Page 8 of Misfit Monsters (Pack of Outcasts #1)

Hail

I close my eyes to the sun, letting the rays wash over my skin. The glare filters through my eyelids with a ruddy glow. My cheeks feel as if they’re baking.

The mortal realm is a bizarre place. So many aspects of it waver on the line between pleasure and pain.

My essence responds best to the cold rather than heat. If I stand here a few minutes longer, like I sometimes do on the desert plain outside the academy, every inch of my skin will start to prickle with the impression of burning.

But then, why shouldn’t I burn?

My instructor clears her throat to get my attention. I open my eyes to the sprawling green of the city park, scattered with looming trees and dotted with mortal figures lounging on picnic blankets.

A trace of acid creeps up my throat. I resist the urge to curl my lip in disgust .

If I’m ever going to establish myself in this realm the way I want to, I have to be able to tolerate humanity. As little as they deserve it.

“Shall we keep walking?” Shanty says pointedly. This excursion isn’t much of a test if I don’t have to come near anyone.

We both know the main reason I’ve failed my trial outings again and again.

I shrug as if unconcerned and start forward along the paved pathway. When I lift a potato chip from the bag of BBQ flavor I bought, I keep a close eye on the sleeve of my thin linen shirt to ensure the tight cuff doesn’t ride down.

Who knows what the humans would make of the blue veins that wind across my milky forearms all the way to my elbows? They stand out as starkly as if they were painted on.

I pop the chip into my mouth and allow myself a small smile at the crackling flavor that spreads across my tongue. I’ll give humans credit for one thing—they know how to make good use of spicing.

Nothing in the shadow realm ever offered this delicious shock to my system.

I suppose we do need to keep them around, if only for that reason.

I catch a couple of glances from the human women strolling past me, one with a slight flush in her cheeks. It seems my smile has drawn a familiar sort of attention.

It’s become obvious even in my very short sojourns away from school that mortals find my human-esque form just as appealing as many of my fellow shadowkind do. Not an opening I’m inclined to pursue with these sort of beings, but worthy of a wider smirk.

Shanty drifts back behind me, giving me plenty of room as if I'm out for a walk on my own. I know she's tracking my every move .

I tune out her presence, drawing fresh air into my lungs, snacking on another chip.

If you ignore the humans draping themselves all over it, the park is appealing enough. The warm breeze carries sweet scents of spring growth. Plenty of more genial mortal creatures abound, from the squirrel scampering across the path to the birds chirping on the tree branches.

This place is much closer to where I'm meant to be—where my shadowkind essence craves to be—than the nearly barren New Mexico desert that holds the academy, that's for sure.

A child leaps after the squirrel with a high-pitched giggle. Watching the poor animal dart away in a panic, I grit my teeth but keep walking.

I simply have to make it from one end of this large park to the other. It shouldn’t take more than twenty minutes.

A dog races past me with a tennis ball clutched in its jaws. It drops it at the foot of an elderly woman and bows down in a pose of appeasement it really should be ashamed of. She doesn't even look at it, too busy blathering on the phone pressed to her ear.

A little farther on, a group gets up from their meal in the midst of raucous chatter. They saunter away, leaving plastic wrappers and soda cans nestled in the grass around the picnic table.

Do they not even see?

No, the problem is that they don't care.

But that’s not my problem. My only problem is finishing this test and getting out of here. None of them need to matter.

I follow a bend in the path past a parking lot half full of noxious human vehicles. A row of shops comes into view beyond the last of the trees up ahead .

I’m almost at the end. My goal is no more than a minute away.

Even as I think that, a sharp bang reverberates through the air. I jerk to a halt as I register what it was: a car door slamming.

Raised voices burst out. "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"

"You cut me off, you prick!"

My nerves scatter, and my pulse hitches to a frantic pace. Images flit through my head: red splashed on white, humans bellowing, a lance of pain?—

I stiffen my body to stop it from trembling. Terror and humiliation over my panicked reaction jolt through me. My jaw clenches.

Before I can catch it, a spurt of my chilling power shoots out of me.

I glance over in time to see the two men in the parking lot skidding on the slick ice that formed out of nowhere beneath their feet. One topples and smacks his knee hard enough that I hear the crack of bone from where I'm standing. He groans in pain.

A car that was just pulling out of its spot skids on the spreading slick patch. Its tires screech in the instant before it slams into the trunk of a minivan.

Oops.

"Hail," Shanty growls at my shoulder. She yanks me off the path, away from the lot.

My pulse is already slowing, but the tang of adrenaline lingers, turning my thoughts and my tongue sour. "It was only a little ice. No one had any reason to think I caused it."

