Page 10 of Becoming Monsterous

"I am." I stare him down, and for the first time, I see genuine respect, maybe even awe on his face. "You got a problem with that?"

"The exact opposite."

There's such admiration and honest affection in his voice that I have to look away, as distraught as I am pleased. I wish he had looked at me like this, treated me this way, from the moment we met. But my prickly Mothman has always been just that—and after seeing the battles between summoners and monsters, I'm not sure I can blame him anymore.

Of course he didn't trust me when I was a human with the powers of a deity. Especially knowing that meant I could order him to obey me. He must've been watching me warily, waiting for the first betrayal, certain I would turn against him. That's what every powerful human has done to the First Children, after all.

Well, not me. Not this time.

As we hatch a plan to take Aphrodite back into the Shadow World and trap her in the gorgon cave, where no one will be able to get her but us, I make a little promise to myself.

I promise that I'll never betray these three men or get in the way of their freedom.

No matter what I have to do, no matter what it takes, I'll find a way to make sure they're not under the heel of the summoners anymore.

I just have to figure out how to do that without destroying Earth as we humans know it.

Chapter8

Ellie

Ifeel like the guys are onto me. They know that Aphrodite can't possess my body while Medusa's full consciousness and soul are inside me. So they're wondering why I don't want to kill her.

"It just seems like it would be easier," Angus says, as he drags her thin, ragdoll body to the center of the gorgon cave and leaves it propped up against a stalagmite. "If we leave her here, she could regain consciousness. Or Eros could come find her."

"I'll reinforce the gates," I tell him, quickly reviewing the memory I have now of building them in the first place. It's odd—I know the memory isn't my own, but I can feel the bend of iron in my fingertips, tingling as I suffuse it with magic. "No one but a gorgon goddess can get in—Eros only ever gotnearthe gates, after all. Besides, he won't be able to do anything with an arrow of love now that she's out of it."

Morpheus is staring directly at me, a thoughtful expression on his face. My heart kicks up, beating faster than ever. I'm certain he's figured me out—he knows I'm scared of opening up the gates to Earth to release all the monsters, and he's going to call me out on it.

Instead he surprises me by saying, "It probably is for the best to leave her alive for now. Until we know with certainty what will happen when she dies. But we should do more than just leave her propped up here—we should take extra precautions, just in case."

After some spirited debate, we come up with an agreement. I'll use my gorgon venom to put Aphrodite in a permanent, poisoned sleep. Morpheus will fill her head with nightmares. Aleron will feed her fear, using it as a source to build a temporal anomaly that will make it hard for outsiders to even travel to this place. And finally, Angus will pile cave rocks on top of her body.

That way, it'll be hard for anyone to find her, time-consuming for them to dig up her body, and almost impossible for them to wake her up. Between that and the spell on the gates, we should have bought ourselves enough time to do more research.

Or, in my case, enough time to make up my mind about what I want to do with the power of love. Because it's one thing to kneel by Aphrodite's body and coax my snakes into sinking their fangs in her flesh and injecting her with their venom. It's another thing entirely to use those power to tear open a rift in time and space, releasing untold horrors onto the Earth.

Sure, I lovemymonsters. I want them to be free. I'm certain that, if given the opportunity to roam the Earth at will, the worst they would get up to is a little mischief and mayhem.

The other monsters I've seen... not so much. There are a few good ones, and plenty who deserve better. Many, like the shifters of Greymark House, can and have blended in with humanity time and time again.

But the monsters in the Shadow World—the ones with extra legs, who stole souls, ate bones, and sucked down blood with glee? I can't imagine a world with them in it that humanity survives. Just because they've become worse in the isolation and darkness of the Shadow World, doesn't mean they'd get better outside of it.

No, it's better to wait and figure out my options. Maybe there's some way I can convince the summoners to let the monsters free from their contracts without letting them loose on Earth.

"Almost done," Angus says, grunting as he lowers a rock the size of his massive chest onto Aphrodite's slim body. It sinks against her flesh but doesn't crush her—divinity has its perks. "Just a few more..."

Watching him, I admit to myself that there's another reason why I don't want Aphrodite's powers just yet.

For a brief moment, before she revealed herself in the courtyard, I experienced what it's like to have her powers of love wash over me and my men.

The adoration on their faces and in their voices. How they touched me, and worshipped me, making promises thick with love and desire.

I want to feel that again more than anything.

But this time, I want it to bereal.

"Alright, that's enough," Morpheus says, motioning for Angus to cut it out once the pile of rocks is nearly as tall as we all are. "Anyone who can move all of these quickly is too powerful for us to worry about, anyway. And they won't be able to wake her up once they have."

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