Page 72 of My Monster’s Keeper

“I honestly don’t know. Hmmm, no, I don’t think any world is better than any other. I do know that even in the worst times of my life where I didn’t think it could get worse, someone or something came along that gave me hope.”

“Like what?”

“Well, there was a time when I hadn’t eaten in a couple of days, and we were just lying around, waiting for night, and this woman walked into the park, and she had pies and these little cakes, and she just gave them to us.”

I shake my head, lost in the memory.

“I was worried there was something wrong with them, but I was too hungry to care. She went and fed everyone but circled back and sat with us. Turns out her parents had thrown her a party. No one had shown up, so she brought the food down here to donate. Her misfortune turned into a lucky day for us, and we actually had a really good time with her.”

“That sounds terrible.” Frost frowns. “Your world appears to be very lonely.”

“Yeah, I guess it does. But she met this guy that day who was down on his luck. I saw them a couple of years later. They were married and doing really well. It’s just weird how life works out sometimes. When there’s a fire, new shoots grow, when there’s a disaster, people come together to help. It’s just life. There is good and bad in everything. It depends on how you want to see it.”

“How do you see it?”

“I see the bad, and I want to protect my people from it. But I can see the good too, Frost. Like you. I can see that you are remarkable and not meant to be caged.”

Frost scoffs and angrily brushes his hair over his shoulder. “I don’t want to protect my people.”

I turn to face him straight on and smile faintly. “I’m going to tell you something my teacher told me. Maybe you just haven’t found your people.”

A guy walks towards us and doesn’t look up. Frost glides in front of me and grabs him by the shirt before he can get within two feet of me. “You don’t touch,” he snaps and easily brushes the man to the side.

I stare at Frost in awe as the guy stammers an apology and gives us a wide berth.

He turns back to me, and I swear the air around him glitters. How is he so beautiful?

I realise I’ve got a hand over my heart and pull it away, breaking eye contact and turning away so I can compose myself.

Puppy lets out a shrill sound and stalks between us, pushing Frost out of the way. He speed walks ahead of us until he gets to a big, shiny sign that points to a pet shop.

Oh, no.

Puppy walks in before I can stop him and goes straight to the huge glass cage in the front of the shop. He crouches down and the kittens all hiss, backing up with tiny little arched backs and teeny tiny needle teeth.

Puppy scowls and shoves away, stalking around. He sees birds that he glances at but ignores. A huge African Grey Parrot calls him a bonehead, but he ignores that, too. He gets to the fish and whirls on me accusingly.

“No fish!”

I hold up my hands in surrender with absolutely no idea why he’s so mad at me.

He stalks out, leaving me and the shop assistant gaping at him.

“What is happening here?” I ask as I rush after him, only just managing to keep an eye on him as he stomps away. “Stix? What was he looking for?”

“I don’t know, poppet.” There is something evasive in Stix’s tone, but I don’t have time to call him on it. I need to keep up with Puppy, I can’t lose him.

By the time I catch up with the enraged Grim, I haven’t. He just went vertical. I stare up at him as he disappears onto the roof of a building.

“Should we do something?”

“I think he’s made it pretty clear he doesn’t want to talk,” Frost says easily.

I huff and pull out the bank card. “Can you go get a heap of food and bring it back?”

Stix and Frost head off, leaving me alone with a massive Wilder. I sit down on a ramp, and he sits beside me.

“Argh! Distract me!” I say roughly. “I’m worried, no, I don’t know why I’m worried. He was upset. What happened?”