Matthew Silver and the Monster Hunters, Book One: The Darkest Waters

Chapter Nineteen

JadeCHAPTER NINETEEN

“Nature demons…You’re sure?”

“For the millionth time, yes!”

“And the leader, Poodles—”

“Petals.”

“Whatever. The leader, Puddles, mentioned the Great Ones. That’s what he said?”

“Absolutely.”

“And you’re sure?”

“Positutely.”

Jade watched Matthew and Scott go back and forth. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say that Scott was messing with Matthew, but Scott and Sandy wore worried expressions and betrayed no sign of humor. She got the feeling that they knew what they were dealing with and didn’t like it.

“—and Jade, this is all 100% correct?” Scott asked her.

“No embellishment whatsoever. We’ve told it exactly how it was,” she confirmed. “Now, can you tell us what this means?”

He and Sandy shared a quick glance, but it may as well have been an entire conversation, because they both came to the same conclusion.

“No,” they said in unison.

“Ex—excuse me?” she spluttered.

“Whoa, you’re kidding me, right?” Matthew said in frustration.

Sandy put her hand on Jade’s shoulder, “Some things…Well, the story’s just ridiculous anyways. Some things you’re just better off not knowing.”

“For now, let’s just focus on the Pukwudgies,” Scott said. “Those things are supposed to be in Massachusetts, not all the way out here. If bound monsters are getting so powerful that they can now go wherever they want to and break their natural boundary lines, I think the Hunters are going to have a whole new set of problems.”

“You can try to change the subject, but you won’t fool me that easily,” Matthew said with a knowing smile. “Now tell us what this all means.”

Scott mussed up Matthew’s hair. “It’d just scare you if we told you.”

“You calling me a coward?” Matthew asked, swatting Scott’s hand away. “Anything you can do, I can do better, you ugly sack of—!”

“I think we’re qualified enough to be told about this, just as you are,” Jade put in, for Matthew’s sake, even if she was more than a little upset with him.

“You guys don’t understand,” Scott said. “It’s not about experience, qualification, or how much you can handle. It’s a forbidden legend.”

“Since when have legends been forbidden?” Matthew said disbelievingly.

“Since some legends are just that: legends,” Scott said a little more irritably.

Sandy elbowed Scott and gave him a hard look. Scott stopped talking immediately.

Matthew gave up soon after that. Scott was bad at keeping secrets. The fact that he hadn’t blurted it out already, even with all their insistence, told them that whatever it was, it wasn’t anything good.

They had stayed up until 3 in the morning, resetting their camp and trying to repair some of the damage done to their equipment. She and Matthew had set up their new camp about a quarter of a mile away from Scott and Sandy, so they would be in range, yet slightly distanced from each other.