Page 74 of Misfit Monsters
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” I bend down to gather the pieces of the broken plate.
A sharper pang shoots up from my feet. My breath hitches, and I have to close my eyes for a second to squeeze back the tears.
Is it always going to be like this? I can be having the most wonderful day ever, and one wrong thing throws me totally off course.
How can I predict everything that’ll throw me back into the memories I’ve spent so long running away from?
“It’s okay,” Fen is saying, dashing over with another plate to help me collect the mess. “We can clean it up so fast.”
But it’s not okay. No one else freaked out because of a totally unoffensive food.
I smile and thank her and carry my ruined meal over to the trash can as if it’s no big deal. But the whole time a knife of doubt digs into the center of me.
What ifI’mbroken, as permanently as that plate? What if I can never get better?
And if that’s true, how can I be sure I won’t drag everyone I care about down with me?
28
Periwinkle
The camper van is loud and the benches kind of lumpy, but I have to grin as Jonah drives us away from the private jet on the landing strip, back into the farther reaches of northern Canada.
We’ve got our mission ahead of us, unsettling as it is. No confusing classmates are going to trip me up or laugh at me.
Through the steady rumble of the engine, I gaze out at the wild beauty beyond the window. Majestic forest ripples over the rocky hills.
Raze has decided to stay in physical form for the trip, sitting next to me with his arm tucked around my waist. He wafts fond devotion like French toast drizzled with the perfect amount of syrup.
Almost as comforting is the tickle of sorcerous protection wriggling through my brain. Jonah isn’t restraining our powers now that we’re away from the academy again, sincethat would defeat the purpose of testing us with this mission, and he needs plenty of energy to sway any strange creatures we encounter. But he did give us each a basic command not to listen to any other sorcery.
“It might not hold if this sorcerer hits you hard with his own orders,” Jonah warned us, “but it’ll hopefully buy you time to get away if you need to.”
We don’t know what we’ll find on our second expedition. We don’t know what the sorcerer will do if we track him down or why the shadowkind he’s directed morph so strangely. But at least now we’re more prepared.
Jonah calls to us from the driver’s seat. “We’re coming up on the first town Rollick suggested. Peri and Hail, get ready to interact with the locals.”
Raze frowns, but he can’t deny that he and Mirage would have a harder time blending in. Partly because of his massive form, and partly because none of us really trust Mirage not to whip out his ears or tails in view of humans.
The fewer that know shadowkind exist, the fewer there are to freak out about it.
I look down at my leather jacket, close my eyes, and flicker in and out of the shadows in a blink. My new attire includes a cloth hood on the jacket that I pull up in case my hair starts to glow.
Hail sighs as if this is all too much work for him. He adjusts the sleeves of his collared shirt to ensure they cover the stark blue veins that stand out against his pale skin.
A few minutes later, Jonah parks the van by a small clearing with a couple of benches, neither currently occupied. He twists in his seat. “The three of us will walk into town. Raze and Mirage, you can roam around and stretch your legs, but steer clear of humans for now, all right?”
Mirage springs into a handstand and then flips back ontohis feet with a flash of a grin. “Lots of space for the human race.”
Hail rolls his eyes, but he gets out of the van.
Raze hesitates and leans in to give me a quick kiss. “Be careful out there.”
I squeeze his arm reassuringly. “We’re just going to chat people up. But if there’s trouble, I’ll shout loud enough that you can hear.”
When we clamber out, Hail’s dark gaze is fixed on me with unusual intensity. He jerks it away and strides toward the road. “The town is this way?”
I glance over at Jonah for his answer and find that he’s also watching me and Raze with a tightness to his mouth I can’t read. A quiver of emotion passes by me too quickly for me to really taste it.
