Ciprian sighs. “You’re shit at explaining, hot wings.”
She plants her hands on her hips. “Then you do it.”
He winks at me, then claps his hands. “Let me tell you about this thing called a rampage ramble.”
Somehow, he convinces me to pace.
Back and forth—around the center of the room—through the shower.
I play along to make up for being a dick, then words start spilling from my mouth. They pour out faster than I can handle, some landing on top of others. Half of them make no sense. But I don’t stop. I wave my arms, and I shout. Digging up everything I’ve kept buried.
I tell them it’s unfair.
That I’m a danger to them.
That I should be glad that my basilisk won’t survive this realm.
Celine and Ciprian listen quietly and match me step for step. Short strides, with creative paths to dodge the furniture they couldn’t move. Our arms graze, simple touches that tell me I’m not alone.
We pace our cage for hours until my stomach growls and I’m out of words.
Then I collapse to my knees and cry.
“Let it out,” Celine says, her voice thick with unshed tears.
Ciprian wraps his arms around me. “We’ve got you.”
Fuck me, in this moment, I believe them.
SIXTEEN
Monster Realm Survival Tip #19:
Rely on your beast; they’re all you have.
RIVEN
He knowsnothing.
Spewing poison—typical for a basilisk—with no basis in reality.
Cut, dried, and neatly packaged: Luca believes the veydran are the bad guys in his story.
If only it were that simple.
His attack struck bone. Denying it is pointless; my inability to hide my reaction is the real problem. I retreat to my rooms to lick my wounds.
They watched me unravel, their penetrating stares following me long after I left. They want to sort me into a box they can understand.
The shame was heavy and impossible to shrug off. It pressed down on me until I felt like I might sink through the floor.
But I’m more imprisoned by this realm than they’ll ever be.
I sit at my desk and pull the binder of inmates from its locked drawer. The vein in the back of my hand pulses angrily beneath the amber binding. Even my blood is trapped.
I’ll never be free.
I hurl the binder at the wall. It hits with a smack and drops to the floor. Full of monsters big and small, there are more teeth and toxins within the pages of that book than there are trees in the forest. And the veydran rule them all. I laugh out loud and retrieve the binder.
