The One Who Eats Monsters (Wind and Shadow, #1)

by Casey Matthews

Detention.” “What is ‘detention’?” “It means you sit in your chair, shut up, and suffer through the afternoon until I’m satisfied!” Ryn couldn’t figure out how that differed from where she was now.

Her dad had always taught her that immigration laws were too evil to be respected by decent people.

And he's a Republican Senator?

“You don’t want to dance?” She shook her head. “Too many people.” “And finally, I know your dark secret.” How had she intuited that Ryn wanted to break the arms of everyone who bumped into her? “You’re shy!” “I am not.”

she’d have reached through his stomach to break his spine if the moon were any higher. She refrained because she was fairly sure humans couldn’t do that. What saved his life was only the desire to kill subtly enough to remain unjailed. Weighing her options, she decided on a more believably human response—she’d rip off an arm.

I’m ex-military and there on an Army scholarship, so she introduces me to her very-Marxist dean with, ‘Here is Tom Bradford. He shoots Communists, but don’t worry, only Soviet ones sent to Haiti and paid by the Kremlin to fight. You are not paid to support Communists, you do it for free, so Tom probably won’t shoot you.’ ” Naomi chortled, but her mom had told it slightly differently one New Year’s after drinking too much wine. Instead of introducing her dad by name, she’d called him “a handsome student I am sleeping with.”

First time she met him, she looked at the pictures on his desk and said, ‘Your children are beautiful in America. Not like our children in the Soviet Empire, because they are starving.’

Besides, I’m a socialist. Just ask my dad.” “What is a ‘socialist’?” “Someone who flagrantly redistributes her father’s money.”

He flexed his mouth, as though to limber it up. “I like how you look.” Unsure what to say, she told the truth. “You smell harmless. I like that.”

As for the old woman? She was the reason animal control was already on scene, but she’d called them about the dragon. “I sure hope they don’t put it down,” she’d said. “I think they’re endangered.”

“I’d love to talk more.” He shook his head sadly. “But I’m afraid I’ve got to blow up the warehouse now.” “Why?” “Tradition?” “I’m unfamiliar with this tradition,” she said. “I’m keen on making new ones.” He removed a smartphone from his pocket, punching a button.