Total pages in book: 254
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 240032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1200(@200wpm)___ 960(@250wpm)___ 800(@300wpm)
And in that moment, in this forest that felt like it was dusted in good drugs and some of the most impressive trees I’d ever been around, the green thing did what I had tried to avoid as much as possible since the truth about one of my parents made its appearance in me: the swamp thing sensed the magic that made me as different as its made it.
And I wasn’t sure what exactly I expected from the children who had never met me before, but what happened next wouldn’t have been it in a million years.
The white wolf turned its head and bit the swamp thing’s wrist so hard the creature cried out and dropped it. The instant the puppy fell, the centaur/goat child picked it up in his arms, and they, along with the boy, were out of there. They ran. Straight for me.
Not away.
To me like their lives depended on it.
The boy—who had been the bigger pup before—kept going, but the centaur/goat child, with the white puppy in its arms, skid to a stop behind me. Hiding. Shivering. Terrified.
There was no way the boys were even ten years old. That just made me mad all over again.
“I would leave now,” I warned the green being as I bent at the waist to pick up my bracelet and put it back on.
When I stood up, the swamp creature was rigid. Its dark eyes seemed wider than they’d been a minute ago. It was breathing faster too. I could’ve sworn I heard a faint squeaky sound come from it.
“Now,” Matti demanded from behind, sounding even closer, stern like I didn’t think I’d ever heard before from my easygoing friend.
The creature that had to belong to a folklore I wasn’t familiar with took a step back, then another, and with a long look in our direction, it took off as Matti came up beside me, the wolf boy in his arms.
My best friend grinned the same grin he’d had his entire life—mischievous, likable, and friendly. Just with a mustache he’d let me tug at during one of our stops after I’d accused him of gluing it on his face, it was so thick. “You made it fart.” He sounded so proud.
I shrugged and smiled a little, and he smiled even wider.
“You smell like Henri,” the child he was carrying blurted out, leaning into Matti’s neck, taking a big ol’ whiff.
“He’s my cousin,” Matti explained, tilting his head to let the boy get up in there and check him out. It was the way of their world.
There must have been enough of a familiar olfactory connection that he understood they were related. Honey-gold eyes slid over, and the boy lifted his finger to point at my wrist, done checking Matti out and verifying his story. “What’s that?”
I tapped my bracelet. “This?” He’d never seen one before?
“Yeah,” the child answered, his eyes widening, his nostrils flaring. He had dark hair and skin just about as peachy brown as mine. “You smelled like…”
I didn’t mean to tense, but I couldn’t help it. Ugly. Death. Bad. They were all words I’d heard before more often than I’d wished if I had the choice… but only around certain beings.
“…yummy,” the goat child sighed from my other side, sounding… did he sound dreamy?
He’d moved closer without me noticing.
“Yummy,” the boy in Matti’s arms agreed in a voice that was definitely sweeter than anything I could have expected.
I blinked at the same time Matti gave me an I-told-you-so face.
The little werewolf boy made sense. I knew wolves liked me. The centaur/goat boy… that was new. Huh. “Really?” I didn’t like how hesitant that came out of my mouth, but it’d be a lie if I said I hadn’t been expecting him to devastate me.
The goat child leaned closer, pressing his nose to my hip without a second thought. “Mm-hmm,” he whispered.
All right then.
“I think you smell like moonshine,” the boy in Matti’s arms claimed.
Freaking Matti snorted, and I had to press my lips together for a second. I squinted one eye. “I think you mean moonlight?” I offered.
The boy shrugged.
I smiled at him, ignoring Matti’s even louder snort, while the white puppy, who had been silent up until that point, decided to growl.
I barely managed not to smile at it too. It looked like an animatronic stuffed animal. Like a Samoyed and a polar bear had a baby, all white and soft, apart from the growling and snapping teeth. Up close, the puppy wasn’t as small as I’d thought. “You were really brave, mini wolf. You should be proud of yourself,” I told it, hoping it would understand I was on its side.
My words didn’t do anything. The pup growled again, and the goat child sighed. “Stop, Agnes.”
Its name was Agnes? I wanted to hug it. Give it a little smooch. I might lose a knuckle, but it might be worth it.