Page 127 of An Invocation of Monsters

But the monster smiled.

“SHE IS MINE,” he said, gentle and affectionate, his voice no longer pitched to shatter eardrums.

“Then take her! Take her and give me the power!” Mary stretched out her arms, her face pressed to the ground.

The monster moved closer. The edge of the cliff crumbled and fell away.

“MY FLESH, MY BLOOD. WHAT DO YOU DESIRE, MY DAUGHTER?”

My heart skipped several beats.

It was impossible. This monster was almost beyond imagining, beyond any human reckoning.

And yet… the love in his gaze, the gentle smile…

This monster was a V’uthli. My father.

“I…” I almost couldn’t speak.

I hadn’t come here to sacrifice anyone. I hadn’t wanted all this bloodshed.

But the V’uthli’s presence was so titanic that the earth was ripping itself apart around me.

The trees surrounding the circle were uprooting, their branches flying into the storm overhead, their trunks shattering.

The Wendigo Society had started a working of power, and until it was concluded, the storm wouldn’t abate.

I had to ask for something.

What did I desire more than anything?

“I want the Void to be guarded from people who want to use it,” I shouted over the rising shriek of wind. “I want the monsters to be kept free from her! I want to protect them from her kind!”

The V’uthli blinked, and those few seconds of darkness were like the world vanishing entirely until he opened his eyes again.

This time his smile stretched wider, revealing fangs longer than I was tall.

“I GRANT YOU THIS EXCHANGE,” he said. “I CHARGE YOU TO GUARD THE DOORS AND THIS LAND.”

“I accept.” The wind sucked the air from the lungs and the words from my lips.

“I CHARGE YOU TO GUARD THOSE TO WHOM YOUR SOUL IS BOUND, AND ALL WHO ASK FOR YOUR AID.”

“I accept!”

“YOUR BODY, LIFE, AND SOUL BELONG TO THE VOID. YOU WILL GIVE ALL YOU HAVE, ALL YOU ARE, TO PRESERVE IT.”

“I accept,” I gasped. I could not breathe. My scalp prickled with pain, the hairs on my head ripped upwards by the wind.

“THE CONTRACT IS SEALED, CHILD OF MY FLESH. MY DUTY BECOMES YOURS. I WITNESS THIS BINDING WITH BLOOD.”

Oh, god.

Moving with a quickness that was nauseating, that titanic hand descended, the long claws on thumb and forefinger reaching down and plucking Mary from the ground.

They skewered right through her, and he lifted her up into the air, his mouth opening wide.

I couldn’t watch. I couldn’t hear.

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