Page 17 of Misfit Monsters
The photos he flips through show young people with ink coloring their skin and hair all the colors of the rainbow. Metal glints from every place I knew you could insert piercings and a few more besides.
I wind a lock of my hair around my finger. No one would see the turquoise shade as strange in that kind of crowd.
At least, unless it starts glowing.
At the drumming of fingers on a tabletop, I peek over my shoulder. The icy man’s lips have curved with amusement.
“I’ve heard they have clubs where you can be free with your desires, for those who might want to indulge,” he says languidly. His cool voice gives away no suggestion that he has a personal interest, but he aims a suggestive look at one of the female students sitting near him. She flushes with a flirty giggle.
Oh. Memories flit through my head of club scenes I’ve seen on screens—limbs twining, mouths melding together. And more intimate embraces that always cut off so quickly…
A faint flush ripples over my skin. I dabbled in that kind of bodily play with a couple of other shadowkind years ago,but it was never as thrilling as humans make it seem. Maybe these people in Berlin are better at it?
It might be worth a quick trip just to find out…
My imaginings are cut off by the wasabi-bitter irritation that wafts off Jonah, though his expression stays mild. “That’s a topic better addressed in your Personal Relationships class, Hail.”
The icy man—Hail?—leans farther back in his seat with a blasé attitude, but I taste a lick of satisfaction like a dab of whipped cream. “It seems like a key feature of the place to me.”
His remark provokes another giggle from his neighbor.
A slight edge creeps into Jonah’s tone. “When you’re teaching the subject, you can make that call.”
He cuts off the conversation by turning toward the woman who joined him. “Our guest instructor, Crinkle, has spent the past few decades living among the mortals in Berlin. She’ll be able to fill in details I can’t and give you a shadowkind perspective on life in the city.”
Jonah and Crinkle go back and forth discussing the benefits, the potential problems most likely to arise, and which types of supernatural inclinations Berlin can best accommodate. Throughout the presentation, the sorcerer encourages us to think about whether we could see ourselves fitting into this place.
“It might seem far off,” he says, “but brief real-world practicums start at level two, and by level three we want you seriously considering and trying out locations where you might settle down for your first year of integration.”
A lot of the aspects he mentions sound lovely, but I have another voice in my head from years ago: Gracie’s awed tone as she told me about the city on the lake where she wanted to go as soon as she was old enough to leave home—the musicfestivals, restaurants with every kind of food you could imagine, so many parks and trees…
She drew pictures in my head with her words. I haven’t seenhersince that last night—since the night when I escaped?—
I already know where I’m going when I’m ready to leave this school. As soon as I’m sure I won’t accidentally blaze her away, I’ll go find her.
If there’s anyone I owe a heap of joy to, it’s her.
The talk shifts to questions from the students. After the first few, the brawny woman behind me raises her hand. “Isn’t there a higher chance of having a bad interaction with a mortal if you’re living in a city? I mean, with so many of them around?”
“Being surrounded by a lot of people can actually make you safer,” Jonah says. “If someone hassles you, you can slip away, and the chances of running into them again are a lot less than in a small town.”
The woman lets out a jovial chuckle. “Right, of course. And it’s not like any of them would stand a chance against us if push came to shove anyway.”
Her posture is all bravado, but a current of lemony terror touches my tongue.
I turn in my seat to give her a reassuring smile. “You don’t need to be scared of humans. Most of them aren’t bad at all. They want to be happy just like we do.”
The woman stares at me and then pulls her lips back in a snarl. “I wouldn’t be scared of any puny mortal.”
Her tablemate extends claws from her fingertips and flexes them at me with a menacing scowl. “A runt like you should think before you speak.”
Even if she’s trying to look and sound ominous, all I can taste from the second woman is more fear. I have to show them I mean well.
She doesn’t have any starburst points on her badge—she’s never hurt anyone before. Her implied threat is all defensive.
I try to make my smile even kinder in apology. “I only wanted to make her feel better. Neither of you need to be afraid ofme, I promise.”
The second woman growls and shoves to her feet. “What are you trying to say?”
