Page 56 of Misfit Monsters
“It’s not you,” he rasps hastily. “That was— I wanted it. More than I should have. We shouldn’t do that again. If I get caught up, I can’t make sure you stay safe.”
I can see we still have a long way to go.
I give his arm a gentle poke. “What if I’d rather have this deliciousness than safety?”
Raze lets out a strangled groan. “Peri…”
“All right, all right.” I beam up at him. “Come back to the van with me then. Everyone will want to see that you’re okay. You can keep me safe even while I sleep.”
21
Hail
Fragments of ice spin above my palm in a controlled whirl. I focus on them rather than the rumble of the van, my “teammates” sitting around me, and the forested hills looming outside the windows.
If we were back at the school, I’d conjure a form that provides an obvious challenge: a feat of visible intricacy that would have my audience gasping in awe. But I don’t give a fuck about impressing the screw-up fox, the pipsqueak, the bloodthirsty brute, or the brownnosing prick at the wheel.
So I settle on something just for myself. Still a challenge but a hidden one—a challenge that’ll keep me occupied and away from the thoughts niggling at the edges of my mind.
At a nudge of my will, the particles spiral closer together. Bit by bit, they meld into larger pieces of the structure.
The sculpture trembles with a bump of the van over apothole, but my concentration holds the bits in place. More and more frozen crystals condense into the larger whole.
When it’s finished, the final creation looks like a lump on my hand—a mountain crag dotted with ripples of forest and a snowy cap, with a waterfall tumbling to a pool at the base. Only I know that behind that waterfall lies a network of caves full of all sorts of beings bustling around, sharing meals, playing music, or sprawled in relaxation.
A short, pudgy figure slides over on the bench. The cream puff peers at my creation and smiles at me. “Your sculptures always look so real. Is that a place you’ve actually been?”
Only in distant daydreams. I curl my fingers and disintegrate the sculpted ice into a sprinkling of snow. “I don’t need to see something to conjure it. Some of us have an imagination.”
I’ve kept my tone disdainful, but Periwinkle’s smile doesn’t budge. “You must have a very good one. Can you stop them from melting, or do they always only last a little while?”
I think of the immense ice structures that fill my dorm room, turning it into an enclave of hopes still out of reach. “They last as long as I want them to.Mypowers aren’t so shaky.”
If she picks up on the jab at her pathetic glow, she gives no sign. “You could make a whole collection of them. Put on a show like humans do—in a gallery! I bet all kinds of beings, shadowkind and human, would like to look at your art.”
The earnest admiration in her voice and the picture she’s drawn of me gathering all those beings together wash over me like a warm breeze. For a second, the chilly words I’d like to say melt in my chest. I have the absurd urge to keep listening to her.
What the fuck is wrong with me?
What’s wrong withherthat she’s showering me with supposed kindness when I’ve given her nothing but cold shoulders? Does nothing faze her at all?
My confusion wakes up my temper with a sharper edge. “Put on a performance for mortals? What idiot would want to do that? Other than you, obviously.”
Periwinkle doesn’t so much as flinch, but the lean figure sitting on the other side of the van snaps his head around. The fox shifter’s lips draw back from his fangs.
“It takes one to know one,” he says in a singsong voice like a mortal child’s taunt, but his bright eyes glitter with an unexpected warning.
Since when is he the pipsqueak’s bodyguard?
I narrow my eyes at Mirage. “Spoken like another idiot.”
His grin turns fiercer. “We can battle it out for the top spot. How many tails do you have?”
Before I can decide how I’m supposed to answer that, Periwinkle holds out her hands. “Hey. No one’s an idiot here. We’re figuring out how to be a team.” She meets my gaze. “If I’m being too pushy, you can just tell me. I’ll listen.”
How is it that my irritation simmers down with that one gentle remark? Suddenly I’m remembering her telling me how amazing I was for freezing the shadowkind beast that attacked us.
I grit my teeth. It doesn’t make sense that she has any effect on me.
