Chapters (79)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Sixty-Six
- Sixty-Seven
- Sixty-Eight
- Sixty-Nine
- Seventy
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author
- Praise for Destroy All Monsters
- Books by Sam J. Miller
- Back Ad
- About the Publisher
I pinched Solomon’s trained penny between my fingers, felt its sharp edges cut.
Calm down, Ash. You know how this goes. He is not your responsibility. There’s nothing you can do to help him.
Except, I didn’t buy that.
I couldn’t. He was broken, but I had to believe that he could be fixed. And I had to believe that there was something I could do to help him. Even if it was something that would make him hate me forever.
Twenty
Solomon
I pinched Ash’s penny between my fingers. Its sharp edges cut into my skin. I don’t know why, but the pain made me feel the teeny-tiniest bit better.
“Make a fist,” Radha said. “Make two fists.”
She sat at the table beside Ash, her strong hands probing at the princess’s arms and shoulders.
“Can you feel that?”
Ash nodded.
Radha didn’t like to talk about her othersider ability, but I knew it had something to do with the body. Back in the day, she had been some kind of bad-ass warrior, a member of an elite othersider self-defense unit that used to patrol the city and protect our people, before the Darkside Police Department cracked down on them. “Surprise is important,” she said, when I was a kid and asked her what she could do. “Can’t have word getting out about what you can do. When the time comes to use your ability on someone, you don’t want them to know what’s coming.”
But Radha was well-known in the Underbridge for being able to track magic in the body, and help when there were blockages or defects. She’d agreed to take a look at Ash, see if there was something she could do. Secretly I hoped that maybe she could gain some insight into how the Palace sorcerers were continuing to control Ash, and whether there was any possibility of reversing it.
I sat down beside them. After fifteen minutes of tiny adjustments and questions, Radha sat back and shut her eyes.
“Anything?” I asked.
“It’s powerful magic,” she said. “Very complex. The combined spells of at least a dozen different sorcerers. She’s strong, to be standing here despite it.”
“Can you tell what her ability is?”
“It’s not something that manipulates the elements, or any other class of object,” Radha said. “Otherwise I’d see evidence of it in her muscles. Whatever it is, it’s been buried too deep, and for too long.”
“How do you feel, Ash?”
The Refugee Princess looked into my eyes, but did not seem to see anything. I took her hand.
She was broken, but I had to believe that she could be fixed. And I had to believe that there was something I could do to help her.
“The queen!” cried Connor, running into the room.