Page 61 of Becoming Monsterous

Morpheus steps up beside me, his tattoos rounding up the last of the summoners to drive them through their cowardly portal, then leaping back onto his skin . "Ready."

"Same." Angus puts his back to me, his massive horns stretching above us. "Make it quick, though. I can feel them heading this way."

That's right—allthe gates are open. The ones between our little in-between realm and the Shadow World, as well as between here and Earth, and between us and Greymark House.

No more summoners needed to walk between one place and the other.

I don't plan on sticking around to see what shakes out here, though I do look for Lise and Madame Renoire.

"Care for a ride?"

Both women shake their heads. "They'll come back—trust me," Lise says. "We'll stay here to sound the alarm."

"Don't worry about an old broad." Renoire winks at me. "I've fought worse than what's coming."

As if on cue, dozens of summoner-created Osseus House monsters roam down the hallway and skitter into this room. It figures that they'd show up first to do their masters' bidding—even though those same masters just disappear.

Lise is right, though. They'll come back. Which means we have only this short window of time to clean up the mess we've just made and prove to Ellie that it's going to be worth it.

"Hold on tight," I tell her, "it's going to be a smooth ride."

Then I pull her through time and space.

We go to a part of rural China first, twelve seconds before she opened the gates. She stumbles away from my arms, turns around, and dry heaves into the grass—though nothing comes up.

"Why are we here?"

"Just wait." I motion towards the sky. "Three, two..."

In the blink of an eye, a portal opens up in the clouds above our heads.

And a flying beast, a brute with giant bat wings, a horse-like head, and three whip tails comes flying through.

Morpheus immediately sends his tattoos after it. The rain cloud he uses to create storms floats up in the sky to pummel the beast, while his flock of ravens soar higher and higher towards its head.

"I'll be right back," I tell Ellie, dropping a kiss on her forehead. "Try not to upchuck again."

She glares at me. "You know, I can fight as well."

"But you can't fly."

So I do, using my massive wings to push myself into the air. Flying has always felt like freedom, but I lost so much of that feeling in the Shadow World, where there was only darkness and not a breeze to be found. It wasn't possible to fly at Occult House—the in-between realm doesn't come with a sky.

But on Earth... oh, on Earth it feels magical. Marvelous. Impossible.

Flying up to the massive monster, I tell it, "Sorry brother," then unfurl my darkness to wrap around its flesh.

Soon its skin and fur is scorching.

It screams.

Together with Morpheus's ridiculous cloud, I bring it down to Earth.

Ellie springs into action as soon as it lands. Leaping onto its back, she crouches down and sends her snakes out to fill it with venom. Soon it's completely out.

Leaving just one question. "What do we do with it?"

"I've been thinking," Morpheus says. "What if we just put it in the same place we put Aphrodite's body?"

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