Page 61 of Misfit Monsters
Mirage is lying on the ground just a few steps away from me, the trinkets he was holding strewn on the ground, his arms wrapped around his stomach. Little puffs of essence drift up from his body, but he inhales raggedly and opens his eyes.
“It hit hard, but not too deep,” he says. His gaze flicks to me with a knitting of his brow.
Hail is leaning against the cabin’s outer wall, one handclutching the side of his face. His pale cheek looks scraped raw, more essence trickling off it. He stares at me, but he’s on his feet, so Jonah must decide he’s not on the verge of kicking the bucket.
And Raze… Raze crouches on the ground in front of Jonah. As I watch, he shifts from basilisk to humanoid form. A few patches of the tan skin on his arms give off whisps of essence.
Only Jonah looks uninjured. He was the farthest back—he must have gotten me under control before the worst effects of my outburst reached him.
My throat closes up so tightly it takes several seconds before I can pry it open enough to speak. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean—I got scared—the emotions overwhelmed me.”
My voice breaks with a hitch.
I wrench my gaze to Jonah. “Thank you for interrupting the outburst. I didn’t know how to stop it on my own.”
He offers a tentative smile, but the other three men are all staring at me. Shame tingles through my hair, casting a reddish-orange glow into the air around me.
Hail, for all his impenetrable cool, winces.
When it's clear my latest emission isn't going to hurt him, he seems to feel the need to recover his honor with a caustic remark. "How the fuck does a pipsqueak like you fling out a power like that?"
Raze doesn't say anything, but his jaw works. I can feel how taken aback he is in the salty-bitter torrent of emotion coursing off him.
I told him we'd protect each other, and then I hurt him.
I take another step back, my eyes filling with tears. The urge grips me to spring into the shadows and flee, as far away from here as I can get.
If I move fast, Jonah might not be able to stop me. I could go all the way around the world, never set foot withina thousand miles of the academy again, be ever so careful how I ease in and out of the mortal world.
It would be better for them too, wouldn't it?
At my next backward step, Jonah speaks up in a quiet, steady voice. "Peri, it's going to be okay. You're not in trouble. You didn't do that on purpose."
I swipe at the first tear that trickles down my cheek. What does that matter when I injured my supposed team anyway?
He keeps talking in the same soothing tone. "Something upset you—it set you off. That might be the key to figuring out what we're dealing with here. Stay with us, and let's work it out."
He can’t know that what upset me was something from years and years ago, nothing that's really here. Just a few vague similarities...
But what if this sorcererissimilar to my former captor? Maybe they have a club of evilness?
Is it possible what I know about that awful man could be useful in finding this one?
Mirage has rolled onto his feet. He studies me with his bright eyes, his mouth slanted. "Youdidn'tmean to hurt us, did you, Rainbow?"
A choked sound escapes me. "No. Of course not. I never do."
Hail's eyebrows shoot up to the fringe of his pale hair. "How often have you exploded like that?"
Raze's eyes widen even more. "That was like—right before we were threatened with banishment. You were upset about our dorm room. There was a surge of darkness..."
I have to answer the question in his voice. "Yes. That was me. That's why I'm here."
Hail blinks, looking at me as if he's never seen me before.
Jonah breaks in, setting a reassuring hand on my arm. "You can help us finish this mission, Peri. Tell us what bothered you."
Deep down, a lot of me still wants to escape their bewildered gazes and vanish into the woods. But every memory of past pain summons a growing determination to make sure it doesn't happen again.
