Hail pops into being behind us, provoking another round of gasps. He speaks up in his typical nonchalant tone. “Some of us prefer to keep our good looks while we’re pitching in. But we have all kinds of ways to keep you safe.”
“If you deserve it,” he murmurs under his breath so only I can hear the words, and holds up his hands like a magician presenting a show.
Snow whirls down over us. Icicles sprout from the ground. In a matter of seconds, we’ve got our own little winter wonderland, population three.
And then four, when Mirage springs in to join us. He flips onto his hands and spins on one finger while releasing all five of his foxy tails alongside his ruddy ears.
I sweep my arm toward him. “And when you’re not in trouble, lots of us shadowkind like to play. We can brighten your lives in all sorts of ways.”
Mirage shoots me a thumbs up at my rhyme and leaps back onto his feet. He swirls his tails in full view of the cameras before giving them a quick fluffing. “I wish all we needed to do with humans is have fun. It’s the demented beasts from that murky mess who are spoiling our good times.”
“We’re doing everything we can to clear up the darkness that’s spilled out of our home realm,” I say, standing as tall as my frame allows, my legs spread in what I think of as a super-hero pose. I aim my hand toward the sky. “We’ll defend all of you with whatever it takes. Shadowkind have always been here, living among humans. Most of us have always been on your side, but we stayed hidden in case we scared you. Now there’s something scarier to deal with, so we want you to know we have your backs.”
At my flourish, the rest of our allies materialize from the shadows.
Fen sends a spurt of water arcing over our heads and gives a little bow, her scaly arms on display and her deep brown skin shifted into its more natural green naiad tone. Brine whips her pelt of a cape around her shoulders to show off her seal form, rolls over, and re-emerges as a tawny-haired woman.
Jonah’s two would-be acrobats prance around us, one of them shooting off sparks into the air like miniature fireworks. The other transforms into an impish form with dragonfly wings and soars between the bursts of light.
Hail’s fangirls flank us with vaguely bored expressions, as if they can’t bring themselves to act anything other than too cool for the rest of us even now. But one of them brings out her horsey centaur haunches with a swish of her long tail, and the other conjures a cloud of butterflies out of nowhere to flutter through our audience.
Mirage beams at the growing crowd. “We shadowkind just want to live near you and keep this world healthy and happy for all of us! We’re going to beat the messed-up shadows back to where they belong.”
Supernatural power thrums in his words. He’s generating an illusion to encourage friendly feelings in the reporters.
That may be the only reason none of them have run away screaming so far. Little dabs of anxiety reach me, but the strongest flavor is buttercream-icing-sweet awe.
A dozen cameras are now pointed our way, with as many reporters’ voices gabbing to their distant audiences. I see a couple of signs lit up that sayLIVE—does that mean humans all around the world are seeing us already?
All those mortal beings are finding out that monsters exist—and that we’re not so monstrous after all.
The thought brings a fresh glow to my skin. I aim my hands toward the camera crews and let the shine wash over them, thin enough that they can still see the rest of our performance through it.
Mirage resumes his spinning and flipping. Raze shifts into a form mostly human but still with his basilisk scales, and even lets one of the reporters walk close enough for her to touch them. Hail twirls a delicate ice sculpture over his curled fingers.
And an authoritative voice rings through the commotion: “What exactly is going on here, Peri?”
I sense the thrum of Rollick’s power before I see him.
As I whip around, my skin prickles uneasily. Fen chokes back a yelp, a stream of water dappling the ground beneath her hands. I taste her tang of fear alongside my own.
The demon is standing behind our little gathering, his arms folded over his chest and his gaze smoldering like he might start setting us all on fire if we’re not careful. My heart hiccups with the thought that he might send all those cameras up in flames and end our show in an epic meltdown.
I scramble over to him and dare to grasp his forearm. “Look! The humans know, and it’s okay. They aren’t freaking out. We can work together and solve this problem faster instead of constantly worrying about how much to give away.”
Rollick’s expression tightens. He pitches his voice low but ominous. “I specifically told you we couldn’t take this step. You have no idea what people are thinking on the other side of thosecameras. Now I need to clean up another mess—whatever it takes.”
“No!” I yelp, and yank on his arm to bring his attention back to me. Thankfully no cameras—or humans—have ignited so far. “They’ve already seen plenty. We can’t take it back now, can we? We have to go ahead and watch what happens. If you storm in there and act all upset about it,thatwill make them think we’re a threat, not anything the rest of us have done.”
The demon scowls at me. “If you’d listened in the first place—” He cuts himself off with a short growl and motions to Mirage. “You can take care of this. Send some illusions through the video. Convince them all it was only a bunch of special effects.”
Mirage pauses in his play to meet our headmaster’s eyes. His thick red hair ruffles as if with a breeze and his eyes widen with a jolt of grapefruit-sour nervousness, but his stance goes rigid in defiance. “No. I’m here for Peri, and I’m staying for Peri. I don’t want to keep hiding.”
Rollick looks as if he’s restraining a snarl. He jerks toward the one human in our midst. “Jonah? You went along with this scheme? After all the responsibilities I’ve given you?—”
Jonah stiffens, but he holds his former boss’s gaze unflinchingly. “I think it’s time we tried this. Imagine how many more shadowkind we could help if we didn’t have to keep everything so secret.”
“Imagine how many more might be hurt!”
