Page 52 of Misfit Monsters
Mirage and the strange shadowkind have already outpaced me. I don’t know if they continued in the same direction or veered off somewhere.
I stop, surrounded by unfamiliar trees and bushes. The chill of the breeze penetrates the shadows.
With a shiver, I return to physical form. My awareness of the mortal world is clearer when I can use my senses fully.
I can’t see, hear, or smell any trace of my hiking companion or the creature we were tracking, though. If Mirage caught the beast, he’d call for me to join him, wouldn’t he?
Turning around, I recognize none of my surroundings. Which direction did I come from? Every stretch of trees and underbrush looks the same.
How do I get back to the van from here?
This is why I like cities. They have signs.
I should have laid down a path like that fairy tale with the two children. Shiny stones, not bread crumbs—bread crumbs are only good for the birds.
I walk a little way in the direction I think will take me back to the clearing where we spotted the creature, but it’s just trees, trees, and more trees. I’ve only gotten more lost.
It was important to find that shadowkind. It might help us figure out where the beings like it are coming from. But I can’t help anyone if I pull an accidental disappearing act.
What will Jonah think if he wakes up and I’m gone? Will Raze be angry? Will Hail call me useless?
I hug myself and peer around me. A sallow yellow glow tints the nearby trunks. My hair is glowing with my growing fear.
If Mirage hasn’t caught the creature by now, I’m not sure he will. He really shouldn’t be following it on his own after the last one attacked us out of the blue.
Assuming he didn’t simply ditch me.
No. I don’t believe that. I can still feel the comforting pressure of his hand around mine.
I lift my voice to carry. “Mirage? Mirage, where are you? I couldn’t keep up. Mirage!”
For several beats of my heart, all I get is the dark glower of the gloomy forest. Then a fox head pops from between two bushes.
Mirage transforms into human-esque form as he bounds out. He grasps the sides of my arms. “Are you all right?”
He looks so concerned that my pulse flutters. I want tolean into him, but I’m afraid he’ll pull back rather than gather me closer.
Instead, I recover my smile. “I was too slow and I got lost, but I’m sure we can find our way now that I’ve found you.”
Mirage hums. “That shifty being was too quick even for me. Following its trail was already hard before I heard you calling. Maybe Raze can track it tomorrow.”
“That’s a good plan.”
Mirage turns me so we’re facing in the same direction, tucking one hand around my elbow. “My nose is good enough to followourtrail. I’ll get us back before anyone wails!” He pauses. “If you’ll count on me for that too.”
I beam at him. “Of course. Thank you—for coming, and for leading the way.”
As Mirage smiles back at me, a wash of emotion streams off him like nothing I’ve sensed from the fox shifter before: sweet and warm but poignant, like pork belly drizzled with salted caramel.
Even when I’ve gotten lost in the woods, I can do something right… whatever exactly that was.
20
Periwinkle
As the sky starts to darken with the end of our second day on the road, Jonah pulls the van onto the shoulder. I peer through the window across the rocky landscape with its cover of evergreens, waiting for Raze to arrive.
We’ve been winding through the back roads all day, periodically checking in with our best tracker. Raze has gamely followed the scent of the patchwork creature Mirage and I spotted last night, and we’ve stuck as close to him as we can within the van.
