Chapter Fourteen
She knew it was going to take a lot to get him out of the car so they could get home somehow.
Mostly because he’d jammed his horns and his huge legs so tightly into the metal he could barely move.
But also there was the fact that getting him out was going to require putting her hands on him.
And now putting her hands on him wasn’t just terrifying in a being-too-affectionate sort of way.
It was also kind of terrifying in the horror-movie way.
Because sure, it was still Jack. Yes, him being some kind of giant demonic being explained a hell of a lot.
But even with all that in mind, she was still having to touch a giant obsidian horn so she could prize it from a car roof.
And that was kind of a lot to deal with, even for someone who was pretty used to weird things happening.
And who had already suspected that Jack wasn’t quite normal.
And who was currently experiencing him trying to apologize profusely for the inconvenience.
“I know I should have told you,” he was saying, as she reached for that gleaming black curve.
Gingerly, awkwardly—first one way, and then backing off, and then trying another.
Before finally, finally, she dared to touch, and oh holy wow, that thing was hot .
Wildly hot. She snapped her hand back, thinking of burns, being scalded, getting melted down to the bone.
Though she could see immediately that it hadn’t hurt her. It had just been a shock. Like touching something you didn’t realize had been out in the sun on a day that hadn’t seemed too sunny.
Jack didn’t know that, however.
“Oh man, are you okay? I’ve never had a human touch it before, I didn’t think it was too hot for your delicate skin.
Have you burned your hand off? Please tell me you haven’t burned your hand off.
Though, if you have, just know I can make the hand grow back again.
It’ll take some incantations and the bones of an elderly goat, but it can be done.
So don’t panic,” he said frantically, as he did his best to look at her from the strange angle he’d ended up in.
Then he seemed to pause, and realize how he sounded, before he conceded.
“Everything I’m saying is making you panic more, isn’t it.
I should just be quiet and let you get on with this, shouldn’t I. ”
“Actually, keep talking. It helps my brain not think about this too deeply.”
“Because when you do think about it deeply you want to run away screaming?”
“Nope. I just can’t let my excitement and the seventy questions I want to ask get in the way of trying to dig you out of a car,” she said, just as she failed for the tenth time to get between the crumpled metal and his whole actual horn.
The space was just too damned tight to do it. He was too wedged.
She had to touch it again, and this time more firmly.
And somehow it was even more shocking the second time.
In part, she thought, because it wasn’t just hot.
It was also smooth, silky smooth. She didn’t even know how to describe the slide of it underneath her grip.
She only understood that it definitely felt otherworldly.
And that he had gone kind of silent again.
Very silent. Oh god, is me touching him like this the demonic-being equivalent of giving a handjob?
she thought, and went to rip away from him again.
But he got there first.
Apparently, he’d finally managed to accept what she’d just said.
“You’re excited ? This is exciting to you?
” he asked in this faint sort of voice. Which was quite a feat, considering said voice was now several octaves deeper, and rougher, and louder.
He really had to do a lot to sound mystified—though really, she wasn’t sure why he was.
The entire world had just turned on its head, and in the best possible way.
What else could she be but giddy about it?
“Of course it is,” she said. “You’re some kind of mythical creature.”
“Oh, so you think I’m something nice. Like a Minotaur.”
“Okay, first of all, since when are Minotaurs nice?”
“They’ve always been that way. A bunch of do-gooders, everybody loves them,” he muttered, in a way that suggested she was just supposed to accept this received wisdom. Maybe with a sage nod and a clucking of her tongue over Minotaurs and the way they were.
Instead of what actually happened:
Her brain gasped, and started babbling wildly.
Holy shit , it said, Minotaurs are real.
They’re so real they have whole known characteristics that everybody in whatever community he is in is aware of, like monkeys are mischievous and lions are lazy.
Only it’s for paranormal beings, it’s for supernatural creatures, it’s for stuff you’re not supposed to think about.
It’s for stuff you forced from your mind because you thought you were mad .
But you’re not.
