Page 20 of Monsters of Midnight

“Ryder had a run-in with the monsters,” Ratchet explained.

My eyes were closed, but I wanted to see Ratchet’s face when he said that. I wanted to see if he had intended for me to have that run in or not. I needed to know if he was on my side. The betrayal of my brother had been shocking, betrayal by Ratchet would be devastating, but I was too weak to even open my eyes. Instead, I lay with them closed as the witches hovered around me, waving all sorts of oils under my nose, and rubbing it into my limbs while they chanted spells and the warm energy, covered my entire body.

“What happened?” Laney asked. “I mean, really. You guys have run ins with monsters all the time you’ve been having them for hundreds and hundreds of years. What happened?”

“There were too many monsters,” Ratchet said. “I got him out as quickly as I could, but I made a mistake.”

I took a deep sigh of relief. He had made a mistake. I saw it. I’d known it. I just hadn’t believed it because of all the millennia that I had known him and all the battles we had gotten into and gotten through Ratchet had almost never made a mistake. Then, in a flash of insight, I realized I opened one eye, and I looked at him. He had a petal in his hand, and he was lifting it up to his mouth. His eyes were bloodshot. Whatever effects the flowers were having on him, they were impacting his capability of doing his job. They were making him dangerous.

Chapter 11

LANEY

“Oh, my God,” I exclaimed, as Ratchet and Ryder came through the portal or should I say, stumbling. Ratchet fell over Ryder, who was clearly weak and fell to his knees. I came rushing over, dropping to my knees to hold Ryder’s head in my hands.

“What happened?” I asked.

“We fought some monsters,” Ratchet said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders. He was covered in bleeding wounds and gashes where the monsters had been ripping him apart.

“I need some help here,” I said, shouting to the witches. Ratchet was over in the corner, looking in a bag of flowers. “This is not the time for that right now.”

Ratchet just looked up at me, his eyes blurry, shaking his head.

“You really care about him, don’t you?” Ratchet asked.

“It would help if you showed that you cared a little bit too,” I insisted.

“Oh, I care,” Ratchet said, as the witches gathered around me, and began holding their hands over the wounds that covered Ryder’s body.

“Get some cloth,” Katrina instructed me as I stepped out of their way.

I was grateful to have something practical to do, and I ran into the kitchen to grab some dish cloths.

“Is there a first aid kit here?” I asked Ratchet.

He looked up at me, his eyes narrow. “Yeah, it’s in the downstairs bathroom.”

“Well, will you run down there and get it?” I insisted, irritation floating in my voice.

“It’s all sweet words for Ryder and just shit for Ratchet, right?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “We need some help here, and I’m guessing this is all because of something you did.”

“Right, of course it’s always my fault. When things go well, Ryder gets the benefit of the doubt, of being the hero. When things go wrong, it’s all my fault,” Ratchet grumbled.

“Why are you acting like such a baby?” I asked.

“Great, now insult me,” Ratchet said, barely looking at me as he dug through his bag.

I stormed over to him and ripped the bag out of his hands.

“Give that back!” Ratchet insisted, grasping for the flowers, but I held them back, jumping out of his way. Having a little bit of faith that, even though he was a demon, he wasn’t going to attack me. He got this malicious look in his eye, and all of a sudden, I wasn’t so sure it’d been a good decision on my part.

He ripped it out of my hand so fast. I heard Ryder groan and struggle against the witches, but he wasn’t in a capacity to do much else. I took a step back from Ratchet. And I watched his face fall. The anger was gone in seconds.

“I’m sorry,” he muttered, grabbing the bag and getting the last of the petals out of it.

“They aren’t any good for you, Ratchet,” I insisted. “They’re making you do crazy things.”

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