A Home for Misfit Monsters

Chapter 11 - When She Rises

Rhia's hands shook as she touched the golden branches protruding from her head and came to a point over her brow above her glowing iridescent third eye in the center of her forehead.

"You're not a monster," Sae said as he slowly crossed the room toward her.

"Why...why do I look like this?" she said, holding up her black razor sharp nails. "What happened to me?"

The room grew deathly cold as she speared Sae with a glare in the mirror before she whipped around to face him. "Why didn't you tell me who you were?!" she roared, shoving his chest.

He winced, hanging his head. "I'm sorry."

"That's all you have to say? You're sorry?" She shoved him again as the window cracked behind her. "Why did you act like you didn't know me? Why did you pretend to be human?!" she screamed as the floorboards shook beneath her and the fireplace roared to life, singing the walls.

"Rhia," Sae said, holding up his hands. "Calm down."

Rage boiled up and bubbled over inside of her as fire and heat licked over her skin. "Don't tell me to calm down!" she said, slapping him across the face. She gasped at the golden blood that trickled down his cheek as her anger and the fire crawling up to the ceiling winked out.

"I-I'm so sorry," she said, staggering away from him as a wave of dizziness washed over her and she slumped onto the bed.

"It's alright," Sae said, waving a hand over his face, healing the small gashes she left on his cheek before he knelt in front of her. "I shouldn't have told you to calm down."

Rhia slid a hand over her mouth. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Sae nodded. "Your magic is settling inside of you," he said as a glass full of a thick green substance appeared in his hand. "Drink this. It'll calm your stomach."

"What is it?" she said, taking the glass from him.

"Lemon grass, cannabis and wild berries," he said as a small smile tugged at his lips. "You used to make it all the time."

Rhia took an experimental sip of the mixture and her eyes grew wide at the earthy yet sweet taste that seemed to calm her queasy stomach. "Oh, it's good," she murmured, taking another sip before she clenched the glass in her hands and looked into Sae's black opaque eyes and golden irises. "I'm still mad at you."

"I know you are and you have every right to be," he said, looking down at his hands in his lap. "I shouldn't have waited this long to reveal myself to you, but I...I wanted you to be ready and I wanted to keep you safe."

"Safe from what?" she said, reaching out to graze her fingers over his horns, still in disbelief that Sae was Ezra and that anything that was happening right now was more than a dream.

He looked up at her and wrapped his enormous hand around hers. "There's so much I need to tell you and so much for you to remember," he said, placing a soft kiss on her palm. "Will you give me a chance to explain why I did this to you and why I brought you here?"

Rhia pulled her hand away from him and nodded. "Yes, I expect you to," she said, looking over at the mirror at her reflection she didn't recognise. "Will I look like this forever now?"

"This is who you are and who you've always been," Sae said, turning her face to his. "You don't need to be afraid."

"I'm...I'm not. I always knew I was different, but looking like this," she said, waving a hand over herself. "I just don't know who I am." She looked back into his black eyes. "Or who you are."

"I'm still Ezra and you're still you, Rhia. There's just another side of you that your mother and your aunt sealed away to protect you."

"You said I was something more than a witch. Is that what they were protecting me from becoming?"