Only a Monster(Monsters #1)(54)

‘Maybe a lesser family’s chop,’ Aaron said. ‘Or a French family’s.’

‘But there’s no name on it,’ Ruth said.

‘What’s a chop?’ Joan asked.

Aaron reached into his pocket and took out a chain, unhooking it from a buttonhole. Joan had noticed the chain before, but she’d assumed it was for a fob watch. Now she saw that it had a little pendant figurine attached: a mermaid. But not a fairytale mermaid: there was something menacing about the tilt of her head, her clawing hands, the snakelike coil of her tail. It was the same mermaid that had been tattooed on Aaron’s relative. The same outline Joan had seen through Aaron’s wet shirt. The Oliver sigil.

Aaron mimed stamping it against the table and then handed it to Joan. ‘It’s a seal.’

There was a flat gold disk under the mermaid’s tail. It had an etched image of the mermaid along with Aaron’s name in mirrored letters. Son of Edmund, the chop said. Joan made out a Latin phrase: Fidelis ad mortem.

‘Proof of identity,’ Aaron said. ‘Most monsters have one. In my family, we get them when our power stabilises—when we’re confirmed to be Olivers. We’re buried with them when we die.’

‘Proof of identity?’ Joan said. ‘Don’t people forge them?’

‘Not really,’ Ruth said. ‘They’re handmade. The little scratches and imperfections are almost impossible to perfectly forge.’

Joan took Gran’s necklace back from Ruth. She examined it. Ruth was right. It did kind of look like a chop. ‘Ying told us something else,’ she said to Ruth as she fastened it back on. ‘He said that the King erased the previous timeline and created this timeline in its place.’

‘Are you talking about the true timeline?’ Ruth said. At Aaron’s wince, Ruth said: ‘It’s only blasphemy if you believe all that nonsense about the King being infallible.’

‘Some of us honour our oaths,’ Aaron said.

‘Oh, give me a break from that fake Oliver piety,’ Ruth said. ‘Your family is a bunch of slithering schemers. You should just own it instead of pretending loyalty to the King.’

‘Fidelis ad mortem,’ Aaron said. ‘We live by it. You wouldn’t understand.’

‘Yes, “loyal unto death”,’ Ruth said. ‘Clever that you don’t say who you’re loyal to. Everyone knows it’s only to yourselves.’

‘Better than the Hunt motto. What is it again? “Always running”?’

‘Always free,’ Ruth said sharply.

‘Can we go back to the important part of this conversation?’ Joan said.

Aaron closed his mouth over whatever insult he’d been about to shoot at Ruth. He shrugged one shoulder, not quite sheepish.

‘Ying Liu said that the King erased the previous timeline using a device,’ Joan told Ruth. ‘A device kept at the Monster Court.’ Joan tapped the pendant. ‘And now we have a way in.’

She looked at the other two expectantly. Ruth was as silent as Aaron.

‘Gran knew about the hero,’ Joan said. ‘That’s why she gave me that necklace. So we could get into the Court. So we could find that device and stop the massacre.’

‘You want to break into the Monster Court?’ Aaron said.

‘Yes, of course,’ Joan said.

‘You want to steal a device from the King?’ Aaron said. ‘The mythical device that he used to create the kingdom he rules over? The device that—if it existed—he would protect more closely than any object in his possession?’

‘I didn’t say it would be easy.’

Aaron laughed. ‘Joan. The Court isn’t even reachable. It sits outside time. There’s no way to get there without an invitation and an escort.’

‘Well, maybe that’s what the necklace is for,’ Joan said. ‘Maybe it’s not exactly a key. Maybe it’s an invitation.’

‘I don’t want to have this stupid conversation,’ Aaron said. ‘Getting in and out isn’t even the issue. We’d be executed on the spot if we were even overheard speaking of this. What we need to do is to lie low. Find a safe place to stay and settle down in this time.’

‘Settle down in this time?’ Joan said, incredulous. She thought about Aaron’s list. Housing. School.

‘Yes,’ Aaron said. And he was actually being serious about it—Joan couldn’t believe it. ‘Our families were murdered,’ he said. ‘We were nearly killed too. We experienced something truly horrendous. We need to stop and take a breath.’

‘Gran gave me this necklace for a reason!’ Joan said.

‘You don’t know that,’ Aaron said, sounding as frustrated as Joan felt. ‘Dorothy Hunt is a renowned thief! She probably stole it without even knowing what it was.’

‘She told me we had to stop the hero!’ Joan said. ‘She gave me that necklace to use it. She knew!’

‘And was there a reason why she never told you anything else your whole life?’ Aaron said. ‘Was there a reason she waited until she was dying to tell you anything at all?’

‘We’re not talking about that,’ Joan said. Couldn’t he see that they might have found a way to save their families? ‘We need to make a plan to get into the Monster Court.’