Page 67 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Fire

Soren rolls us over the makeshift altar, pinning me beneath him. “I knew you’d pick me. A cocktease like you, letting yourself be dicked down by those monsters. I know, though. I know you didn’t let them fuck you. Stringing them along so you can save yourself for me. My good little whore.”

What the hell is he saying? How does he know what I do with my mates?

No time to think about that as I fight to keep him from raping me in front of the council. Fuckers.

The last sigil closes, and with it, my only real option to escape.

Something wavers in the air just above Soren. He’s too distracted by my nearly bare body to notice the widening chasm of scary above him.

One moment, Soren is pulling up my robe, and the next, large hands wrap around Soren’s body, stealing him away.

I don’t have the luxury to lie there and be shocked. Another portal is opening.

I study the sigils that make the circle. Remembering the last one that was cast, I start unmaking it.

I just need to unlock three sigils so I can leave.

The portal opens again, this time to a world of roaring flame. A being of bright light and warmth steps through the shimmering ribbon. For a moment, the figure looks like Mordred. Four segmented wings remind me of moths’ wings, but that’s where the similarities end.

Where his face should be is blank, with hints of facial features like a mannequin in a retail store. He tilts his head like an animal gesture as he looks at me.

Sniffing the air, he lurches closer to me. I can’t move, or it will undo all the work I put into unlocking the first sigil. I finally unmake it as the creatures grazes his finger along the open V of my robe.

Lightning scorches my skin, a thin pink line appearing along my sternum. I cry out, backing away from him before he can touch me again. He plucks me up from where I’m splayed on the floor. My wrists burn from where he touches me.

A slit appears where a mouth would be. He looks like he’s trying to form words, but no sound comes out.

The pain is overwhelming, but I swallow it, using it to fuel my spell work. I unmake the second sigil in record time and focus on the third. I need to time it right for maximum impact.

From this position, I can see my mother out of the corner of my eye. I see her anchoring the shield spell, her eyes wild as she continues chanting. No one can leave the circle, but no one else can come in. I am alone, and I will have to defeat this alone.

I kick out, landing a blow directly on his chest. I land hard, but roll away from him toward the gap I’m making in the circle.

The creature shrieks at me, a high-pitched keen that forces me to clap my hands over my ears.

There’s no time. No time to unmake the third sigil without being torn up by this freak show.

I tried running. I tried reverse engineering.

Let’s try banishing.

I’m not sure where it came from, but I should be able to just banish it away from here. If not, then it would come roaring back ten times more powerful.

Dammit, think! Where can I banish it?

Like a damned epiphany, my mother’s words come roaring back to me. Remember my spells. Of course. My failsafe.

The very first lesson my father taught me. Never be afraid of what is summoned because I can always banish it.

I pick up the ceremonial knife, cut myself with it, and use my blood to trigger the binding magic of the oubliette.

The creature rears back and charges for me. It doesn’t take more than a step before the house wraps it in shadows and disappears it in whatever in-between world it exists.

I stand, the silence deafening after all that.

I swipe my blood over the table, and unmake the third sigil, weakening the circle enough for me to walk through.

And then everything started to tip inside the open portal. An endless inferno with a greedy appetite, and of course, I forget to close it.

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