Chapter 11
Periwinkle
Iset my hands on my hips and look around at my companions. “All right. Are we all clear on what we’re doing today?”
My mates and I have assembled a collection of the allies we feel are least likely to betray our plans to Rollick. A small collection, since the demon holds an awful lot of sway over both his colleagues and the academy students who’ve come to the city to pitch in.
Fen nods with an air of determination that’s only slightly diminished by the nervous drips of water trickling off her hands. Next to her, Brine—our selkie friend—draws her plump frame up taller.
Jonah picked out a couple of other shadowkind students who he knows have always wanted to show off their natures to the rest of the world and who are pretty good at following instructions.
Right now, the two level four students are poised with one perched on the other’s shoulders, bobbing energetically like they’re about to launch into an acrobatic show.
Which works well for us, since we’re planning to make as much of a spectacle as we can manage.
Hail has roped in a couple of his former fangirls…
Well, I suppose they’re still fangirls from the glances they keep shooting at him through their eyelashes.
But when they turned up, he made a point of sauntering over to me and slinging his arm around my waist. The two he picked aren’t so hostile they’ve bothered to glare at me. They’ve just preened harder.
And then, of course, there’s Falkor the snake-puppy, who’s squirming along the ground around my feet in his weird mix of bounding and slithering. With the way his tongue is flopping with his eager panting, he might be the most excited out of all of us.
It feels a little strange having everyone’s attention on me. Jonah is the only one here who’s had any real authority over us, even if Rollick stripped him of his title as teacher, and Raze is definitely the most intimidating, even if he’s a sweetie under his hulking exterior.
But this is my plan. I insisted that we need to take action. My men have let me take the lead and handle things my way.
That’s how much they trust me.
Everyone here is trusting me right now.
I take a deep breath, resolving that I’m not going to let them down in that trust, and clap my hands. “Let’s get to it, then! You know where the cameras are. Take your positions and wait for my signal.”
Fen grins, one of Hail’s fangirls primps her hair, and our allies vanish into the shadows.
Mirage sidles closer to me and ruffles my hair. “Are you ready, Rainbow?”
I square my shoulders. “Absolutely. We’re going to make history!”
Hopefully the good kind that people celebrate with holidays in the future, not the kind where they set up horrifying museums to warn people to never do it again.
“I’ll set everything in motion,” Jonah says. His expression is tense, I think because he has the most trouble going against Rollick, but he’s giving this mission his all anyway. “Once the cameras are recording, you need to show up as quickly as possible.”
“When it’s time to play, we won’t delay!” Mirage declares, the rhyme sounding more joyful than he has all week.
Raze gives a grunt of agreement, Hail rolls his shoulders, and the four of us shadowkind slip into the nearby patches of darkness as well.
We all ripple and leap around the edges of the camp to the area where several news vans have set up shop. It’s like a food truck alley, except they’re serving a lot of talk instead of delicious eats.
A few of the vans have no activity around them, their inhabitants either gone off to interview more survivors of the odd disaster or holed up inside poking buttons, staring at screens, and whatever else humans do when deciding what images to project to everyone’s TVs.
In a few minutes, if this works, most of them will be projecting images of us.
Reporters and camera crews hang around outside the other vans, chatting and drinking coffee, which as far as I’ve observed is their main source of fuel. And also decoration, based on the various disposable cups scattered around the vans.
Jonah strides into the middle of the area, picking a span of the patchy grass where he’s in clear view of all the vans.
A few of the news workers glance over at him, but most continue their conversations.
I guess he doesn’t look all that different from the hundreds of refugees still milling around the temporary camp.
Then he clears his throat and starts speaking. “Who here wants a real story? I bet you’ve heard some unusual things from the people you’ve interviewed. I’m about to prove that the tall tales are all real, so you’d better get those cameras rolling!”
That sends all the humans into a flurry, whirling toward him. Several snatch up their cameras; the reporters scramble for their microphones and headsets.
Questions fly through the air toward Jonah, but he simply takes a step back. The moment I can see that most of the cameras are on, I leap out of the shadows.
