Page 43 of Corvus and the Broken God

My Monster had been gone for hours when the gong sounded. I was reading in my room, sorting through information about Mayan gods and the ancient culture they influenced, when I heard its baleful sound. Had he known someone was coming to the house today? Probably. Right, and he wanted me to handle it. I rushed into his bedroom, pulling my shirt off and slipping out of my loose pants. Clad only in my underwear, I shifted into a crow. A moment later, I was flying over the house, in time to see Darryl walking across the courtyard with purpose. He was dressed casually in jeans and a t-shirt. He didn’t have his briefcase, but determination was written all over his face.

Annoyed but not enough to shift back and face him completely naked, I circled back, landed outside my Monster’s bedroom, and pulled my clothes on. I didn’t bother with underwear, just pulled on the shirt and pants and hustled to the den.

We reached the room at the same time, and I pretended not to be out of breath.

He stopped when he saw me, a closed expression on his face. He looked uncertain and kept glancing over my shoulder, expecting my host to appear at any moment. He was right to fear him more than me.

“Darryl, I’m surprised to see you. I thought we agreed you’d stay away from now on.”

“Freya? I mean Morgan, sorry. I just…”

I let him flounder for a few moments.

“What do you want, Darryl? I couldn’t have been any clearer.”

His eyes snapped to mine, and his expression changed. All hesitance gone, he was pure aggression. “I know he’s not here, Morgan. I saw him in town.”

“And what? You thought you’d come and intimidate me?”

“A man went missing a few months ago. I had met him. He was a survivor type. Scary guy, someone I wouldn’t cross.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“His car was abandoned not too far from here.”

Hmm, it could’ve been the Wolf. I shrugged, unable to care about the man who tried to kill me another lifetime ago. “And?”

“Do you know what I found in the woods behind this place the other day?”

“What?”

“This.” He reached into the backpack slung over his right shoulder and pulled out a human skull. He held it out to me, eyes narrowed.

I took a few steps, at first slowly, then hurrying. I snatched the skull away from him. “You could’ve found this anywhere. It could be centuries old.”

“Only I didn’t. And you know I didn’t.”

I stared at the skull and then at Darryl, still more surprised at his bravado than anything. Brown from age and human, the skull couldn’t have belonged to the Wolf, but it had belonged to someone. “And… what now?”

“Look, Morgan, I don’t know why I keep trying to save you or get you out from under his influence, but Benjamin is not who he pretends to be. There are old legends about this place, about the abandoned monastery, where all the monks were wiped out when they upset their false god. About the monster that still lives on Bald Mountain.” His eyes glanced at the door behind me, momentarily showing fear. My brows furrowed. Had he forgotten what I had transformed into in front of his eyes and Camazotz behind me? Written it off as a dream? A side-effect of passing out? Or did he believe and think he could challenge him?

“And what exactly do you think he is?”

He shook his head, eyes tight with something I couldn’t quite understand. The bond between us was slight, and I was hesitant to push my way into his head for fear of it growing stronger. I placed the skull on the table to my left but then grabbed it again when Darryl reached for it.

“I don’t know what’s going on, Morgan, but I’ve known he was evil from the first moment I laid my eyes on him. There’s something not right with him. Can’t you sense it?”

I stared down at the skull. The bone was dark and smooth. Old. Hardly an expert, still, I felt certain whoever he’d been, he died a long time ago. “Do you remember what happened yesterday?”

I glanced up in time to see Darryl’s dark eyebrows furrow. “Tell me the truth, Morgan, did you drug me? Or was it him?”

He’d rationalized what he’d seen, explaining it to himself the only way his small mind could comprehend.

On the edge of my consciousness, I felt my Monster approach, flying back from the cabin, closer on Darryl’s heels than he’d ever guessed. If I wanted to prove I could be a useful partner, I needed to act quickly.

“Where did you find this?” I held up the skull, just out of reach.

“Not far from here. Would you like me to show you? Is that what it would take to convince you?”