Page 88 of Misfit Monsters
Periwinkle
Jonah looks at the trees around us and back at his phone. “It should berighthere.”
Mirage tips his head to one side and then the other before spinning around with a brief swoosh of a couple of fox tails. “If there’s no rift, there’s no work to do!”
Raze adjusts the bag of equipment slung over his bulky shoulder and frowns. “It can’t have disappeared, can it? Do rifts move?”
“They aren’t supposed to.” Jonah’s forehead furrows. “But this wasn’t like any other rift we know of, right?”
A wobble travels through my veins. “And the creatures coming out of it change like no other shadowkind do. Maybe it’s all part of the same energy—always morphing.”
Hail folds his arms over his chest. He offers a typically blasé tone. “If Rollick’s been getting reports of the strangeactivity up here for months, then the rift mustn’t move very far. Let’s get on with finding the stupid thing.”
Jonah motions to the rest of us. “We should spread out. Pay attention to the atmosphere—if you sense anything like the vibe the rift gave off, shout for the rest of us.”
As we fan out from the spot where the weird rift stood before, my skin creeps. I stay where I can still see Raze’s huge, sinewy form between the trees.
We haven’t come across any sign of more strange beings so far on this trek, but that doesn’t mean we won’t. And I’m not all that confident in my ability to protect myself.
I extend my awareness as far as I can, but I’m built for picking up on emotions, not bizarro shadow-realm energy. I haven’t noticed anything at all when the fox shifter lets out a bark.
“What is it?” I ask, hustling over to him.
By the time I reach him, Mirage’s emotions have calmed. He points to a crumpled mass of shiny paper on the ground. “No rifts, no worries. I stepped on that, and it startled me. It’s not part of the forest.”
I bend down. The paper is shiny because it’s coated with aluminum foil, the surface flecked with dirt… as well as dried smears of a dark red substance.
My pulse hiccups. I pick the paper up and give it a sniff.
The spicy tang of tandoori fills my nose. I drop the wrapper as if it burned me.
Jonah and Raze lope over from opposite directions. Raze takes one look at my face and bares his teeth. “What’s the matter?”
I shake my head quickly. “It’s nothing. Just some garbage. Another random coincidence.”
Lots of people eat tandoori. We had it at the academy just days ago. There’s no more reason to think this piece oftrash is connected to my former captor than our cafeteria meal was.
Other than the fact that we know there’s a sorcerer with questionable intentions operating nearby.
As I rub my arms to will down the goosebumps, Jonah picks up the crumpled wrapper. “We need all the evidence we can get.”
Mirage sniffs the breeze. “The air is a little… wobbly this way.”
I step forward, ignoring the twinge that’s creeping up my ankles. “Maybe that’s where the rift wandered off to. We can find it!”
Raze has only taken a few more steps before his tongue flicks over his lips. “I can smell one of those unusual creatures. Not too fresh. The trail’s at least a few hours old.”
Jonah perks up. “Follow the trail back to where it came from.”
We tramp on through the woods, all together now. After a couple of minutes, a tingle of energy passes through my essence.
My head jerks up. “I think I can feel it.”
Hail nods, his pale face more intent than usual. “We’re close.”
We pick up our pace, twigs crackling under our feet. The energy reverberates more thickly through the air, and my nerves start jittering again.
We reach a small glade with a ridge of rock at one side. The rift looms right in front of the low cliff, blurring the vegetation I can see through it.
