Page 100 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

“Elis, get everyone far from here,” I said, stepping out and holding the broom handle much like a fighting staff. “Don’t stop or look back. Just go.”

“Are you Fae?” he asked, ignoring my warning, his gaze sliding to my arms. To the markings.

My brows met. He knew about Fae?

“We should probably move now,” said Marcy, grabbing Austin and yanking on him.

He then yanked on Cadee in the process.

Marcy dragged them to a notched-out area of the history building. “I have Cadee. Go ahead and do what you do.”

Austin twisted around. “What the hell is coming?”

Elis looked to me. “I think Astria might be able to shed light on it.”

“Go! Run!” I shouted at them.

Neither of them budged.

Elis crossed his arms over his chest and opened his mouth to say something.

I’m not sure what it was because we were suddenly pinned in by a mass of my father’s creatures.

“Oh dear, looks as though they got over their fear of coming onto the grounds,” said Marcy.

“Are those zombies?” asked Austin. “Again? Come on, man. Zombies are so five years ago. Ghouls are kind of the new thing. I miss them. They popped like zits.”

I did a double take, shocked he wasn’t freaking out, and that he was talking so openly about zombies and ghouls. Were they commonplace in his life?

Elis continued to watch me. “Are they zombies, Astria?”

“No,” I said. “They’re stronger. Harder to stop.”

“What, exactly, are they?” asked Elis, taking a fighting stance, and then Austin did the same.

Neither seemed too worked up. Just annoyed.

I swallowed hard, the shame of my past standing around us. “My father made them.”

“No, he didn’t,” added Marcy from her spot near the building with Cadee.

I didn’t argue. Instead, I locked gazes with Elis. “They’re Frankenstein’s monsters.”

Austin’s gaze whipped to me. “For real?”

I nodded.

He grinned. “Cool.”

I blinked.

“Wait, does my brother know about this?” asked Austin.

Elis snorted. “Yes, but he never elaborated beyond having encountered monsters that were like zombies but not.”

ChapterThirty-Three

Stratton

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