Monstrous by MarcyKate Connolly

Author:MarcyKate Connolly
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

DAY FIFTY-FOUR

THE SUN WAKES ME, BUT I’M COLD WITH CONFUSION AND TROUBLED dreams. Nothing makes sense anymore. Ren despises me. I can’t believe I stung him again. I wish there was a way to make him understand we’re saving the girls, not hurting them.

I roll out of bed, my legs like jelly. I must tell Father about Ren and beg his forgiveness. Perhaps he’ll have an idea on how to convince Ren our mission is a good one. I’m sure he’d want to help if he understood. He hates the wizard as much as we do.

If only I could tell Father about Batu, my rock dragon, but I push that thought aside. Even if it weren’t impossible due to the blood bond, my friendship with a dragon is not something that would compromise our mission. Ren’s awareness, left unchecked, definitely could.

I tiptoe into the cottage proper, but Father is not in his usual spot by the fire.

Pippa whines in the corner, begging to be let outside. She loves to chase the chickens. I open the door and she zooms into the yard. I wander after her, but Father is not outside, either. He must be working in his laboratory. The tower door creaks open at my touch, but no other sounds present themselves. I pry open the trapdoor with my claws and climb down the stairs. The room is empty and dark. Has he gone out for a walk? I’ll have to wait for him to return.

I shiver from the chill of the boxes Father keeps down here. There are so many more now that it makes the room colder than I recall. What does he keep in them all? Is he preparing an army of goat-footed chickens to defeat the wizard? The locked box comes to mind. I can’t be sure what I saw, but it was very strange. Curious, I crack the lid of the nearest one—more chickens waiting to be returned to life. The next contains a large owl; its beady, empty eyes glare back and I quickly shut the lid. The next has the oddest thing yet—huge curved claws. Like a giant version of my own.

I approach a fourth box, the one in the same place the locked cold box once was. My palms are sweaty, and I wipe them on my dress. I have no reason to fear this box. It is only more parts for Father’s creations.

It could not be anything else.

This does nothing to calm me, and my heart beats a staccato rhythm in my chest. I place my hands on the top of the cold box and thrust it open. I yelp, clapping my hands over my mouth.

The sickly girl whose death I hastened with my venom lies inside. Her hands are crossed over her chest as though she’s trying to keep warm in her sleep. It was a hand I saw slip out of the cold box. Panic rushes over me. Father said he sent her off with Darrell to be buried in Belladoma.

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