Page 62 of Becoming Monsterous

I find myself staring at him, because of course.

The gorgon cave.

It's the simplest, most straightforward solution.

So that's exactly what we do. I push my darkness out into the air, wrapping us and the creature in the power of my wings. Without a contract with a summoner draining so much of me, I feel boundless and limitless, as if I could pull anything off.

We go back to the Shadow World, this time to an empty corner near the cave. Ellie unlocks the gates for us, and we drag the creature inside—more accurately, Angus drags it inside with his impossible strength.

Looking around, Ellie observes quietly, "She's nothing but dust now."

Aphrodite. I can tell she's a little sad about her passing. It's strange to imagine, but somehow she managed to love the doomed, desiccated corpse of a goddess.

"At least she isn't in pain," I point out, drawing her against me and tipping up her chin. "That's all that matters."

We kiss, hot and passionate. I can practically feel Morpheus roll his eyes, but I don't care. It's been so long since I've felt alive—since I've had areasonto feel alive.

Of course, the kiss can only go on so long. We have much more to do.

I bring her to other places where the gate opened, always seconds before the monsters arrive. Sometimes it's half a minute; other times, only a few milliseconds. No matter what, it's different every time.

Howlers screaming in a girls' university dorm in London.

Rottinglings pouncing on utility workers near sewer lines.

Banshees going after investment bankers on Wall Street with unsavory pasts—those, we let torture their victims a little before we bring them back.

We bring them all back to the gorgon cave, one by one.

Until it's almost completely full to the brim.

Until the pool of water that once stood here is teeming with aquatic monsters.

And all of them begin to stir, the venom slowly leaving their bodies.

"We're going to have to figure something else out," Ellie says, just as I sense something terrible go through the gates. "Maybe Madame Renoire can help. If we can make this place bigger somehow... it was built in the first place, so it has to be capable of being renovated, right? The Magistrate's talk of changing the Shadow World can't have beenalltalk."

"Save it for later," I tell Morpheus, just as he's about to open his mouth and start brainstorming. "A Shade just escaped. And I'm not sure that I can portal us tobeforeit got out."

Chapter40

Ellie

"We can bend it." Madame Renoire raises her hands and nods her head judiciously. "It'll take time, but we should be able to make it large enough to fit at least a thousand Magna House members."

I stare at her, genuinely stunned. "That big?"

She raises a white brow at me, her single wing fluffing up. I get the sense that her feathers have been ruffled. "Yes, we can do it. Right, Prince?"

"Yes." Prince, who came with us to the Shadow World and nearly lost his life just a little while ago, nods enthusiastically. "Whatever we need to do to like... keep Earth from turning into a bloodbath, or whatever."

"And you trust them?" I motion behind me, where a group of half a dozen new summoners are loosely gathered together. "They're really not going to turn tail and join the Magistrate?"

"You tell me." Renoire raises a brow. "Or aren't you capable of doing that now?"

She's right. I've only used my powers of love a few times, but already I've done amazing new things with them. I should just use them again, instead of constantly being on edge, afraid that I'll never be able to depend on the loyalties of others.

Turning, I survey the group of summoners. They look nervous, which is to be expected. Wearein the Shadow World, after all.

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