Why shouldn’t they feel a tiny bit intimidated by us? We do have more power in our pinkies than they’ve got in their entire bodies.
Isn’t it generous of us to extend that power on their behalf?
A few higher beings pop into view, and then a few more. Peri makes a coaxing sound with her tongue, and her weird furry snake pet tumbles out of the shadows to wind around her legs.
I think the reporters look more horrified than awed by that creature, but it doesn’t appear to mind. They should be glad it isn’t interested in gnawing on their intestines like the warped beasts that keep surging out of the bloated rift.
As the newer shadowkind shift forms and toss around the most obvious aspects of their powers, I focus my attention on expanding our stage. All eyes should be on Peri, right in the center, with the rest of us around her proving her point.
I’ve always wanted to build something for shadowkind, haven’t I? I pictured it as a sprawling structure far away fromhuman habitation, where all beings could be themselves without worrying about who they’d freak out. But this could be a decent start.
Wearebeing ourselves, and the mortals will just have to deal with it.
I summon more ice, urging it to rise in a flat plane beneath our feet, rippling it with small ridges so it doesn’t become too slippery. Peri glances down and then shoots a grin over her shoulder at me that lights me up almost as much as she is.
Yeah, I’ll glow for her if she wants me to. She’d do anything to help me reach my own dreams, so I’m damn well going to make hers happen.
The layers of ice continue to stretch and thicken beneath us. We rise off the ground, first just a few inches, then a foot, then a few feet, until we’re peering down at the reporters.
But a flat plane hardly feels impressive enough. I build one chunk higher here, another there, elevating Peri with her glow and Mirage with his acrobatic tricks so they’re visible from even farther around.
The reporter who made his idiotic comment of disbelief is staring, his jaw hanging open. He reaches out to touch the edge of my conjured platform and jerks his fingers back as if the chill of the ice has burned him.
Oh, yeah, that’s a real freeze, you dimwit. Look at what we’re capable of and shake in your boxers.
Okay, maybe that’s more hostile an attitude than we’re supposed to be taking here, but a little attitude is fine if I keep those thoughts to myself.
The imp produces a pair of glittering skates and glides around the edges of the platform. I raise up an ice sculpture like a fearsome bear in front of Raze, and he arches an eyebrow at me before taking on his basilisk form and pummeling it into shards with his brutal strength.
Peri’s drippy naiad friend peers down at the frozen water beneath her. I conjure two delicate goblets beneath her hands to catch the last few trickles of water that stream off her hands before she laughs in delight. Then she makes the water arc between the two cups, doing a loop-de-loop in the middle like a liquid roller coaster.
A lemur shifter shrinks into animal form, and I sprout a crystalline tree where he can leap from branch to branch. When a troll lumbers forward, I turn the surfaces around him extra smooth to reflect his blue-ish skin and tusk-like fangs.
Through it all, Peri keeps glowing her vibrant blue-green light. Gazing up at her, my heart skips a beat.
“Peri!” I call out. “Light up the ice!”
Even as I speak, I’m hollowing channels all through the stage to reflect the beams she can emit. When she casts her glow farther, the entire massive ice structure echoes her glow, highlighting every being standing on it.
A joint gasp ripples through the crowd below.
Oh, yes. Watch in amazement. You’ve never seen anything like this.
A glance behind shows Rollick eyeing me from the base of the stage. I didn’t dare send the demon hurtling up off the ground without permission. He cocks his head, but his skeptical gaze doesn’t feel deadly, so I think I’m safe from demonic vengeance for now.
I conjure a few more intricate spires here and there, just for the hell of it. And then some dolt who barely fits in his plaid shirt comes lumbering toward my creation.
“How the fuck is she doing it?” he hollers, pointing the soda can he’s clutching at Peri. “She’s got to have some kind of bulbs on her.”
As if he thinks he can prove as much by hurling his sugar-saturated beverage at her, he wheels back his arm to pitch the can.
All the animosity I’ve been holding back rushes to the surface. Something like a roar erupts from my throat. I step forward with a snap of my hand.
Only the slightest shred of self-control—fueled by the image of how Peri would look at me if I fuck up—and all the practice I’ve been doing at strategically freezing rampaging creatures stops me from transforming the jerk into a gigantic ice cube.
As it is, his arms turn blue from fingertips to elbow and lock in place. He yelps, teetering backward, waving his partly frigid limbs as if he can shake the frostbite off them.
Rollick’s muttered curse reaches my ears from behind. The reporters’ voices rise in an anxious warble, several of them converging around the man I can already hear them saying I “attacked.”
