Page 62 of Misfit Monsters
How can I say I want to make up for my past crimes if I don't do everything possible to end this new threat?
I consider Jonah's face, tasting the emotions simmering beneath his controlled surface. Watching for a lie. "Are you going to tell Rollick that I lost control?"
If I'm going to be banished as soon as we go back to the school... I don't know if it'll change my decision, but I'd like to be prepared.
Jonah shakes his head. "You didn’t do any significant harm. And now we know my sorcery can rein in your power, at least if I catch you early in an outburst. That makes you less of a threat, not more."
Is he going to follow me around every day back at the academy, reminding me to chill out?
Actually, that idea gives me a thrill I'm not sure he'd appreciate.
I rub my hand across my face again and square my shoulders. "Okay. I'm not sure how much I can help, but a few things here... They remind me of a sorcerer I knew before."
23
Mirage
Peri isn’t meant to look sad. Even though my body is still prickling, whiffs of essence shedding from my skin as it knits back together—even though she sent out the blast that scored my flesh—the sight of her drooped head has me bristling on her behalf.
Something here reminded her of someone whohurther.
Flickers of the past—blazing lights, glinting metal—dart through my head. My voice sharpens. “What did that sorcerer do? We should string him up, shoot him down.”
Raze’s growl echoes my mood. “If the man who’s responsible for turning those creatures savage is the one who attacked you before?—”
Peri shakes her head quickly. She lifts her chin, girding her stance even more in the leather jacket and ripped jeans that can’t disguise the softness of her body. “Whoever is messing around with the shadowkindhere, it can’t be the same man. He—he didn’t live anywhere near here. He wouldn’t have gone off somewhere with hardly any people around.”
Our own sorcerer gazes at her steadily. “It sounds like you knew him well. And obviously they aren’t good memories. Will you tell us what happened?”
Peri’s jaw wobbles. I have the urge to shout out, “Stop!” To conjure bright and sparkly images around us that will make her giggle and grin rather than tremble on the verge of tears.
I want to understand, but I know how those kinds of memories can scrape at you too. Leave you raw on the inside where no one can see but the stinging never ends.
Before I can finish grappling with the impulse, Peri speaks in a voice gone unusually flat. “He had me caged for a little while. It was very painful and scary. I try not to think about it, because if I get too caught up…” She motions to us with an apologetic grimace.
Hail lets out a huff where he’s standing stiffly straight by the cabin, his cheek no longer wisping essence. “So you go around blasting burning shadows all over the place? Why haven’t they banished you already?”
Raze spins on him. “She’s obviouslytryingto avoid it.”
Hail’s voice turns even more disdainful, though his dark gaze lingers on Peri more avidly than I like. “Trying and failing plenty.” His attention shifts to Jonah. “And no one warned us what the pipsqueak is capable of.”
Our sorcerer frowns at him. “Her badge was updated while we were at the academy to show she’d harmed shadowkind. I haven’t informed the rest of the team of every damaging thingyou’veever done. If you want us all to have a full accounting, I don’t think you’d come out ahead, Hail. So maybe keep the judgments to yourself.”
The winter fae’s mouth tightens, but he does shut up.
All the same, Peri has deflated again. Looking at her now, it’s hard to imagine all that searing power burst from this gentle being.
But it did. I’ve never felt anything like that.
There’s so much I don’t know about her.
Why wouldn’t there be? Every time our conversations got remotely intense, I leapt to divert them like a rabbit fleeing a wolf.
Peri exhales shakily. “It doesn’t seem right that our powers should break out of us when we don’t intend them to, does it? I want to control them better.”
She pauses, and a starker sheen of tears forms in her bright eyes. “I want to be part of the team. I want to help track downthissorcerer and stop him. But if the rest of you don’t feel safe with me around anymore… I won’t make you stick with me.”
An ache expands through my entire body. If she doesn’t pitch in, Rollick and the other administrators will pitch herout—out of the academy, out of the entire mortal realm.
