Page 11 of Insidious Monsters
I opened my mouth to speak but a garbled noise came out instead.
“Auggie.” Nandi crouched by my bed. “Hey, babe, you okay?”
“It’s all right,” Quentin said. “She’ll be okay. It’s just the side effect of the drug.”
I felt a familiar tug inside my chest, and then adrenaline flooded my body and Telarion’s rage filled my mind.What did he do? What the fuck did he do?
My gaze flew to the window, to the red sky and the setting sun. Oh, shit. Telarion was pissed, and he was about to break free.
“Go.” The word was a whisper. “Quentin, get ou—”
Telarion burst from my body and smashed into Quentin, driving him across the room and slamming him into the wardrobe.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see straight.
“Stop!” Nandi cried. “Telarion, stop it. Let him go.”
“You drugged her!” Telarion’s voice was a low, lethal growl, the kind that preceded a face biting.
“No…” I tried to sit up, but the world spun. “Nandi…”
She helped me up. “I got you.”
“Telarion, stop it!” I injected as much authority into my tone as possible.
Telarion’s grip on Quentin didn’t slacken but he turned his head to look at me. “He drugged you, August.”
“No. The Order did at the lab. It’s a buffer. They said there would be side effects, but this is supposed to—”
“Before that,” Telarion said. “He drugged you to keepmeburied. It must have been in your tea. By the time I realized, it was too late. I was lost, in a fog.Trapped.” He turned back to Quentin. “Have you any fucking idea what that feels like?”
The tea…No. Quentin wouldn’t do that. He was my handler. My advisor. My friend.
My gaze flew to him. He was pinned to the wall, jaw tense, stoic and unapologetic. “Did you?” His jaw ticked. I shook my head in disbelief. “Tell me it’s not true.”
“I was following protocol.” Quentin pushed the words out past Telarion’s crushing grip.
Telarion roared and reared back, ready to take off Quentin’s face.
“Stop!”
Telarion halted, his body vibrating with fury. “You may be able to forgive him for betraying you, but I won’t forgive him for locking me away.”
“He doesn’t deserve to die.” I reached for Telarion. “You know it too. Only evil, remember. Only the evil ones.”
Telarion’s chest rumbled and he made a sound of frustration. “You and your arbitrary rules.” He leaned in toward Quentin, his voice a sibilant whisper. “The stars must be aligning for you tonight, traitor.” He drew Quentin away from the wall and then threw him across the room, where he landed in a crumpled heap. Telarion stood with his back to me for a long beat, shoulders heaving as he worked to contain the monster inside him. Finally, he turned to face me. “Your humanity will get you killed one day, August. I just hope I’m not there to see it.” His lip curled in disgust and disappointment.
His words were a needle jab to the heart because the thought of him not being here… “I never said I forgave him, just that he deserved to live.” I looked down at Quentin. “I thought we were friends.”
He sat up, clutching his side. “We are.”
“No, Quentin, if you were my friend, you would have explained your protocol and gotten my consent, not dropped the drug in my tea and hoped for the best. Friends look out for each other. They have each other’s back, but you only have my back as long as it doesn’t affect the Order’s objectives. So no, you’re not my friend.”
His mouth turned down as if he was in pain. “August, I—”
“Save it. I don’t care. You’re my handler and that’s all. Now please, get out of my room.”
I couldn’t bring myself to look at him as he picked himself off the ground and walked to the door.
