Page 50 of A Malicious Menagerie
Colby’s pale red eyebrows bounce up his forehead. “Who?”
“Oh, and Delia. She’s the vampire.”
He splutters. “Anna—”
I wave off his consternation. “Then there are the mermaids,and the centaurs, and the sea serpent…”
“Alright, I am definitely drawing the line at the sea serpent. You’ll be saying we should free the wendigo next.”
Eek!“Definitely not. But you’re in for the rest of them?”
“Absolutely not! Are you even listening to me?”
“But you just said you draw the line at the sea serpent. Which means youdon’tdraw the line at Chase, Delia, the kelpies, the mermaids, or the centaurs.”
A frustrated growl rumbles from Colby’s massive chest. “You’re twisting my words. I amnothelping you rescue half the menagerie like some sort of demented Noah’s ark.”
“Mathis is going to sell Chase,” I blurt out, unable to hold it in a minute longer. The words have been bubbling in my chest like molten acid.
Colby reels back like I punched him. “He’swhat?”
“Going to sell Chase.” The repetition somehow makes the words more real. More final. I wrap my arms around my chest to hold myself together. I don’t have the luxury of falling apart right now. “Or trade him, I guess. To Radha Gupta. For a Grootslang.”
Colby runs a hand over his face. “Anna, I don’t know what you want me to do here.”
“Help me rescue them.”
“What you’re asking is insane.”
“So how do you think this is all going to end?” I ask, raising my arms helplessly. Ineedhis cooperation. I’m never going to be able to pull this off alone. “What do you think happens to Ciara? She grows old here? She gets sold off somewhere even worse when old man Mathis dies or gets bored with her? Or trades her for a unicorn or something? What if Mathis fires you? You’re just going to walk away from her?”
“Of course not,” he snips, but I can tell my words have hit their mark. “But, Anna, you have to see that this is impossible. Think about everything that could go wrong every step of the way.”
“Think about what could goright,” a feminine voice rings out, and I turn my head so quickly my neck twinges. Ciara is walking toward us, her bearingproud in spite of her nudity. Despite their difference in coloring, her features share similarities with Fionn’s, with arched cheekbones and a narrow nose. Still, while Fionn mostly treats the world like it’s one big joke, Ciara looks deadly serious.
“Ciara,” Colby says, his tone somewhere between longing and foreboding.
“Ciara,” Fionn echoes, following after her. He looks from his sister to Colby with a scowl. “I told you to stay away from him.”
“And I toldyou,dear brother, that you are not my keeper.” Like Fionn, Ciara’s Irish accent is musical, but with her undercurrent of anger, it’s also cutting as piano wire. She scowls as she turns her obsidian gaze to Colby. “So when it comes down to it, you care about me, but just not enough.”
“That’s not it—”
“We’ve talked about it,” Ciara interrupts. Her tone is sharp, but it’s vulnerable, too. “About what it would be like if I were free. About usbeing together. But it was just a daydream, wasn’t it? It was never meant to be real.”
“Ciara, no,” Colby replies vehemently. “I meant every word. But this… It’s a suicide mission.”
“And I would never want to see you hurt,” Ciara retorts just as fervently. “But Anna wants to try, so what if this is the best opportunity we have?”
Colby snorts skeptically. “Anna just wants to save her werewolf.”
“Werewolf?” Fionn chimes in curiously.
“Hush,” Ciara tells her brother, and he scowls at her. Turning back to Colby, she snips, “At least Anna wants to try. And besides, she’s our friend. I trust her.”
“I am? You do?” I ask, shocked. Ciara has never deigned to speak to me even once since the night we met, always choosing to hide behind horseflesh.
“Of course,” Fionn agrees. This time, it’s me shushing him.
