Page 25 of My Monster’s Keeper

Becky

I like them. Frost has a dark sense of humour and absolutely loves comedies with people who get hurt. I’ve yet to show him the wonders of YouTube, but no doubt I’d lose him for days. His laugh is absolutely the most entrancing thing I’ve ever heard.

Stix is fascinated by all things human. He wants to know everything. He asks a million questions and always has one more. Stix wants to know why, when, where, what, how, and more. His questions don’t stop, and I love it.

Wilder isn’t interested in the ways of humans or anything on TV. He’s interested in the environment and the wildlife. But he’s quiet, and if you sit with him long enough, he will start telling you about his world and what it was like. He’s a quiet observer.

Puppy’s favourite question is “can I eat it?” I feel bad telling him no all the time. Of all of them, he’s the one who struggles to learn the ways of my people. He doesn’t understand the rules, the societies. He can’t understand our laws and why we do the things we do.

Puppy gets frustrated and leaves more often than not, and I’m struggling to find a way to teach him where he doesn’t end up feeling awful. I can see he’s trying.

He yanks on my heart strings on the seven-day mark after another round of ‘you can’t eat that’. I take his face during another tantrum and kiss him. He remains still, not kissing me back, but I can feel a different tension fill him.

“You do you, Puppy. No one’s going to make you do anything you don’t want to. Not even me.”

The tension eases from him, and he lets his body relax against mine, even going so far as to curl his arms around me.

My heart beats faster, but not from fear.

I think…yes, I actually trust him now.

It’s a strange revelation that has me following the Grim towards the others who are sitting on and around the couch.

We’re watching an adrenaline game show, and I’ve been explaining the feats humans will go to when they are afraid or desperate because people are unpredictable, and I need them to know that so they are safe.

Don’t I? I want them to be safe? My monsters, not the people.

Wilder grabs my hips and drags me down so I’m sitting on his lap.

“What’s the matter, Becky?”

With a nervous glance at Frost, I swallow hard. “I want to know more about you.” I throw out before we can get to the real reason.

Wilder tenses and then relaxes. “Sure, I can do that. I don’t remember how I came to be, but there was someone before me.

He was angry and liked to drink the Fae wine.

This being was hard to live with, but he taught me all about the forests and what dwells on the land.

He said that if I could become one with the forest, then I would be one with all of them. ”

“Did you?”

“It took me nearly five hundred years, but, yes, I did become one with the forests. The nature of the hunter is regarded as a feared position, but it’s borne of the need for balance. There is both life and death in forests. That is its nature. I’m a part of all that.”

I find myself looking out the window. “It must be really awful here.”

“It’s fine. I can do a couple more days.”

“And your horse, Balefire? Where is he?”

“Balefire is magic. He is a part of the forest and comes only when I need him. Humans see him and have written myths about him. A dark horse that brings death or leads people astray. But he’s simply existing as he always does.”

“So, he’s here, too?”

Wilder pauses so long that I twist around to see his face. “Balefire can travel to the other forests in other worlds. He isn’t stuck or anchored to any plane.”

“Can you show me your other form?”

He stands up, setting me on my feet. With a hazy shimmer, he’s covered in a long green trench coat made of vines with gold chain mail and buckles.

He’s got the most intricate vines in his hair, and it’s floating, all black and green, behind him.

And two tall antlers that could almost be horns that have vines wrapped around them.

“Well?”

“You’re beautiful. ”

He shifts again, and now he’s wearing armor of gold and burnished green. A deadly mask covered in vines hides his face, and a thick green stripe is painted from his bottom lip to the tip of his chin.

He reaches out with gemless rings on his fingers, and his touch sends a bolt of fear through me.

“I am The Hunter and the Lord of the Hunt.”

I swallow hard and reach up, holding onto his fingers and leaning into him.

“I have one more question.”

He shifts back, but I don’t let go of his hand.

“What is it?”

“How did the Unseelie Court hold you?”

Fear flickers in his gaze, and I can see him flash a quick look at Stix and Puppy.

“Iron.” He exhales roughly as if it cost him a lot to say. “Iron is my weakness. I can’t break it. I can’t free myself. It makes me weak.”

“Iron?”

He ducks his head and withdraws his hand.

It occurs to me that telling me was a big deal, a massive deal. He just told me how to render him powerless, and he didn’t really even hesitate.

“Okay.”

He goes back to the couch but doesn’t reach out to me. I don’t push it, I just sit beside him.

Frost stares at the side of my head, watching me, but I don’t turn and look at him.

I have too much to think about.

There are people out there who make Wilder weak. They locked him in iron chains and took his freedom. There are people out there who hurt Frost and exiled him. Puppy was hurt by his people and mine.

And they might be coming here.

I spend the rest of the day thinking about what I’m going to do to them.