Page 8 of Monsters of Midnight

“Do you think that’s what we’ve seen?” I asked, pointing at the side of the mountain.

“Not unless her light can destroy part of the mountain,” I said. “And I don’t think that’s probably the case.”

Bales was yapping at my side and making a lot of noise. “All right, let’s get up there,” I glanced down at the slathering beast, “and let’s just hope it’s not a trap.”

We cut our way through the jungle, pushing forward. The location was a lot farther away than it had seemed when looking at it from below the mountainside. Normally small bugs didn’t bother me, but here they seem to be attacking us en masse with mosquitoes and some sort of biting fly, making the efforts to get up the side of the mountain even more uncomfortable.

I turned back to Katrina. “Shouldn’t you be back by the fire doing some magic spell to get rid of the bugs?”

“The cauldron magic already worked,” Katrina waved her hand back towards the vale, where the fire still burned brightly. “She is free.”

“We need to try to get her safely off the mountain. Can you tell where Cade is?” I asked.

Katrina shook her head, nodding toward Lady Albright. “Can you tell?”

“His energy’s not in the volcano,” she said. “He must’ve had something pretty urgent to do if he was called away during the resurrection of his brother.”

“Ratchet, can you fly up there and take a look?” I asked as I turned around, but Ratchet wasn’t with us.

I took a deep breath, but I kept my opinion to myself. The last thing anyone needed to see was me having an opinion on Ratchet, on his inability to show up and perform the one task I needed him to do. Fair enough; this wasn’t exactly a monster bash, so maybe he didn’t feel like he was necessary, but he was my right-hand man. If I was fighting the thing that killed my wife, it would seem he would show up at the party.

“Is there any way we can get elevated visibility?” I asked. As much fun as it was running around in the jungle with Bales, it wasn’t really going to solve the bigger problem we had, which was how to find Laney.

“Not unless you want to bust out those wings,” Katrina shrugged.

“I want to, but I can’t hide them from anyone,” I said.

“Don’t think there’s anyone out here looking?” Katrina motioned at the darkness that surrounded us. “And besides, even if Cade is watching, he’s going to know something’s going on. At least we can meet them out in the open.”

“Good point,” I said. Clearly, I hadn’t been thinking straight. I was suddenly grateful for the witches who were here to help. I certainly needed it.

I took a deep breath and channeled all my energy into my shoulder blades, which was a spot at the back where it would open up for the black wings of my beastly nature to come out. I felt the powerful darkness rising inside me as I unfurled my wings quickly and easily. In seconds, I was taking off even though I left Bales beneath me.

It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the vast darkness in front of me, but within minutes, I was able to see dark shadows moving below in a helter skelter pattern of pure panic. I aimed for them. I could hear the yapping and barking of Bales as we went further up the mountain.

I flew down quickly, spotted and grabbed Laney. To my surprise, she had my brother. I landed a resounding blow on his jaw.

“I just saved him!” Laney exclaimed.

“You can’t seriously still like this guy?” I asked.

“Not liking him doesn’t make me want to kill him,” Laney argued. "Those are too like polar extremes.”

“He’s responsible for the death of Caroline!” I could barely control my anger, it thrummed explosively beneath my skin and I wanted to dismantle Magnus piece by piece.

“He’s your brother,” Laney said.

I glared at him, ready to rip his head off if Laney hadn’t been standing between the two of us. “Not anymore, he’s not. Come on, let’s get you off this mountain before Cade comes back and finds you escaped.”

Laney pulled herself out of my arms. “I have wings,” she said. “I don’t need your help.”

“No, I suppose you don’t,” I said. “You managed to escape from the clutches of Cade, rescue an undeserving fucker, and get off the mountain. I suppose you don’t need help to get through the jungle.”

Bales must’ve been on hyper drive because he burst into the clearing and hurled himself onto Laney.

“It’s okay.” Laney seemed to know the dog needed comforting just as much as she did, and probably I did as well. “We’re going to get her back.”

“Don’t give them false hope,” I said. “No human gets out of Undirheim.”

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