says you are unfulfilled. Zirin peered at my blue and peach locks.Should I try again?

“No!” The words burst out of me. “I will physically implode if you touch me again right now—I’m too sensitive. But, believe me, I’ve never felt anything like that before. I am one hundred percent, totally, and completely fulfilled.”

The yellow vanished, and the indigo returned.I thought… you were displaying a signal for me.

Understanding struck me.

He thought my hair color was like his rings, displaying my emotions.

“Oh… my hair is dyed, Zirin. I made it these colors on purpose.” For some reason, trepidation flashed through me.

What if he lost interest when he realized I wasn’t monstrous like him?

But he eyed it curiously, still playing with it.You can make it any color you want?

“Any at all. I just… this sounds stupid, but I’ve done these colors because these were the colors of our rooms back home. My brother had a blue room, and mine was peach.” I pushed a hank of it over my shoulder. “It just makes me think of good days.”

Zirin’s eyes flashed up to mine.You have a brother? Family?

I shook my head. Usually this was the part where I got choked up, but… I trusted him. “They’re all dead. It’s just me now.”

Zirin made an expression that might’ve been a human frown, and seemed about to speak again, but he suddenly tightened around me, his gaze moving to the grotto entrance.

I hadn’t been paying much attention to anything besides this little cove, but I followed his eyes, and saw something that made me blink several times to make sure I wasn’t imagining things.

I would’ve called it a storm, but it was like no storm I’d ever seen before.

Brilliant violet lights crackled through the swirling sky, and what looked like a solid wall of darkness was moving across the surface of the ocean all the way up to the sky.

But the wall was billowing and roiling—fog? Mist? Whatever it was, it looked like I could reach out and physically touch it, and it would feel as thick as mud.

And it was coming in fast.

Voidstorm, Zirin said briefly, wrapping his arms around me.I must take you back.

“Why? Can’t we stay underwater—”

I didn’t even get a chance to finish my question. Zirin plunged the both of us back into the sea, holding me close as he jetted us out into open water.

And out there, with the violet lightning illuminating the sea beneath the waves, I could see it.

The wall of darkness extended below the waves. Those strange, alienoid fish and tiny glowing octopi swam frantically ahead of it, fleeing the billowing darkness.

Things come with the Voidstorms, Zirin told me, scooping air into my mouth. We were moving through the water so fast my hair streamed behind me and I had to squeeze my eyes shut.Bad things you would not want to meet. You will be safe in your world.

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