Page 81 of My Monster’s Keeper

“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.

Chapter 24

Becky

The driver I hired stops in the conservation park entrance and lets us out. Wilder is almost quivering with excitement. As soon as the driver is gone, he starts towards the forest. He stops and looks back.

That he stops and looks back melts my heart.

“Go, we’ll wait here,” I say and wave to him. “I promise, we’ll be fine.”

With a soft smile and a heavy sigh, he turns and walks into the forest, disappearing from view. I sit down on the grass and lay on my back, looking up at the sky.

Puppy shifts shape and shakes his scales. He comes over to me and licks my face, leaving me clenching my thighs.

“Have fun,” I murmur to the Grim.

On that note, he races off, too, in the opposite direction. It’s not often that Puppy can spend this much time playing in his form.

Stix stretches and gives me a guilty look.

“Go. I’ll be fine here.”

“I’ll stay,” Frost says, surprising me.

Stix leans down and kisses my cheek and then races into the dark, disappearing from view.

Frost lays down beside me, but he’s not easy here. I don’t know how I know, I can just feel it.

“What was it like where you lived?”

“Cold, mountains, harsh, lots of deep lakes. Nothing like this.”

I turn so I can watch his face.

“Was there anyone who was kind to you?”

Frost wrinkles his nose. “It’s not like that in the court, and I was not powerful enough to protect myself. I was weak.”

“You aren’t now.”