Page 28 of Queen of Myth and Monsters

He was dressed in black, with gold accenting the clasps of his surcoat and securing his cloak, which draped over his right arm in a pool of deep red. There was always a sharpness to his features, but this morning they seemed far more menacing.

“Am I a monster?” I asked.

He chuckled, amused by my question, but his response only made me angry. “It would seem so,” he said.

“So you failed,” I said. It wasn’t a fair thing to say, but I felt like fighting because he had laughed and I…I was afraid.

Adrian narrowed his eyes and tilted his head to the side. It was as if I had slapped him. “If I had failed, you would not be here now in human skin.”

I cringed at his words.

“Iamhuman.”

His smile twisted my stomach.

“Not anymore.”

“What is this pride you have?” I demanded. “I am amonster.”

“So am I,” he said. “Does it make you sick to be like me?”

“But I am not like you!” I snarled. “I am a creature, ananimal! I do not even know who I will be when I shift. What if I murder innocent people? What if I am murdered byyourpeople?”

It was a fair question. I would look just like every other black hound in a pack.

Adrian’s mouth tightened. “You will not be killed,” he said.

“And you can control that?”

“I will,” he said.

We glared at each other for a moment. I was the first to turn away, closing the shutters. I crossed to the bed where Adrian’s robe lay folded on a chair, pulling it on.

“You are failing to see the potential in this power,” Adrian said.

“It is hard to do so when I do not know what this means for me,” I said. I had already expressed my fears. Did I need to repeat myself?

“What happened last night?” I asked. “After I turned.”

“You came out of the water and collapsed and turned back into…you,” he said. “I brought you inside, and you were still feverish, so I opened the window while you slept.”

I did not know what to say, so I remained silent, attempting to process everything that had occurred.

“Do you think I will leave you to figure this out on your own?”

The angry part of me did not want to figure this out because I did not want tobethis.

“And how will we do that?” I asked.

“You are not the only shifter in this kingdom, Isolde,” Adrian said. “There are others like you.”

“Sorin is a falcon, not a—”

“Monster?” Adrian cut me off. “But he is a monster. We all are, and we all have sides of us we must learn to control. You are no different. You never have been.”

I clenched my jaw hard. Right now, I did not feel like controlling myself. I wanted to tear him to shreds. I wanted to eviscerate him with my words. I wanted to lash him with my tongue.

And he must have been listening to my thoughts because he laughed. “I would take the tongue-lashing,” he said, “if it meant I could fuck you on your stomach.”