Page 100 of Misfit Monsters
37
Periwinkle
We’re still in the same old camper van, but it’s never felt as stealthy as it does this morning. I peek through the window at the motel on the other side of the narrow highway, my heart thumping fast.
There’s nothing really to be worried about. Mirage is using his talent to create illusions that haze the windows so no one can see me anyway.
But we got word hours ago that a computer expert connected my former captor to an alias he appears to have been using for the last several months—and that alias has been staying at this motel regularly. Raze slunk through the shadows to confirm that the scent he picked up near the rift is waftingfresh from room 107.
The man who controlled me and tormented me is on the other side of that door. At any second, he could emerge.
With a fierce rumble, Raze adjusts his weight impatiently. “The second we see him, I should tear him to shreds.”
Jonah shoots the basilisk shifter a chiding look. “You know we can’t do that. We need to find out if he has anything to do with the state of that rift. We’re not going to figure out anything if he’s dead.”
“And we need to free any shadowkind he’s got trapped now,” I remind Raze with a reassuring caress of his arm. “The influence of his sorcery might disappear when he’s dead, but if he has them caged with lights and metals—it could be years before they’d be able to get free.”
He lets out a huff. “Right. We follow him to his evil lair, see what he’s doing, andthentear him to shreds.”
My stomach clenches at the thought of that kind of violence, but I can’t say the villain we’re surveiling doesn’t deserve it. “That’s a much better order of things.”
At the other side of the van, Hail lets out a dry chuckle. “When even the cream puff wants you dead, you know you really screwed up.”
I glance over my shoulder at him. “I don’t really wantanyonedead. I just… don’t see a better solution.”
As soon as my former captor realizes we’re around, he’ll try to force his sorcery on us. Jonah gave us more potent commands to shield us from other influence, but even he admitted that his talent probably isn’t as strong as the older man’s.
Our opponent is too dangerous for us to try to imprison and interrogate him. I don’t want to watch any of my companions fall under his sway or Jonah be torn up by his captured shadowkind.
Hail offers me a crooked smile that feels surprisinglygenuine. “Of course you don’t. And it’s a good thing we’ve got you around to tame the beast, hmm?” Before Raze can do more than start to growl at the implied insult, the winter fae adds, “I consider myself lucky that you still think I’m salvageable.”
I blink at him, startled by the self-deprecation that sounds awfully genuine too. I knew Hail felt bad that he dismissed my efforts to protect them, but I had no idea he saw it as that huge an offense.
“Everyone makes mistakes,” I tell him. “What this man’s doing is deliberate awfulness, over and over again. I’ve never seen anything good in him.”
Hail’s chuckle expands into a brief laugh. “If you see goodness in me, I suppose I’m doing all right then.”
Mirage has kept quiet as he concentrates on his illusion, but he reaches across the bench and gives a strand of my hair a playful tug. “Our Rainbow doesn’t realize that she makes all of us better.”
None of the men around me argue. A faint sheen hazes the windowpane with the pinkish glow of my hair, matching the affection that’s lit in my chest.
Then the door to room 107 swings open, and the man I never wanted to set eyes on again steps out into the dreary morning.
As David Blaver glances up at the overcast sky, my heart stutters and squeezes tight.
It can’t have been that long since I fled his cage—years but not decades. His brown hair is grayer now, and he’s grown a short moustache and beard that cover the pudginess around his jaw, but I still recognize him in an instant. He walks over to his truck with that slightly bow-legged gait that used to carry him around his basement workroom.
He's wearing an olive-green sweater—like the bit of yarn I noticed snagged in the woods.
All our gazes track him as he slides into the driver’s seat.The moment the truck has headed north along the highway, Jonah starts the van’s engine.
“On these quiet roads, we should be able to stay a good distance back and still see where he goes. We don’t want him suspecting that he’s being followed.”
Mirage sinks down on the bench with a soft sigh, releasing the illusion that’s no longer necessary. “I can hide the whole van in a pinch!”
Jonah shoots him a tight but grateful smile. “I know you can, but I think we should all preserve our strength for the end of this journey, wherever it leads us.”
I scoot forward on the bench so I can watch through the windshield. Without comment, Raze scoops me up and offers his lap so I have a better view. The steadiness of his body helps settle my spirits, so I ignore the indignity of needing a living booster seat.
