Page 21 of Monsters of Mayhem

“Yes. She gave me the recipe. Once we get back to Alameda, I can start making meals myself.”

“Are the flowers strong enough to help you make a portal?” I asked.

“I don’t know but I’m going to find out,” he said, taking another bunch of flowers straight out of the ground and eating them.

I watched him quietly for a moment. “She said it would take some time.” I glanced around the valley and decided to head up to a sharper point in the hillside.

“She said we could see the field from up here. We’ll be able to see the rift where the monsters came through, specifically the area where they found those monster runes,” I said. “I’m just going to go over the rise over there at the edge of the valley.”

When I glanced at Ratchet, he wasn’t paying attention to me. He was intently focused on the flowers he was eating. He looked like a child who had been given a bunch of candy and didn’t have the good sense of stopping when they had eaten enough. In truth I didn’t know how much was enough. I wanted him to have plenty so we could at least get out of here.

“I’m going to go check it out while we wait for the flowers to take effect,” I grunted.

It didn’t take long for me to get to the rise. My body was so numb and frozen that it almost moved like a machine in the cold. My monster body had responded to the cold; it had grown more hair and adapted. That was the good thing about monsters. We adapted quickly. The bad thing was the monsters I was fighting adapted quickly also.

When I got to the rise, it was easy to see where the rift had been. There were dark marks all along where the monsters had returned to the rift and gone back to their homes. The rift wasn’t such a bad home. I didn’t understand why they’d had a sudden urge to come to Earth now.

Was there something drawing them here or guiding them to come to this plane? If I was honest with myself, deep in my gut, was that the thing I was worried about the most? The monsters were one thing, but whatever was driving them to come here was something completely different, something I’d never faced before in my life. It was something I wasn’t sure I was prepared to face. My eyes traveled over the path of the rift and even from here I could see the section of ice Jaq had cut out, the section with the runes in it.

The best I could figure was some sort of monster loving creature had come here and thrown the runes into the rift in order to get it open. It had worked, but what we had to figure out was who had done it and get them to stop.

My eyes narrowed as I took in strange marks in the ice. Long curving lines almost like multiple snakes had moved along the ground making a distinct pattern. Something had definitely been here before the monsters had arrived. Something slithering and dangerous, I could feel it in the air. They looked like the slithering leg marks of my very own father, Typhon. I turned around as Ratchet grabbed my shoulder and made me jump.

“Did you see anything?” Ratchet asked.

I pointed down below. “Just strange markings in the snow. No idea what they mean.”

“I’ve got good news for you, brother,” he said with a grin. His eyes lit up bright red and ready to go. He held up a hand. In the palm of his hand was a flame. “You’re ready for a portal?”

“Yes,” I said eagerly.

“Where are we going, Captain?”

“Alameda,” I said immediately. “Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter 14

“Where are you? “I asked when Laney answered the phone.

“I’m looking for you?” Laney said. “What’s this number? No one’s answering the other number anymore.”

“It’s not my phone. The other number is Sofie,” I replied.

“Who are all these people you’re hanging out with?” Laney queried, sounding concerned even through the phone line.

“I can’t explain it all on the phone,” I said. “I need to see you, but I need…I need a plane ticket.” I said the words quickly. It was embarrassing enough I couldn’t access any of my money; I didn’t even have a pair of shoes. I glanced at Eunice; I figured I could probably get her help on the shoe part.

“Why don’t you just stay put and we’ll come get you,” Laney said.

“We?” I asked.

“Magnus,” Laney gushed. “He’s been really concerned about you.”

“I don’t want to see any new people. I certainly don’t want to see…“

“He’s not new. You went on a date with him. You know him,” Laney said.

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