“Hi, humans!” I grin and wave. “We’ve got a bit of a mess on our hands here with shadow floods and rampaging creatures.
But I’m glad to tell you that lots of beings who live in the shadows want to help you, not hurt you.
We’re not gangsters or aliens, just people with some unusual powers who came from a realm next to yours to enjoy all the wonderful things here.
I care so much about seeing everyone happy that it makes me literally glow! ”
I focus on all the fondness I feel for the bewildered humans in front of me, all my hopes that they’ll come out of this mess all right. A familiar turquoise light streams from my palms and flickers in my hair.
I gesture to my right the way I’ve seen presenters do on game shows. “We call ourselves ‘shadowkind,’ not ‘monsters.’ Some of us do look scary, but we’ll only put that might to protecting you. And we can do that in more than one form.”
Raze emerges from the shadows next, in his human-esque appearance, which is plenty imposing all on its own. He flexes his sinewy muscles before the cameras, his jaw clenching with his nerves, and then shifts abruptly into basilisk form.
One of the reporters shrieks at the sudden sight of a gigantic lizard in their midst. “What the fuck?” someone else mutters.
We can’t risk losing momentum. I step to Raze’s side and wrap my arms around his reptilian neck, still shining with my loving glow. “Look, he’s nothing to be afraid of. He changes so he can take care of all of us better when the actual threats come charging in.”
Raze gamely nuzzles my cheek with a flick of his forked tongue.
Hail pops into being behind us, provoking another round of gasps. He speaks up in his typical nonchalant tone. “Some of us prefer to keep our good looks while we’re pitching in. But we have all kinds of ways to keep you safe.”
“If you deserve it,” he murmurs under his breath so only I can hear the words, and holds up his hands like a magician presenting a show.
Snow whirls down over us. Icicles sprout from the ground. In a matter of seconds, we’ve got our own little winter wonderland, population three.
And then four, when Mirage springs in to join us. He flips onto his hands and spins on one finger while releasing all five of his foxy tails alongside his ruddy ears.
I sweep my arm toward him. “And when you’re not in trouble, lots of us shadowkind like to play. We can brighten your lives in all sorts of ways.”
Mirage shoots me a thumbs up at my rhyme and leaps back onto his feet. He swirls his tails in full view of the cameras before giving them a quick fluffing. “I wish all we needed to do with humans is have fun. It’s the demented beasts from that murky mess who are spoiling our good times.”
“We’re doing everything we can to clear up the darkness that’s spilled out of our home realm,” I say, standing as tall as my frame allows, my legs spread in what I think of as a super-hero pose.
I aim my hand toward the sky. “We’ll defend all of you with whatever it takes.
Shadowkind have always been here, living among humans.
Most of us have always been on your side, but we stayed hidden in case we scared you.
Now there’s something scarier to deal with, so we want you to know we have your backs. ”
At my flourish, the rest of our allies materialize from the shadows.
Fen sends a spurt of water arcing over our heads and gives a little bow, her scaly arms on display and her deep brown skin shifted into its more natural green naiad tone.
Brine whips her pelt of a cape around her shoulders to show off her seal form, rolls over, and re-emerges as a tawny-haired woman.
Jonah’s two would-be acrobats prance around us, one of them shooting off sparks into the air like miniature fireworks. The other transforms into an impish form with dragonfly wings and soars between the bursts of light.
Hail’s fangirls flank us with vaguely bored expressions, as if they can’t bring themselves to act anything other than too cool for the rest of us even now.
But one of them brings out her horsey centaur haunches with a swish of her long tail, and the other conjures a cloud of butterflies out of nowhere to flutter through our audience.
Mirage beams at the growing crowd. “We shadowkind just want to live near you and keep this world healthy and happy for all of us! We’re going to beat the messed-up shadows back to where they belong.”
Supernatural power thrums in his words. He’s generating an illusion to encourage friendly feelings in the reporters.
That may be the only reason none of them have run away screaming so far. Little dabs of anxiety reach me, but the strongest flavor is buttercream-icing-sweet awe.
