Page 15 of Claimed By Her Monsters

“Three days?” That didn’t make sense to me. “Where…did I go?”

“We don’t know,” he voiced as he finally released me enough that I could look up at him in utter confusion.

“I…I don’t know where I am, Aloisium,” I voiced and suddenly felt the need to defend myself before they thought I’d run away again or something. “I didn’t runway or anything. I…I can’t recall what happened before I lost consciousness. Athena was murdered before our eyes. The goddess had been summoned at that moment. When I came back, we were being…attacked…I think. There was a chase, and…well…that’s all I can remember right now.”

He listened to my every word, his expression actually not showing signs of disbelief.

“I can wake up,” I urged. “Wake up…and well…” I trailed off because how would I reach him? Reach him, Regis, or even Fenriz. Just the fact that I met Fenriz in the flesh for the first time in ten years was a big deal, and as for Regis, I’d told him I wouldn’t help them after he physically summoned me. If I tried to reach him, he’d simply ignore it as punishment for pissing him off far too much this year.

“I don’t know how to contact you guys,” I finally confessed. “But when I wake up, I’ll think of something. Maybe…I can ask Atticus or something.”

The mention of Atticus’s name made his expression harden as he stared back at me, which made me sigh.

“What do you guys have against Atticus, or the others, for that matter.”

“They’re our archnemeses, obviously,” he huffed as if what he was revealing wasn’t rocket science.

“Right, right,” I dismissed before it could escalate into some form of argument. “Well, I’m gonna need his help to figure shit out because I don’t know where I am outside of dreamland and he’s the last one I remember was with me before I blacked out for whatever reason. Once I figure shit out, I’ll reach out to you guys in my dreams or something and then you can go back to your philosophical readings of why the world is flat or something.”

I tugged away from him and turned away, deciding it was best to wake up.

“I’ll stop disturbing you. Try to take a nap or something because you acting like this is weird as fuc—ah?!!” I was practically tackled from behind as muscled arms wrapped around me to ensure I couldn’t take another step.

The obvious culprit had to be Aloisium, but I couldn’t mentally process that. The dark god was as emotionless as Regis, only he enjoyed displaying bouts of anger to make things more interesting in comparison to the leader of their godly trio.

“Aloisi–”

“Why?” His voice barely hit the air as he asked me the single-word question I had no answer to.

“What?” I genuinely didn’t understand what was wrong.

“Why didn’t you say something!?” he screamed, which frightened me a bit because such a sound never held a sense of irony to it.

Did he scream when he was annoyed? Yes. But screaming with enough emotion that I thought he’d break down and cry was a first.

“Say…what?” I wasn’t comprehending any of this, which left me wondering if this was my own nightmare of some kind. “I’m leaving, Aloi—”

With a blink, I was pressed against the bookshelf and staring into eyes of pink with hints of orange as they filled with actual tears.

“A…loisium?”

This had to be a dream because no way in my existence had I ever envisioned this man shedding tears, let alone in my presence.

“They tortured you! Burned your flesh with unnecessary symbols! Cut you with blades! Abandoned you in the depths of forests even humans avoid for their own sanity!” he screamed. “They forced you to soak in a lagoon of blood! Why?! What logical explanation is there for such torture?!”

My mouth was open in hopes that some type of words would come out, and yet nothing could escape my parted lips because I was finally understanding his immense anger.

He…knows. Does he know? How…how would he find out? No. That’s not what’s vitally important. The real question is…

“Why are you angry?” I stared at him with pure bewilderment, which made his watery eyes widen in dismay.

“Why am I angry?!” he spat out the words. “Do you hear yourself?”

“Sadly,” I admitted. “But I don’t get your anger. You guys are the ones who instructed such rituals. You are the ones who approved of their actions without a glimpse of what they were doing. They got your approval to do whatever was needed to make me into a bridge worthy of her dark obsessions. Why are you suddenly acting as if you knew nothing of it?”

“No one asked us ANYTHING, Nerissa,” he exclaimed. “Are we that wicked? To approve of a child being beaten, tortured, ridiculed, mocked, segregated, and forced into unnecessary and baffling rituals that would do nothing but taint your energy? Those methods could have killed you!”

“And yet I’m here,” I muttered more to myself as I scrunched my face. “You…guys didn’t order them to do such actions to make me ‘pure’ for you?” I needed to make it clear that they really were oblivious to it all.

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