You’re not.
Dear god, no wonder he tried to tell you you’re not.
He risked it all, babe, just to try to tell you you’re not.
And now suddenly there were tears in her eyes, and an ache in her heart. She had to wipe them on her sleeve so he couldn’t see. Then insist on all the things he now very understandably didn’t grasp about himself.
“But Jack, you’re a do-gooder that everybody should love.
They might not love you based on things you don’t even do anymore, but that’s just silly.
It’s silly that they can’t see what it took five minutes of someone being vaguely pleasant to you to make abundantly clear.
I wasn’t even vaguely pleasant, really, and you still went out of your way to help me.
And look at all the things you’ve helped me with since.
Look at all the things you’ve done for me. ”
“What, like lie about not being human?”
“I don’t even know how you could have told the truth.
I mean, I’m guessing most people can’t even actually see supernatural stuff, considering not one person here reacted to you punching a foot-long horn through a car roof.
They all just drove out of here like nothing happened.
Heck, I think I would have done, before right now,” she said, hardly sure of what she was spelling out as she did.
But certain of its truth the moment it was there.
That was the way things worked.
In fact, he even nodded as much as he was able to, on the end.
“You would have. You did. But the thing is, I know you started to see it all again—like you did when you were a kid. I knew you were grasping all this stuff. I could see you were getting it, and that you needed reassurance, and I still didn’t dare tell you the whole thing.
I was afraid you would freak out and hate me if I did,” he said, so wearily all she wanted to do was reassure him.
Even as her mind boggled.
“And that’s understandable, Jack.”
“It’s really not. And doubly so when really it doesn’t even seem like you’re freaking fazed .
I mean, look at you, grabbing my horn, putting your knee on my weird body, not even flinching when I reached for you with one clawed hand.
Just taking it all in your stride. You haven’t even screamed a single time,” he said, half marveling, half near admonishment. As if she should be screaming.
“You sound like you want me to start doing that.”
“I don’t want you to. I just don’t know why you aren’t. Like, is this some kind of delayed reaction? Is shock gonna hit in a second and make you turn blue? Let me see you, honey, I need to know how blue you are.”
He tried to turn his head again to get a better look at her.
Even though that was completely bonkers to think.
“I’m not blue at all. In fact I don’t think going blue is a real thing.”
“What do you mean? Of course it is. I’ve seen it in movies.”
“Jack, just because it’s in a movie doesn’t mean it’s real.”
“Well, it’s not my fault I didn’t know that, they’re all I’ve got to go on.”
She stopped wrestling with the horn then.
She had to, because suddenly it was really hitting her.
He wasn’t just different. He didn’t just not understand a few things, the way a slightly clueless person might.
He wasn’t even a person at all. Every frame of reference he had was probably wrong, completely wrong, and in so many ways she didn’t know where to start with them all.
The only thing she could do was blurt out her shock.
“Oh my god , that’s it. That’s why you rely on them.
That’s why you needed my books, and my advice—because humanity is something you’ve only experienced from the outside.
You had to learn it all from the ground up, every single thing, most likely, without even being able to ever ask anyone anything the way you needed to,” she said, at first just full of almost amused surprise.
But by the end, she knew her voice had dropped.
She had dropped. She sagged back into her seat, taking him all in.
This different creature he was, trying to fit in.
And what an effort it must have been—by god, he was something else.
He had little fangs that curved out and over his upper lip.
An underbite for something supernatural.
And he didn’t just have horns—he had pointed ears. Like a Vulcan, or an elf, only massive.
Everything was massive.
Suddenly his cheekbones were like bricks.
His brows were as thick as his fingers; his jaw could have cleaved granite.
Though none of this was what really struck her.
No—it was his eyes that did it. His eyes when he suddenly flicked them to her, after a moment of her silence.
And in a way that made her realize he’d been avoiding doing it before.
Like he didn’t want her to see what they looked like, and part of her could understand why.
He had no pupils, no white around the iris.
They were all black, liquid black, like ink.