Page 52 of The Stone Secret
The form solidifies into a male shadow, larger than a goyle. It crouches and wraps its arms around Cameron.
“Get away from her.” Levi rushes forward, but Yarrow blocks him.
The creature is wholly focused on Cam, its silver slanted eyes somehow filled with concern. “You safe now, my Cameron.”
Cameron opens her eyes and looks up at the creature. “Derek?”
Fuck…
CHAPTER21
CAM
Derek cradled me against his chest, his frame so large I felt like a child in his arms.
He’d changed. Again. His mournful eyes were now diamond-bright and slanted, set in a slender face with high cheek bones and a pointed chin. His ears were pointed too, and the razor teeth were gone, replaced by even white teeth and elongated canines.
“You safe now,” he said again.
He was speaking real words. “How?”
“Cameron?”
Derek’s head whipped up, diamond eyes narrowing on Levi. He relaxed a moment later. “Not hurt you. Safe now.” He stroked my cheek. “You be safe now, my Cameron. I sleep.”
He misted into nothing, and Levi rushed forward to help me up. “That was Derek?”
I stood, legs like jelly. “He’s gone through some changes.”
“Derek?” Yarrow said. “You named it?”
“Him. I namedhim. He’s my tulpa. A boogeyman I created as a child.”
“He protected you in some way back then?” Yarrow asked.
I nodded. “Nightmares. Bad ones.”
“And since?”
“Not till recently. I mean, I hunted, but he never showed up. Something has changed.”
Everyone gathered ’round.
“You expected something to happen, didn’t you?” Levi asked Yarrow. “It’s why you kept pushing.”
Yarrow shrugged a shoulder. “I had a strong suspicion.”
Around us, the other cadets were murmuring among themselves and looking over at me like I was a freak. It hit too close to home. Felt too much like the strange dreamlike state the negative energy had thrown me into, and anger flickered to life in my chest.
I fixed a glare on my face. “What? You have something to say, then say it to my face.” Curi put his hand on my shoulder, and it took everything I had not to shrug him off. “Go on. Just say it. You think I’m a freak, right? I don’t give a shit.”
“No, that’s not it at all,” a cadet who I’d never spoken to said. “I think that was fucking awesome.” He looked over at Yarrow. “How do we get a Derek?”
“Yeah, I want one too,” Waxen said.
Everyone started talking at once.
“Silence!” Yarrow ordered. “As much as I’d like to take credit for Miss Basque’s humanoid shield, unfortunately, I cannot. I fear Derek is unique to Miss Basque. A fortunate anomaly. However, there is nothing stopping you from creating shields just as powerful, even though they may not be sentient.”
