Page 9 of Minding the Minotaur
“Like,reallystrange,” I add, eyeing her reaction to see how far I can take this.
Her green eyes are curious. “Fill me in.”
“I met a… I er, met this, um,monster. Like, I guess the best way to describe him was half man, half bull.”
Instead of drawing back in horror or laughing in my face, Clem goes quiet. I watch her as she slowly puts her fork to her lips and chews on her noodles, then swallows, before saying, “Where?”
“In staff parking, would you believe?”
Clem’s expression barely changes, but her pretty mouth tightens at the corners.
I narrow my eyes at her. “You don’t seem that surprised.”
Clem digs her fork back into her bowl, avoiding my stare.
“Clem, have you ever seen one these… creatures?”
“Nope.”
“But you know something about them?”
She glances up at me. “Maybe.”
“Tell me.”
“I can’t, Sammy, I really can’t,” she supplies in a tense voice.
That’s just not good enough for me. Not after my encounter today. I scoot my chair closer to the table, dump my fork into my bowl and lean forward on my elbows. “Youhaveto tell me what you know.”
Still she doesn’t answer.
“Please, Clem,” I beg.
Finally, Clem huffs a sigh, drops her fork into her food. “There’s this other place, below Sparkle, full of… monsters.” She hesitates. “But it’s classified information—we’re talking top secret.”
I stare at her across the table. She’s been my friend for five years and never once mentioned this other world. A world full of minotaurs and god only knows what else.
“If it’s top secret, how the hell do you know about it?” I demand.
Clem glances around the room as if the walls might have ears. She leans in. “Promise you won’t tell anyone else? Ever.”
“I promise.”
“Not even your mom and dad.”
I snort. “As if they’d believe me. Cross my heart.”
Clem inhales a deep breath. “Jax told me.”
“Jax!” My mouth drops open. Jax is Clem’s older brother. Strangely, in all the time I’ve known her, I’ve never met him. She told me once that he lives and works on the outskirts of the city, close to the edge of the dome wall, for a packaging company or something. I guess I got the impression that maybe she wasn’t proud of him. Which is weird, because if you’re lucky enough to have a sibling, you generally like to boast about it.
“What does Jax have to do with monsters?” I pursue.
She hesitates again, stabbing at her noodles.
“He’s a peripheral.”
“A what?”