A dozen cameras are now pointed our way, with as many reporters’ voices gabbing to their distant audiences. I see a couple of signs lit up that say LIVE—does that mean humans all around the world are seeing us already?
All those mortal beings are finding out that monsters exist—and that we’re not so monstrous after all.
The thought brings a fresh glow to my skin. I aim my hands toward the camera crews and let the shine wash over them, thin enough that they can still see the rest of our performance through it.
Mirage resumes his spinning and flipping. Raze shifts into a form mostly human but still with his basilisk scales, and even lets one of the reporters walk close enough for her to touch them. Hail twirls a delicate ice sculpture over his curled fingers.
And an authoritative voice rings through the commotion: “What exactly is going on here, Peri?”
I sense the thrum of Rollick’s power before I see him.
As I whip around, my skin prickles uneasily. Fen chokes back a yelp, a stream of water dappling the ground beneath her hands. I taste her tang of fear alongside my own.
The demon is standing behind our little gathering, his arms folded over his chest and his gaze smoldering like he might start setting us all on fire if we’re not careful. My heart hiccups with the thought that he might send all those cameras up in flames and end our show in an epic meltdown.
I scramble over to him and dare to grasp his forearm. “Look! The humans know, and it’s okay. They aren’t freaking out. We can work together and solve this problem faster instead of constantly worrying about how much to give away.”
Rollick’s expression tightens. He pitches his voice low but ominous. “I specifically told you we couldn’t take this step. You have no idea what people are thinking on the other side of those cameras. Now I need to clean up another mess—whatever it takes.”
“No!” I yelp, and yank on his arm to bring his attention back to me.
Thankfully no cameras—or humans—have ignited so far.
“They’ve already seen plenty. We can’t take it back now, can we?
We have to go ahead and watch what happens.
If you storm in there and act all upset about it, that will make them think we’re a threat, not anything the rest of us have done. ”
The demon scowls at me. “If you’d listened in the first place—” He cuts himself off with a short growl and motions to Mirage. “You can take care of this. Send some illusions through the video. Convince them all it was only a bunch of special effects.”
Mirage pauses in his play to meet our headmaster’s eyes. His thick red hair ruffles as if with a breeze and his eyes widen with a jolt of grapefruit-sour nervousness, but his stance goes rigid in defiance. “No. I’m here for Peri, and I’m staying for Peri. I don’t want to keep hiding.”
Rollick looks as if he’s restraining a snarl. He jerks toward the one human in our midst. “Jonah? You went along with this scheme? After all the responsibilities I’ve given you—”
Jonah stiffens, but he holds his former boss’s gaze unflinchingly. “I think it’s time we tried this. Imagine how many more shadowkind we could help if we didn’t have to keep everything so secret.”
“Imagine how many more might be hurt!”
I swallow hard. “I think a lot of them were getting hurt already because of all the ways humans don’t understand us.”
“Excuse me!”
A reporter with flushed cheeks is hustling around the still-performing shadowkind to where we’re standing, her camerawoman hurrying behind her.
She thrusts her microphone toward Rollick.
“Are you part of this coalition of supernatural beings too? What’s your role in the group?
Can you say who’s responsible for the damage being done to Jackson City? ”
Rollick’s eyes narrow. I tighten my grip on his arm, tasting the acrid emotions rolling off him like fetid salsa.
But I recognize the flavor of them. They don’t taste like anger or revulsion, not really.
Like I tasted with Raze that first day I stumbled into my dorm room and found myself face to face with him—Rollick isn’t furious. He’s scared. He’s not sure we’re wrong, only afraid of what will become of all the beings he’s tried to shelter if we are.
I nudge a wave of my determined affection over him. “We can make them see. This is the best chance we’re ever going to get, isn’t it?”
Rollick sucks in a breath. Then, to my immense relief, he puts on one of his charming smiles as he turns fully toward the reporter. “Until recently, I thought of myself as something of a leader in this group. But I may have overestimated my own importance.”