Page 15 of Monsters of Midnight

This bullshit had to stop. I couldn’t keep exchanging looks with Ryder.

“Is there anything in there in your research that tells you how I can implement it better?” I asked.

“Lady Albright is making a potion,” Katrina said. “It should help you manage them a little better. It’ll give you some control of the light. The biggest problem is you have to learn the language, because although you can communicate with the shadow creatures, you need to know what you’re saying and if you’re communicating in light waves that you don’t know how to control, then you won’t even know what you’re saying.”

“Here’s the potion,” Lady Albright said, handing me a mixture of some brew that smelled like wet dirt and an oil slick. The top of it moved in purple and green swirls.

“You’re kidding me, right?” I asked. “Is this like the hazing of the newbie?”

“No,” Katrina said seriously, shaking her head. “We really want you to drink the potion.”

I took the glass nervously, trying to act like it was no big deal, but I wasn’t really sure I should be drinking some weird looking potion that smelt like dirt look like oil and was supposed to give me power over my light. I stared at the liquid.

“It’s safe to drink.” Ryder’s voice made me jump, almost spilling the liquid, as I glanced over my shoulder and found he was right behind me.

Touching distance away.

“Of course, it is. I know it’s perfectly safe,” I said defensively, not wanting to offend the witches by having them think I wasn’t trusting them to drink their brew.

“I was just trying to reassure you,” he said.

“I don’t need your reassurance. How about you drink it,” I rebuffed.

“I hardly think a fire fly potion is going to do anything for a monster,” Ryder responded.

“Well, I’m not afraid to drink it. Anyhow,” I said, raising the glass in toast and throwing it back, emptying the contents into my mouth. It tasted worse than it smelled and looked. I jolted it down, feeling it bubble all of the way down to my stomach and hoping I didn’t throw up. Whatever this potion was going to do to me, the truth was, I was not reassured at all it was going to be good for me.

Chapter 8

RYDER

“It isn’t going to happen in minutes,” Lady Albright said as we all stayed in the circle, staring at Laney as if she was about to sprout a second head.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, reaching out to place my hand on her shoulder before I actually realized what I was doing. I quickly withdrew my hand. Why was I suddenly always trying to touch Laney? It made my stomach unsettled.

She looked up at me, her big brown eyes flat. Worried; with a sheen of unshed tears. I hated that look on her because I knew why it was there. It was there because Caroline was dead. I probably had the same look on my face.

“Feels like it’s going to spew out of both ends,” she deadpanned to the witches.

“Why don’t you go lay down,” Magnus said, his tone full of concern.

“Don’t ever, ever tell me what to do,” Laney growled at him.

Ratchet stepped in between the two. “Magnus, I don’t think she’s interested in you ever talking to her again.”

“What, now you’re going to be her watch dog?” Magnus asked.

“Whatever I am,” Ratchet said. “You lost any ability to talk about it. In fact, weren’t you supposed to be going to your mother’s? I’d be happy to escort you.”

Ratchet held up his hand to the side and pushed energy out of it, creating a portal in a ring of fire burning in the corner of the room. He strode forward, grabbing Magnus by the elbow. Magnus ripped his hand out of Ratchet’s. Regardless of what Magnus had done, he wasn’t going to take any crap from Ratchet. The two had always had a bit of an issue with each other. I’d often had a sneaking suspicion Magnus was a little jealous of my relationship with Ratchet, even though he always could’ve had that type of relationship with me, but he had chosen our mother instead.

Not that there was a problem between me and our mother. I loved her and cared for her deeply, but I put the needs of the earth ahead of the needs of just one woman. Whereas Magnus did the opposite. The needs of my mother outweighed the needs of anybody else on the face of the planet, including himself I sometimes thought. She was like the child who never grew up, even after all these hundreds, and hundreds of years, he still took care of. He was loyal to a fault to the wrong thing.

To the wrong person.

I agreed with Ratchet it was time he returned to her. I stared at Magnus. “You need to go.”

Magnus gave me a momentary look of defiance, as if he wouldn’t do what he was told, but then he turned and began walking toward the portal. Just then the alarm sounded on the rift map. I glanced over at Ratchet. He flew across the room, staring down at it.

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