Page 25 of Misfit Monsters
I’m hurting them. I didn’t mean to.
I’m sorry, so sorry.
I don’t know how to stop it.
9
Jonah
When I step into the administration meeting room, Peri ducks her head where she’s standing before the curved table. Her petite but curvy frame tenses just slightly, the way it always does when she sees me.
Because she’s afraid of me.
Pretty much every shadowkind at the academy either fears me or resents me—or both. As soon as they find out my unique purpose here, as soon as they realize I’m one of the few humans with powers to rival their own, there’s a shift in the way they look at me. Something hardens in their eyes, whether stiffening like steel or going distant and glassy.
With Peri, it’s worse than most. Her fright isn’t based on hearsay—she’s experienced the snare of my sorcery firsthand.And she hasn’t switched to being angry about the assault on her mind like many beings do.
It’s as if she’s bracing herself, trying to shore up courage in case I inflict my magic on her again.
Unfortunately, today she has good reason to be scared, just not of me. Out of the six people who’ll be deciding her fate, I’m probably the least of a threat.
As I take my spot behind the table, Albumin stalks in. The vampire positions himself at the far end, and the meeting can begin.
When Shanty clears her throat, I can’t stop my gaze from darting to the empty seat beside her. The place where Rollick would sit if he’d joined us.
The demon who founded this school should weigh in on matters as serious as this. He’s been away much longer than usual.
Pearl is his closest associate here, or at least the one least afraid of badgering him when she wants answers, and all she’s been able to say is that he has “personal matters” to attend to. I hope Quinn, the human woman he’s devoted to, is all right.
If it wasn’t for her—well, for both of them, but mostly her—I’d have died at age three.
Of course, I can’t say for sure that Rollick would have decided in Peri’s favor even if he were here. Every expression around the table is solemn, even Pearl’s, despite the succubus’s usual bright energy.
Shanty fixes her solemn stare on Peri. “Periwinkle, do you know why you stand before us?”
Peri’s head bobs lower in a nod. A soft glow wavers through her striking teal hair: flickers of a sickly yellow that matches her anxious stance and a deep maroon that might be shame.
Her voice comes out quiet and strained. “I hurt people.Other shadowkind. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—I tried not to.”
Toni speaks up in her usual crisp tone. “You don’t deny it, then? The wave of dark energy that swept through the school came from you?”
Peri’s mouth twists. Her pained expression looks so wrong on her sweet face. “I wouldn’t lie. That’s how it happens. If I get too happy, light bursts out of me. If I’m upset…”
Darkness.
We exchange glances around the admin table. None of us has ever seen a power quite like what Peri displayed this morning.
Shadowkind are at home in the darkness. It’s where they can escape.
But something about the shadows that exploded out of this innocent-looking being scraped against the essence of those who were closest. One of the students described it as sandpaper wrenching over his skin, another as a deep searing as if she was burning.
And it was over in a matter of seconds. How much permanent damage could Peri do if her power kept going?
“You were upset,” Pearl repeats in a softer voice than her wife’s. “Can you tell us what happened to bring you to that point?”
Peri stares down at her hands, which she’s twisted in front of her. “It was a lot of little things. I was in self-defense class and had trouble with the exercises. Some of my classmates poked fun at me, and others were annoyed. I saw a hunter net, and it reminded me?—”
Her words hitch to a stop. My throat constricts at the anguish that’s clear on her face.
