“You faced the monsters and survived. Move on.” Grayson dismissed my question and my trauma with a few words and an impatient shake of his head.
I’d done better than survive. I’d prevailed. I pressed my hands together and raised my sealed palms to my lips.
“Are you praying?”
“Yes. I am. I’m praying that some monster comes and takes you.”
It was an unfortunate coincidence that a huge weight slammed into our little hut the moment the words left my mouth.
“What the fuck?” Teal was on his feet in the blink of an eye.
Pierce wasn’t far behind him.
The horses whinnied, their ears flicking back and forth. Caspian pawed the hard ground.
Flynn slept.
“What’s out there?” I asked. Couldn’t we go for more than an hour or two without something or someone trying to kill us?
“A basajaun?” Pierce guessed.
A second thump shook the whole hut.
“Could be.” Grayson rubbed his chin. “Could be.”
A beast was trying to break down the walls, and they didn’t appear overly concerned. I was concerned enough for all of us. “What is a basajaun?”
“A snow monster,” Pierce replied. “They’re harmless.”
The harmless snow monster ripped a hole through Teal’s vine walls and thrust a long arm covered in thick white hair into our refuge.
“Flynn! Wake up!” Grayson shouted. Now that the basajaun had breached the walls, he showed actual concern. “We need fire.”
Flynn grumbled from within the cocoon of his blankets and turned away from us.
Would it be awful if I kicked him? “Aren’t guards supposed to sleep lightly?”
Teal chuckled. “Flynn sleeps like the dead.”
The basajaun’s razor-sharp claws widened the hole it had made in the wall.
“Flynn?” When he didn’t respond, I launched a fireball at a paw the size of a dinner plate.
White fur caught fire, and the paw disappeared as a furious roar filled the night.
“Now you’ve done it.” Teal’s eyes danced with excitement. “You made it mad.”
“He”—I pointed at Grayson—“said he wanted fire.”
“I wanted it scared, not injured.” Grayson glared at me. “Now it’s dangerous.”
“How was I supposed to scare it when only its arm was inside?”
“Flynn would have found a way.”
“Really? Let’s wake him up and ask him.” I’d just about had it with Grayson.
Flynn let loose a snore nearly as loud as the monster’s roar.
