Page 93 of Misfit Monsters
The winter fae opens his mouth and closes it again. His shoulders start to slump. “How were we supposed to know after everything before?”
Raze growls. “Because she’salwaystrying to help us, everyway she can. You kept insulting her before she had a chance to totally explain.”
Jonah is still staring at the churned up earth. “We need to know where the sorcerer went. She wasn’t sure he’d left. If he’s still lurking around…”
His gaze darts across the nearby trees and then back to us. “I should give you a stronger command of my own to bolster your defenses, in case he tries to impose control on you.”
For once, Hail doesn’t argue. He lifts his chin. “Fine. If I’m going to listen to any sorcerer, better it’s you than some creep.”
Jonah’s mouth twists, but he speaks his weird sorcerous language to all of us. I shiver at the command poking into my skull.
But there are worse ways of controlling someone. I know that too.
I spin around. “We need to find Peri.Shedoesn’t have extra protection. The sorcerer might go after her for revenge.”
Raze’s head jerks after me. His voice bellows through the trees. “Peri!”
Jonah touches his arm. “We’ll get Peri back, but someone needs to follow the sorcerer’s trail while it’s fresh. And probably not alone, in case he causes more trouble than we expect.”
To my surprise, Hail wipes his hands together and speaks in a more forceful tone than usual. “I played the biggest part in running the cream puff off. I owe her the biggest apology. Come on, fox. Let’s track her down and let the sorcerer and the basilisk hunt the villain.”
He wouldn’t be my first choice of company, but my preferences feel a lot less important than making sure Peri’s okay.
We head back toward the rift. The pushy atmosphere it gives off weighs on me even from many bounds away.
“Peri!” I call, as loud as my voice will carry. “Please come back!”
Hail adds his voice to mine, sounding a little hesitant. “Periwinkle! We know you were right!”
He makes a face at those words. As we stride around the jutting rock face behind the rift and venture into the shadows Peri fled through, I peer over at him. “Why are you so mean to her all the time? Why are you mean to any of us?”
Hail’s stance tenses. “Why should I be ‘nice’? What have you done for me?”
“You don’t think it’d make the mission easier for everyone—including you—if we’re getting along?”
“I didn’t ask to be here,” Hail mutters.
I click my tongue. “But you are and I am and she is. The job is what it is. And whatever you think about the rest of us,she’sbeen nice toyou.”
I’ve seen it with my own eyes. He can’t deny that Peri extended her generous gentleness to him just as much as the rest of us.
Hail doesn’t try. He’s silent for a few rasping footsteps.
Then he sighs. “I don’t see why. It doesn’t make sense. Nothing about her makes sense.”
I have to laugh. “I think she’s theonlybeing I’ve ever met who makes sense. The problem is that the rest of us try to make everything so complicated.”
Even me, for all I try to simplify my life to jokes and games. MaybebecauseI do that.
A pensive expression comes over the winter fae’s face, but I like it better than the sneering one he often puts on.
“Peri!” he hollers again.
I pitch my voice even louder. “Come talk to us, Rainbow!”
Hail cuts his gaze toward me. “Rainbow?”
His tone is puzzled but not disdainful. I let myself grin at him. “It’s more accurate than ‘cream puff.’”
