Chapter 12
Hail
Peri’s plan is going well. Humans mill all around us, babbling to and about us, shoving their cameras in our faces. Gaping as if they’ve never seen a snowflake before.
Which, all right, fine, they probably haven’t this far south in the middle of summer, but that doesn’t mean they have to look like such dopes about it.
My Cream Puff’s mission appears to be a massive success, and I hate everything that makes it one. All those staring mortal eyes. All the gasps of astonishment and anxious murmurs.
If they’d opened their eyes properly centuries ago, we wouldn’t have needed to make ourselves into a sideshow act to prove we’re no more harmful than clowns.
Of course, an awful lot of humans are afraid of those too. They really are so easily terrorized. I don’t see how it was ever our fault.
Still, because Peri is beaming in her beautiful, joyful way and even Rollick is deigning to speak to a couple of the humans, I keep up my end of the deal.
I bring down another brief shower of snow and then summon a tower of ice crystals to provoke more oohs and aahs.
I paste a smile on my face and turn so the cameras get my best angles.
I mean, if I have to be on TV screens all around the world anyway, I might as well give them a good look. They should know that Peri deserved the best possible mates. And that our human audience is lucky we’re even bothering to show ourselves to them.
More humans have drifted over from the refugee camp we’re on the outskirts of. I think some of the news people must have called in colleagues as well, because a few additional vans sporting satellite dishes roar up.
As the newcomers spill out, one of them hollers to his colleagues loud enough for me to hear. “What’s the big fuss? Looks like a bunch of Halloween tricks and costumes to me.”
My teeth grit behind my determined smile.
He thinks so, does he? Peri went to all this effort to present us to the beings who’ve threatened us across all of history, and he’s going to spit in her face?
I might not like that we’re courting their favor, but if that’s what she wants, I’m going to make sure this show hits all the right notes. She deserves that.
She deserves their respect.
Reaching inside myself, I summon more of my wintry power.
Spires of gleaming ice shoot up from the ground all around our makeshift stage, close enough for the reporters surrounding us to touch them. Let them feel the chill and try to tell us it’s all smoke and mirrors.
Peri beams out a little more light. The humans farther back are craning their necks to watch—I’m not sure they can even see her.
We need a bigger stage. And even more shadowkind to make her point.
I turn my head toward the shadows around us where I can feel other beings are lurking, drawn by the spectacle but afraid of emerging. What can they really be scared of now that even Rollick is talking with the reporters like a diplomat rather than a demon?
“Come on, you wimps!” I shout to them. “Let’s really give them something to talk about. They need to see just how amazing shadowkind can be.”
And how many of us there are. I won’t deny a small part of me wants these humans to recognize they could be outnumbered.
Why shouldn’t they feel a tiny bit intimidated by us? We do have more power in our pinkies than they’ve got in their entire bodies.
Isn’t it generous of us to extend that power on their behalf?
A few higher beings pop into view, and then a few more. Peri makes a coaxing sound with her tongue, and her weird furry snake pet tumbles out of the shadows to wind around her legs.
I think the reporters look more horrified than awed by that creature, but it doesn’t appear to mind. They should be glad it isn’t interested in gnawing on their intestines like the warped beasts that keep surging out of the bloated rift.
As the newer shadowkind shift forms and toss around the most obvious aspects of their powers, I focus my attention on expanding our stage. All eyes should be on Peri, right in the center, with the rest of us around her proving her point.
I’ve always wanted to build something for shadowkind, haven’t I? I pictured it as a sprawling structure far away from human habitation, where all beings could be themselves without worrying about who they’d freak out. But this could be a decent start.
We are being ourselves, and the mortals will just have to deal with it.
I summon more ice, urging it to rise in a flat plane beneath our feet, rippling it with small ridges so it doesn’t become too slippery. Peri glances down and then shoots a grin over her shoulder at me that lights me up almost as much as she is.
Yeah, I’ll glow for her if she wants me to. She’d do anything to help me reach my own dreams, so I’m damn well going to make hers happen.
The layers of ice continue to stretch and thicken beneath us. We rise off the ground, first just a few inches, then a foot, then a few feet, until we’re peering down at the reporters.
But a flat plane hardly feels impressive enough. I build one chunk higher here, another there, elevating Peri with her glow and Mirage with his acrobatic tricks so they’re visible from even farther around.
