Page 94 of Misfit Monsters
But none of that matters when Peri still hasn’t returned.
I pause, listening hard, but I can’t hear her curvy body rustling the underbrush, can’t smell her sunny-sweet scent or feel the impression of her presence within the shadows.
If she kept running after she left, she could be beyond hearing us already. I don’t know how we’ll ever find her.
“Rainbow,” Hail murmurs to himself with a slight roll of his eyes, and an idea lights in my head.
I clap my hands. “Yes! We need a rainbow to call back our Rainbow.”
My powers tingle through my body. I form the picture I want to create in my head and will the image out into the world.
Cascading colors streak across the sky. Their mottled light radiates between the trees to cast their sheen down to the forest floor.
The illusion I’ve conjured, a massive splash of rainbow, stretches above us as far as I can propel it toward the hidden horizon.
Hail stops, his jaw going slack. “You… Mortals will see it too.”
I can’t break concentration to answer him. Already, the effort of extending my magic so far is turning the pleasant tingle of power into a sharper prickle. Soon the strain will be jabbing at me like little knives.
I don’t care. I push the illusion farther, drenching every inch of forest I can with the multi-colored light.
Peri needs to see it, needs to know I’m reaching out to her.
Here comes the jabbing. I tune out the pain as well as Ican, though my fingers twitch. The longer I can maintain this image, the more likely she’ll?—
“Mirage?”
The tentative voice breaks my focus. The rainbow shudders away, and I find myself panting, standing amid the trees with not just Hail but Jonah and Raze by my side.
How long was I lost in my conjuring?
Long enough that a pale face framed by teal hair is peeking over the top of a bush at me, still a few paces distant, as if she’s waiting to see whether she’ll need to race off again.
A smile springs to my lips. “Rainbow! You saw me calling.”
Peri shifts her weight from one foot to the other, her gaze sliding from me to our companions. She tugs her leather jacket closer around her chest.
Hail jumps in before anyone else can. “I’m sorry. I was a jerk to you. We saw that the sorcerer really was there by the rift.”
His apology is brusque, but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard him apologize before at all. Peri blinks at him.
Jonah picks up the thread in his calmer voice. “We’re all sorry we didn’t hear you out the first time. Why did you go straight to attacking him? I’m assuming you had a good reason.”
Peri’s voice comes out quiet but steady. “He tried to latch on to me with his sorcery. Your command stopped him, but I knew he’d try again, stronger. And I recognized the flavor of his magic. Itisthe man who trapped me before.”
Her head droops. “I felt so horrible, knowing he was that close—I couldn’t keep the awfulness in. But I could throw it at him so it didn’t hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it.” She hesitates, with an apologetic glance at me. “Not too much.”
Jonah pulls his posture straighter. “We have a lot to talkabout, then. If you’re willing to give us another chance to listen, that is.”
Peri looks at him for a long moment, a pale blue glimmer passing over her hair. Her jaw firms. “Yes. I think I’d better tell you everything.”
35
Periwinkle
Even after I’ve made the declaration that I’ll spill every detail, my insides stay as tangled as a heap of spaghetti. With each breath, my lungs contract.
Raze moves first, scooping me off the ground into his muscular arms. As he tucks me close to his broad chest, he turns toward the others. “She’s been through a lot today. And we don’t know how thoroughly the sorcerer is monitoring the forest. Shouldn’t we wait until we’re back at the van before we talk about anything important?”
