Page 48 of Monster's Melody

I giggled.“I adore them.You know that, right?”

“You and Yukiko.”He rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was pleased.

Though we didn’t consciously decide to skip our morning classes, I never made it to Art of the Poison Garden and Vorzak didn’t make it to Familiar Training.

Instead, we spent hours talking, discovering things about each other that we’d never known.

I shared about my parents, who had died in a car accident when I was five, and whom I had very few memories of.

I shared what it was like growing up in a care home for supernaturals outside London and how similar living at Blackthorn Academy was: surrounded by supernaturals, attending courses to master our powers, eating in a cafeteria and living in dorms.

As a ward of the Supernatural Council of the United Kingdom, I’d been guaranteed a spot at a supernatural academy.Since I had no preference, I’d chosen Blackthorn for its proximity to England and Ireland.

I shared that I usually spent my holidays alone, camping on the moors and in the forests of Ireland, exploring its caves and hiking its hills, the magic deeply embedded in its lands calling to me.

“Never again,” he growled.“You’ll never spend the holidays alone again.”

Hissy.

Kissy.

Holidays.

The Hissies agreed.

Family.

Together.

It was all I could do not to burst into tears at this declaration of love from all of them.

“What about your family?Tell me about your sister.”

So, Vorzak regaled me with stories of his Snow Beast father and Gorgon mother and the mischief he and his sister got up to when they were children.

“Hold on.Shefrozeyou with her gaze?Didn’t that hurt?”I demanded.

“Well, I am half snow beast, so no, but it did piss me off.I was even angrier when The Hissies refused to bite her in retaliation.”

I burst into laughter.

“It wasn’t funny.”He scowled at me.“The snakes hate the cold.Ihate the cold.She knew that and still, she deliberately froze us.Then she had the nerve to apologize to The Hissies, but not to me!She actually told them it wasmyfault she accidentally froze them.She claimed I’d made her so mad, she just had to retaliate and they were just the unfortunate bystanders who got in the way of righteous revenge.

“She actually said it like that.Righteous revenge.So then, The Hissies bitme.”

Kiko’s.

Righteous.

Hissy.

Revenge.

Funny.

I couldn’t help it.I laughed so hard, I almost rolled off the bed.

One of The Hissies caught me and rolled me away from the edge, right into Vorzak’s arms.We then let ourselves get distracted for a while.