The reporter who made his idiotic comment of disbelief is staring, his jaw hanging open. He reaches out to touch the edge of my conjured platform and jerks his fingers back as if the chill of the ice has burned him.
Oh, yeah, that’s a real freeze, you dimwit. Look at what we’re capable of and shake in your boxers.
Okay, maybe that’s more hostile an attitude than we’re supposed to be taking here, but a little attitude is fine if I keep those thoughts to myself.
The imp produces a pair of glittering skates and glides around the edges of the platform. I raise up an ice sculpture like a fearsome bear in front of Raze, and he arches an eyebrow at me before taking on his basilisk form and pummeling it into shards with his brutal strength.
Peri’s drippy naiad friend peers down at the frozen water beneath her.
I conjure two delicate goblets beneath her hands to catch the last few trickles of water that stream off her hands before she laughs in delight.
Then she makes the water arc between the two cups, doing a loop-de-loop in the middle like a liquid roller coaster.
A lemur shifter shrinks into animal form, and I sprout a crystalline tree where he can leap from branch to branch. When a troll lumbers forward, I turn the surfaces around him extra smooth to reflect his blue-ish skin and tusk-like fangs.
Through it all, Peri keeps glowing her vibrant blue-green light. Gazing up at her, my heart skips a beat.
“Peri!” I call out. “Light up the ice!”
Even as I speak, I’m hollowing channels all through the stage to reflect the beams she can emit. When she casts her glow farther, the entire massive ice structure echoes her glow, highlighting every being standing on it.
A joint gasp ripples through the crowd below.
Oh, yes. Watch in amazement. You’ve never seen anything like this.
A glance behind shows Rollick eyeing me from the base of the stage. I didn’t dare send the demon hurtling up off the ground without permission. He cocks his head, but his skeptical gaze doesn’t feel deadly, so I think I’m safe from demonic vengeance for now.
I conjure a few more intricate spires here and there, just for the hell of it. And then some dolt who barely fits in his plaid shirt comes lumbering toward my creation.
“How the fuck is she doing it?” he hollers, pointing the soda can he’s clutching at Peri. “She’s got to have some kind of bulbs on her.”
As if he thinks he can prove as much by hurling his sugar-saturated beverage at her, he wheels back his arm to pitch the can.
All the animosity I’ve been holding back rushes to the surface. Something like a roar erupts from my throat. I step forward with a snap of my hand.
Only the slightest shred of self-control—fueled by the image of how Peri would look at me if I fuck up—and all the practice I’ve been doing at strategically freezing rampaging creatures stops me from transforming the jerk into a gigantic ice cube.
As it is, his arms turn blue from fingertips to elbow and lock in place. He yelps, teetering backward, waving his partly frigid limbs as if he can shake the frostbite off them.
Rollick’s muttered curse reaches my ears from behind. The reporters’ voices rise in an anxious warble, several of them converging around the man I can already hear them saying I “attacked.”
My skin tightens. Every instinct in my body screams to either lash out more or dive into the shadows away from them.
The icy gleam of the stage around me flickers before my eyes, merging with memories of a snow-draped forest, of my fae mentor slumped amid pooling blood, the human hunters shouting and stabbing him—
A pulse of warmth washes over me through my bond with Peri. I yank my gaze to her.
She’s smiling down at me, a bit sad but just as fond as always.
She knows I was only trying to protect her.
I’m not going to make a disaster of this moment the way Raze did with the idiots who charged at us the other day. I’ve got more control than that brute, don’t I?
I set my jaw and force myself to step forward to the edge of the stage. I haven’t done a good enough job of taking care of the woman I love if I let her spectacle devolve into panicked chaos. It’s on me to fix it.
“I’m sorry!” I force myself to say over the clamor. “I was only trying to protect my mate. If I remove the ice quickly, he’ll be perfectly fine.”
As disappointing as that fact might be.
I keep the rancor to myself and leach the frigid cold from the man’s arms before anyone needs to respond. The man shudders and drops the pop can he nearly turned into a projectile weapon. He gropes at one hand with the other, confirming that his fingers still move.
The nervous energy of the crowd diminishes, but it doesn’t fade away completely. Many of the eyes that gazed as us with awe before have sharpened with wariness.
Fuck.
Did I completely screw up what Peri was trying to accomplish? Is it just not possible for me to interact with humans without wanting to freeze-dry them?
Peri believes the shadow realm wants to merge with the mortal one, that we need to find some kind of balance where the two can co-exist. But what if I’m simply not capable of playing nice?