Page 14 of Escaping Monsters

Declan’s whole face scrunched up. “Let’s just say, the butcher is a witch, and he pays me when I bring my rabbits and wild turkey in. It’s all humane, but, you know… a bit stomach churning if you think about it.”

“Death magic,” I said, realizing what he was getting at. I didn’t know much about witches, but I’d heard that they could use the energy released during a death to cast spells.

“They also trade in feral cats, crows, and birds of prey,” Declan said. When I glared at him, he shook his head. “Hell no. Only as familiars. I’m not a monster. I sell the rabbits and turkeys for meat, anyway. What I’m trying to say is that most people here don’t have money. If they did, they gave it away to the witches a long time ago. You can try to get a job with the witches.”

“I think I already did try that.”

“Well, they don’t hire outsiders as a rule and they pay their workers in goods, usually. The cash is used to purchase the imports, and that’s how this whole system works.”

It wasn’t good news, but someone in this town had to have money they were willing to part with besides Jasper. I stood and started to bus our table when Declan joined me. He went to throw out his malt when I grabbed his arm. “Wait.”

“What?” he asked with a grin.

I reached into his cup and pulled out the maraschino cherry. “It’s the best part.” I popped the sweet, sugary cherry in my mouth and smiled. “Sorry, carry on.”

He tossed his cup out. “Where are we going?”

“I was planning on scouting out a spot to spend the night somewhere in the woods nearby. Everyone keeps telling me to stay off the streets, and so I’m guessing it’s another ‘don’t reach into trashcans’ type of thing.”

“That would be accurate, but it’s fae parties you have to worry about there. They want everyone to go and no one to leave.”

It didn’t sound all that bad. I needed a place to sleep.

“Let me put it this way,” Declan added, “Lucas got caught up in a fae after-party once, a long time back, and he ended up dancing until his ankle broke, and he kept dancing. I think it was a month total before he finally escaped, and he’d thought it had been about an hour.”

“Yeah, fuck that.” I shook my head, but I headed down the street, walking down the road toward the forest line anyway.

“Their parties are somewhere in the forest, Teagan, and the location changes all the time. They go through the streets like the damn Pied Piper and gather people up.”

“Then how come there are people sleeping on every corner?” I asked in a low voice as we walked past a homeless man with a sign that simply read: Will Trade Luck for Meat.

“Here, I’ll show you.” Declan walked over to the homeless man and crouched down. He pulled a paper-wrapped bundle out of his pocket and handed it to the man. “Hey there, Nature. A rabbit leg, raw, for trade.”

“This came from a lean coney,” the man sitting on the street corner said as he took the meat and sniffed it, and I couldn’t help but notice his fingers glittering with colorful rings. He looked barely older than a teenager. His trench coat was the kind of dirty that took weeks to build up. I knew the feel of that level of grime firsthand.

Declan rolled his eyes. “Fern would give me two spells for it, and I saw her a few blocks back.”

The young man glared up at us, and his purple eyes shone out from a layer of thick black makeup. “What do you want for it?”

“A spell to see through glamour.”

The man’s nostrils flared, but he unwrapped the paper and took a big bite of the rabbit leg. I saw blunt teeth in the young man’s mouth, but the bone snapped under his jaws like he had rows of shark teeth. Within seconds, the raw meat and bone were gone.

The man plucked a dandelion from beside the curb and raised it in front of Declan.

“For her.” Declan threw a thumb over at me.

Nature blew, and the fluff detached from the flower and danced up toward me, catching on my eyelashes and in my hair. I reached up to dust it away when the street around us changed.

A pair of colorful wings sprouted up behind the young homeless man’s back. They looked as if they were made of thin sheets of stained glass, but they folded like flesh. Nature smiled and waved, and his grin bared a sharp set of teeth. He turned a finger in the air, “You’ll want to look up.”

The moment I did, I gasped in amazement. Every shop on the street had a second level of colorful storefronts. People in flowing gowns with multicolored fairy wings flew from shop to shop. The colors filled the air like stained glass... and then it was gone.

The street-level caught my eye again as the same woman from last night pushed her cart past with bags of trash. I caught the quickest glimpse of the wilting wings on her back before they vanished, and the woman once again looked entirely human.

“There’s a fae town on top of Grayhaven?” I asked.

“More like, this is the fae neighborhood,” Declan said, “And it’s the only neighborhood in town where you’ll find people sleeping on the streets.” He grimaced, and his nose scrunched up. “Can you guess why?”

“Because it’s only safe for fae to sleep on the street.”

Nature laughed. “You weren’t thinking of sleeping on the street, were you?” He pointed up to the sky. “The queen is planning a feast for tonight. I’d be indoors before the dancing starts.”

Declan clapped Nature on the shoulder. “Thank you for a good trade.”

“It was fair.” Nature smiled, and for just a second, I could see the sharp points of his teeth before they grew blunt. “Next time, bring me venison, and I’ll really take you beyond the veil.”

We strolled for a few minutes in silence, and then I stopped and turned toward Declan.

He held his hands up in front of him. “Just consider coming to the packhouse. That’s all I’m asking you to do. We have unlimited food. You’ll have your own room for as long as you want to stay. No one will order you to do anything.”

I ran my teeth over my lip. “I’m sorry Declan, but, no. I’m still sleeping in the woods. I appreciate how you, Lucas, and your whole pack are treating me. You’ve let me into your territory, and you’ve helped me and fed me twice. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done. Please don’t think that I’m ungrateful. I wish twenty-four hours could restore my faith in werewolf-kind, but I’m not sure that part of me is ever going to be fixed.”

Declan rubbed the top of his head and rolled his head on his neck. “Fine. We’ll sleep in the woods.”

I winced. Declan had orders to keep tabs on me. I was an invader. Which meant I was putting him in a bad spot. Gritting my teeth, I suggested, “How about you show me where your territory ends, and I could sleep beyond that.”

Declan laughed, long and loud. “It feels so normal to be around you, I completely forgot that you don’t know me at all.” He gestured out toward the woods. “Lead the way. I’ve been coloring in the lines for too long now anyway.”