Page 80 of My Monster's Keeper
My heart beats faster, but not from fear.
I think…yes, I actually trust him now.
It’s a strange revelation that has me following the Grim towards the others who are sitting on and around the couch. We’re watching an adrenaline game show, and I’ve beenexplaining the feats humans will go to when they are afraid or desperate because people are unpredictable, and I need them to know that so they are safe.
Don’t I? I want them to be safe? My monsters, not the people.
Wilder grabs my hips and drags me down so I’m sitting on his lap.
“What’s the matter, Becky?”
With a nervous glance at Frost, I swallow hard. “I want to know more about you.” I throw out before we can get to the real reason.
Wilder tenses and then relaxes. “Sure, I can do that. I don’t remember how I came to be, but there was someone before me. He was angry and liked to drink the Fae wine. This being was hard to live with, but he taught me all about the forests and what dwells on the land. He said that if I could become one with the forest, then I would be one with all of them.”
“Did you?”
“It took me nearly five hundred years, but, yes, I did become one with the forests. The nature of the hunter is regarded as a feared position, but it’s borne of the need for balance. There is both life and death in forests. That is its nature. I’m a part of all that.”
I find myself looking out the window. “It must be really awful here.”
“It’s fine. I can do a couple more days.”
“And your horse, Balefire? Where is he?”
“Balefire is magic. He is a part of the forest and comes only when I need him. Humans see him and have written myths about him. A dark horse that brings death or leads people astray. But he’s simply existing as he always does.”
“So, he’s here, too?”
Wilder pauses so long that I twist around to see his face. “Balefire can travel to the other forests in other worlds. He isn’t stuck or anchored to any plane.”
“Can you show me your other form?”
He stands up, setting me on my feet. With a hazy shimmer, he’s covered in a long green trench coat made of vines with gold chain mail and buckles. He’s got the most intricate vines in his hair, and it’s floating, all black and green, behind him. And two tall antlers that could almost be horns that have vines wrapped around them.
“Well?”
“You’re beautiful.”
He shifts again, and now he’s wearing armor of gold and burnished green. A deadly mask covered in vines hides his face, and a thick green stripe is painted from his bottom lip to the tip of his chin.
He reaches out with gemless rings on his fingers, and his touch sends a bolt of fear through me.
“I am The Hunter and the Lord of the Hunt.”
I swallow hard and reach up, holding onto his fingers and leaning into him.
“I have one more question.”
He shifts back, but I don’t let go of his hand.
“What is it?”
“How did the Unseelie Court hold you?”
Fear flickers in his gaze, and I can see him flash a quick look at Stix and Puppy.
“Iron.” He exhales roughly as if it cost him a lot to say. “Iron is my weakness. I can’t break it. I can’t free myself. It makes me weak.”
