BooksBarbecue
Back Destroy All Monsters Save as PDF
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

There was some of it in everyone.

Thirty-Two

Solomon

Niv’s darkness was there. Had always been there. Distant—but I could sense it.

“Tell me what you mean,” I whispered to him, there on the safe, warm floor of Radha’s home, with the whole world falling down around us.

He did not answer me right away. When he did, I could hear that he was crying. “They’ve got me, Solomon. Going back years.”

“Who’s they?”

“The police,” he said, and his breath smelled like cinnamon and chocolate, like the little boy he had been. “When I was ten, when I first started working as a stableboy at the Palace, they came to me. My mom was in prison, and they told me that if I didn’t work for them, they would make life hard for her. Kill her, even, if I disobeyed, or if I told anyone at the Palace about what was going on. My handler would come check in with me once a month. Ask me what had been happening. What I’d seen, heard. It made me sick to work for them, but in the beginning, it wasn’t such a big deal. I didn’t have any power or responsibility back then, and certainly nobody ever told me anything valuable—but pretty soon I started getting promoted. They made sure I moved closer and closer to the center of the inner circle. Until pretty soon I was the Refugee Princess’s number one aide.”

“I knew it,” I said, and I wondered if that’s why I didn’t feel angrier.

“I pretty much hated myself, for what I did. But you have to believe me, Solomon. I love Ash more than anything, and I’ve never ever given them any information that could help them to hurt her. And I never would.”

He was crying harder, now. I held him tighter. Told him shhhhhhh. Told him we would figure it all out. Told him everything would be okay.

“They have her,” he said, through sobs. “My mom. What’re they going to do to her, now that I’ve run off?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“My handler liked me,” he said, rolling over, onto his back, away from me. “She came by the safe house, told me that the cops had learned about the Shield’s plan for the attacks, during the queen’s speech. Told me the Destroyers would be coming for Ash at the same time, and they’d kill her guards if they had to. Told me I should go out for a kebab when the speech started, if I knew what was good for me. As soon as she was gone, I took Ash and headed straight for the Underbridge.”

I touched his face. It was the only thing I could think to do. Pressed my hand against his cheek.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.