Hi. I'm Alex Walker. Ten years old, all elbows, and the strongest thing about me used to be my smell.

No parents. They left me a box and disappeared. Inside the box was a ring. The ring shook. I told myself I was tired.

I was not tired.

Now there's a girl living in my head who won't tell me her real name, a screen in front of my eyes with numbers that go up when I eat things I really shouldn't be eating, and a lot of monsters who'd like a word.

Is it gross? Yes.

Does it work? Also yes.

Go from walking lollipop to something the Hunters can't explain, one bad meal at a time.

...What do you mean, "what's the catch"?

"What," said Selina, "is he doing to your hand?"


Selina didn't shout. She sat down on the log, slowly, and laid the spear across her knees.


"So last night, when you were screaming on my stairs about a mugging."


"...That was the System. That's different. She didn't build that, an old guy did. Look, it's complicated."


"And the night with Dextor. Your eyes went red, and you threw tornadoes about, and on the way past you patted me on the head. Like a dog."


'She needed it,' Luna said. 'I'm not sorry.'


"No, she doesn't." Selina narrowed her eyes at the Ring. "Tell her she fights better than her son does."


"She says thanks. I'm not translating any more of this. I should be charging you two by the hour."


"And the rest? There's a father, I take it. That's usually how it goes."


Chapter 123 - Chapter 123 - Two Mothers