The siren glares at me. "No one had any reason to expect sudden ice in the middle of May. And you hurt that man. He wasn't even near you. "

There were other men who did more than hurt. There were others where I didn't do enough .

All I was doing was putting the vermin in their place.

Saying that will only frustrate her more. My hand tightens around the near-empty chip bag.

I aim one of my charming grins at Shanty—the type that sets off giggles among half the female shadowkind in my dorm and a couple of the men too. “I was almost at the end of the path. Can’t you find the goodness in your heart to give me a few points?”

She sighs. “You know it’s not a point system. It’s pass/fail. And that was a definite failure.”

I flex my muscles subtly beneath my button-up tee. “You really are something to look at when you’re annoyed. I could make it up to you.”

She sputters a laugh. “Are you trying to seduce me now? You’re really something, Hail, and I don’t mean that in a good way. If you aren't even going to try, you might as well go on back to the shadow realm. The Academy’s spots are for shadowkind who actually want to change."

A different sort of chill sweeps through me with a rush of denial.

No. This is where I'm meant to be, with the trees and the grass and the open sky. To go back to the suffocating darkness, alone...

"I am trying," I say with forced evenness. "My powers lashed out in an instinctive reaction. I didn't decide to throw ice at them."

"Do you really think that’s better? Come on, let's get you back to school. I’ll need to talk to the rest of the administration about this."

When I walk through the arched front entrance of the reform building, Gloss is standing just inside, eyeing the bonus assignments posted on the bulletin board as if she'd ever consider taking them on. They aren't even for voluntary students like her.

She's waiting for me, of course. She’s very good at not letting it on, flicking her smooth black hair over her shoulder and lifting her eyebrows slightly as if she didn’t expect to see me coming in, but her interest in me has been obvious enough.

And she deeply wants me to move up in the levels so she can finally show me off over on her side of the school. I won’t be allowed to cross between buildings until I’m at least level four.

My gaze travels over her svelte body. I think she’d let me take her to bed if I offered the invitation. But she’s intense enough when we haven’t exchanged more than a few flirty touches. It’s easier to play around with the beings who don’t want anything more from me than that.

I’m not sure I have any interest in playing a significant role in her life. I’ve seen the excitement shimmer in her eyes when she’s just come back from a stint in the human world, hobnobbing with some elite group.

She wants to blend in. She’s gotten stuck on the idea that I could be a major force in paving her way, but I want to build something in this realm that humans can’t touch. There’s not much overlap between our dreams.

Still, shame pricks at the back of my neck when she takes in the 1 marked on my new badge.

To give the snow wraith credit, she hides her flicker of disappointment with a cool to match my own and tsks her tongue. “You just don’t know how to play nice, do you, Hail?”

I could say something about how she likes me better when I’m being bad, but today’s expedition hasn’t left me with much interest in flirtation. I stride past her. “I never learn my lessons well enough, apparently.”

I keep my tone flippant, and Gloss laughs as if it was a fantastic joke, although it isn’t really one at all. As I head deeper into the school, she slinks after me. “You could burn off some frustration on the morphball court. Make sure you keep your top spot.”

I wave her off. “I’ve had enough games for today. Feel free to find someone else to play with.”

After the brush-off, Gloss doesn’t follow me. She’s got too much dignity for that.

I stalk the rest of the way to my dorm, letting a wintry chill course out of my body. Reminding everyone who passes me that I’m by far the most powerful fae at the academy, and they’d better respect that.

Fucking school and its ridiculous tests. I could have done ten times worse to those humans and their hunks of steel, and they’d have deserved it.

I’m sure as shit not going to let the administration chase me back to the shadow realm.

I push into the dorm, and my gaze lands on the only other being currently in the common room: the short-and-pudgy, teal-haired new arrival who thinks she can wield her perkiness like a weapon.

Periwinkle. A ridiculous name.

She’s standing at the far end of the hall by the kitchen area, clinking a spoon in a glass. At the sight of me, one of those absurdly sunny smiles darts across her face. “Oh, hi! It’s Hail, right? I was making iced tea. Do you want some?”

Is that supposed to be a jab about my powers? Or does she think if she sucks up to me, I’ll get Gloss off her back?

I pitch my voice to be both languid and cold enough to burn. “If you want to drink stuff that tastes like sugared piss, it’s all yours.”

Most shadowkind would wince. The wimpiest of them would scuttle away.

Periwinkle the whatever-the-fuck-she-is keeps smiling at me like I complimented her taste in beverages. “Let me know if you change your mind!”

Her aquamarine eyes sparkle like gems. Who the fuck has eyes like that?

I scoff and stride into my room, yanking the door shut behind me. Does the dimwit not have two braincells to rub together?

There’s definitely something wrong with her. Even if the shine of her eyes lingers on in the back of my head like stars I can’t quite reach.