Page 63 of Becoming Monsterous

That, and Aleron is looking at them as if they're meat. He may not actually eat human flesh, but if the pleased expression on his face is any indication, he's enjoying their fear. Especially now that he's been freed from his contract enough to enjoy it.

Beneath the fear, there are other emotions. Enduring ones. The blonde summoner on the very left, for instance, has a long-held crush on the ginger-haired man in the middle of the group.

Above these emotions are more recent bits of worship, respect, and devotion. All of them pointing towards... me.

Wanting to understand them, I reach for those threads of emotion and pull on them until they unfurl.

The ginger-haired summoner has always respected and feared the gods. Knowing that I was born a human but have become one, he looks up to me—and sees me as a better, more respectful leader than the Magistrate.

The girl with a crush on him worships not me, but Madame Renoire. Her feelings of loyalty towards me are ambivalent at best. That's fair enough, and something I'm willing to accept.

Others among the summoners have similar feelings. Me, they admire. Renoire, they respect. They're devoted to her.

And I can make those feelings stronger. After all, itisn'tlike Aphrodite's manipulation if I just strengthen what's already there. Especially since I'm doing it in an attempt to save the world.

Grabbing onto their feelings, Ipushlove into them.

It's hard to explain, but it almost feels like gathering up my own love—for my three men, my friends, and others—then imagining it going towards them and filling up the existing channels of love within them.

Worship. Devotion. Loyalty. Admiration. Affection. These all grow.

Including the little crushes and bits of lust they have for each other—whoops! That wasn't my intent, but well... there are worse things in the world than a few summoners boinking, I suppose.

Madame Renoire watches me with a keen eye. "Satisfied?"

"Yes, though... I may need to practice a little." I blush. "I may have donetoomuch."

She chuckles. "You'll get there. It's difficult to adjust to, going from human to something else. Must be even harder to do it more than once."

"Tell me about it." I reach up to pet Cornelia's scaled head. "I didn't think I'd ever love the snakes in my hair, much less fall for the Minotaur, the Sandman, and the Mothman."

It really is a whole new world inside of me.

Time to finish making the rest of the world new again.

* * *

Somehow the Shadewound up right over Times Square.

Its undulating, terrifying body floats in the sky above the skyscrapers, illuminated by advertisements. The sun has recently set on the east coast, lending an eerie backdrop to its whale-sized body.

Tourists, of course, are taking photographs. They think it's some kind of balloon. Teenagers pose in front of it to post on social media. I can already imagine what the viral hashtags will look like.

"You couldn't get us back any further in time?" I ask Aleron, who manages to blend in with his small, feathered wings only because we're in the middle of Manhattan. "It would've been nice to get it before everyone takes photos."

"I'm running out of juice." He grimaces. "Renoire said she and some of the more experienced summoners will round up the rest of the loose strays once they're done remaking the gorgon cave. This is the last one that's shown up in a populated area, so it's all we have to take care of."

All we have to take care of.

It's a Shade—a giant ghost the size of a whale, with massive jaws, trailing fins, and a visible skeleton. It eatssoulsfor fuck's sake.

And I released it onto the world.

People are going to die because of me.

Chapter41

Ellie

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