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Chapters (79)
  1. Cover
  2. Dedication
  3. Epigraph
  4. One
  5. Two
  6. Three
  7. Four
  8. Five
  9. Six
  10. Seven
  11. Eight
  12. Nine
  13. Ten
  14. Eleven
  15. Twelve
  16. Thirteen
  17. Fourteen
  18. Fifteen
  19. Sixteen
  20. Seventeen
  21. Eighteen
  22. Nineteen
  23. Twenty
  24. Twenty-One
  25. Twenty-Two
  26. Twenty-Three
  27. Twenty-Four
  28. Twenty-Five
  29. Twenty-Six
  30. Twenty-Seven
  31. Twenty-Eight
  32. Twenty-Nine
  33. Thirty
  34. Thirty-One
  35. Thirty-Two
  36. Thirty-Three
  37. Thirty-Four
  38. Thirty-Five
  39. Thirty-Six
  40. Thirty-Seven
  41. Thirty-Eight
  42. Thirty-Nine
  43. Forty
  44. Forty-One
  45. Forty-Two
  46. Forty-Three
  47. Forty-Four
  48. Forty-Five
  49. Forty-Six
  50. Forty-Seven
  51. Forty-Eight
  52. Forty-Nine
  53. Fifty
  54. Fifty-One
  55. Fifty-Two
  56. Fifty-Three
  57. Fifty-Four
  58. Fifty-Five
  59. Fifty-Six
  60. Fifty-Seven
  61. Fifty-Eight
  62. Fifty-Nine
  63. Sixty
  64. Sixty-One
  65. Sixty-Two
  66. Sixty-Three
  67. Sixty-Four
  68. Sixty-Five
  69. Sixty-Six
  70. Sixty-Seven
  71. Sixty-Eight
  72. Sixty-Nine
  73. Seventy
  74. Acknowledgments
  75. About the Author
  76. Praise for Destroy All Monsters
  77. Books by Sam J. Miller
  78. Back Ad
  79. About the Publisher

“What’s with you?” Ash asks.

“You really don’t know?”

She makes a psssh noise. “You’re still thinking about what my mom said? Don’t pay any attention to her.”

I stop walking. Try to make myself calm down.

I know Ash can’t help it. She is what she is. All her needs were met; she never had to worry about anything except for when her magic would start to work.

“You’d never understand,” I say. My voice is hard, mean, and I know that’s not me, not us, but I can’t stop myself. “How could you? You’ve never been hungry. Never been assaulted on the street, while a police officer looks the other way.”

“But you’re not out there anymore, are you? Because I saved you. Because I know how ugly this city is, even if I never had to live with that ugliness.”

This is Ash. The princess. My friend. Who picked me up out of the gutter. Who I love so fiercely and owe so much to that sometimes I resent her.

But it sucks, loving someone. It means you’re not in control of what you do anymore. It means you’re helpless. That’s what I’m angry about, when I open my mouth and say:

“While you’re sitting up in the Palace, safe and sound, or out here surrounded by war jaguars as big as houses, people are living lives and dying deaths you could never imagine. So don’t ever pssssh at me.”

The look she gives me in response is hard, and full of things she chooses not to share.

We don’t say another word, but we spend a long time walking. Sometimes the silence feels almost comfortable, like it normally does, and sometimes it prickles like a thick, thorny hedge between us.

What we don’t realize is that we only have two more days together.

In less than a week, I’ll get kicked out on the street and Ash won’t be the same.

I don’t know why I remember that now, in the safe warm dark of Radha’s home. I blocked out the memory because I was ashamed of what I’d said. And now that I could remember it, I could connect the dots. Ash’s words. In two days, my guards are going to try something new. And the fact that two days after that conversation, everything went wrong.

Thirteen

Ash

The high school parking lot had become a minefield. Students and teachers alike stood around, gawking.