She might not have been inside a Mason jar, but I was halfway there. Part of me wanted to unleash an almighty scream of relief, but that would only alarm Nathan more. So, for now, I’d keep it to a quiet half-victory. Maybe not even half, considering I still had dozens more to capture.
“Okay, I’m really going to need an explanation.” Nathan came nearer, eyeing his jacket with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. “What’s in there?”
I gripped the top of the sack tighter, feeling the tiny monster trying to force her way out. “Honestly? I don’t know. A monster of some kind. She looks a bit like Archimedes, but not quite the same.”
His eyes widened. “She?”
“I mean, I’m no expert, but I think she’s a she,” I replied.
“May I?”
I hesitated. “Close the door first. If she gets out, you’re going to have to help me catch her again. I’ve been chasing her for ages.” I paused, my cheeks heating up. “And there’s some yogurt on your kitchen floor. Sorry about that.”
Nathan closed the bedroom door. “No problem. I can catch monsters when I have to, you know…” He arched an eyebrow. “But I don’t much care for it. I suppose that’s why I ended up a researcher instead of a bona fide hunter. You see, there comes a moment, for some people, during training where—I’m digressing, apologies. Please, let me see the creature, and I’ll try not to let it loose.”
I wonder what he was going to say… It sounded like the beginning of something profound, but it would have to wait—the ferocity inside the makeshift sack had amped up a level. My fluttery friend strained against the opening, and I realized I’d probably frightened her by trapping her in a dark mass of tweed. Maybe if I gave her some air and made her feel more comfortable, she would calm down.
Feeling for her thin body through the fabric, I wrapped a hand around what I hoped was her waist and peeled back a few pieces of the gathered jacket. Her head poked out, her needle-sharp teeth gnashing at me as more rude shrieks pierced my ears. Those big black eyes narrowed as she sucked in deep breaths and tried to shimmy her shoulders out. I let her wriggle her arms loose, but made sure to keep the wings locked down.
Nathan yelped so loud I almost dropped the monster again. “No way! This isn’t possible!” He took off his glasses and wiped them on his polo shirt before putting them back on, like he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. “For the love of Chaos, this is… this is incredible! Never in my life did I think I’d see one in the flesh!”
“Would you mind sharing?” I asked.
The tiny monster looked pretty cool, for sure, but she didn’t look special enough to get a grown man jigging around like a little kid. He’d leave boot marks on his super-clean floor if he wasn’t careful.
“Sorry, yes, of course.” He clasped his hands together, grinning so wide the corners of his glasses dug into his cheeks. “Persie, you have no idea how amazing this is. The creature you’re holding in your hands is… goodness, I can’t believe I’m saying this. It’s a pixie!”
I nodded dumbly. “And that’s… good?”
“Good?” He gave the first real guffaw I’d ever heard in my life. “It’s more than good, Persie! This might be the rarest monster I’ve ever laid eyes on. In fact, they’re archived under ‘obsolete’ in just about every monster research library you’re likely to come across. Pixies are… Oh goodness, oh goodness, this is so exciting!”
“They’re what?” My Purge not only made him dance like a marionette with the shakes, it had also made him very distractible.
He clamped a stunned hand across his mouth, then removed it, saying, “They’re supposed to be extinct, Persie! Extinct! Defunct! Nonexistent! Pick your synonym! And you’re holding one in my jacket!” He laughed so hard I worried for his blood pressure. Even the pixie stopped squawking for a second and stared at him with scathing judgment. She turned her face toward me, and I swore she rolled her twinkly black eyes. It took everything I had not to snort and ruin Nathan’s moment of euphoria.
“Well, then, they can’t be extinct,” I said sagely, but Nathan shook his head.
“That’s just it! Even the rarest of creatures will pop up on our radar from time to time, but the last sighting was over a hundred years ago. This… this is an impossible monster.” He held out his hand to touch her, and she snapped her teeth at him. His fingertips recoiled out of harm’s way. “She’s certainly spirited. Now, you have to tell me, did you create her or did you find her? They’re of Celtic origin, though they used to be found primarily in Devon and Cornwall in England. Perhaps they’ve reappeared here of their own accord, or perhaps the land itself has manifested them back into existence? Ireland is famously rich in magic, so it would not be entirely out of the question. Chaos, that would be thrilling! It would change everything we know about monster creation! Oh, think of all the theses I could write.” He went off into a daze, evidently dreaming of sleepless nights at his computer and mountains of research. In fact, I wasn’t even sure he still knew I was there. I felt almost reluctant to burst his academic bubble.
Wait… what do I tell him? My mind forked into two roads. Nathan knew more about monsters than I did, which meant he could be useful in figuring out what these things liked and how to wrangle a whole bunch of them. Although I supposed he could do that without knowing I’d created them. On the flipside, I thought about
