Page 69 of An Inheritance of Monsters

I paused with my hand on her doorknob. “Really? That’s all it took to drive you away?”

Rosalie tossed a bra in the suitcase and dumped shoes on top of it. “Have you readanyof the records here, Juno?”

I shook my head, watching her stuff her laptop into her backpack.

“Well, guess what? I found this the other day, and I sure as hell wasnotthe one who left it on my floor. It just appeared by itself.” Rosalie crossed to the desk and snatched up a book. Or rather, a small leatherbound diary, a faded red ribbon sticking out of it.

She held it out to me. “This place isn’t haunted. It’s a damn madhouse, and that was the last straw. I’d rather read about it from my university library than have to experience this insanity for myself.”

I took the book mutely. The leather was soft and smooth, the binding once well-loved. The gilt flaking off the front still readMy Diaryin swirling script.

“Now you can go.” Rosalie swept everything off her dresser and into a purse. “But if I were you, I’d think really hard about leaving, too.”

I nodded, finally opening her door, but Rosalie’s voice called after me into the hall.

“Or you might not be able to.”

I wasn’t going to tell her that maybe, just maybe, that was the idea for me.

I scurried back to my room, clutching the diary to my chest, and locked my door behind me.

Rask’s purr immediately filled the air. “There you are, my mate.”

A sigh of relief escaped me and I collapsed on my bed. “Come up, Rask. I have something.”

I cracked open the diary, opening to a nearly illegible first page. The neat copperplate script had been written in dark ink, but it was so old and faded it was like trying to read the ghost of a book.

My monstrousMlul’draclimbed from the darkness beneath the bed, curling around me and squeezing his eyes shut against the light from my lamp.

I settled back against his warm bulk and flipped through the pages, confused about Rosalie’s insistence, until I found the first instance of legible writing.

…will be my birthday soon,and I shall come into my Inheritance. I cannot wait! Ivy has already received hers and my envy is too much to bear…

I frowned,and Rask peered down at the diary. “Ah. I misplaced it.”

“You left this in Rosalie’s room?”

“I did not mean to.”

I suppressed a laugh, mostly because my side was still aching a little. Of course a packrat monster from under the bed would manage to misplace a diary in the room of the local researcher.

I flipped through more pages, squinting at the ink and making out next to nothing, until the ink darkened once more here and there, the sentences fragmented.

My Shezhad iseverything I dreamed and more. I love him… all my heart.

My own heartwas speeding up as I read, thumping frantically in my throat.

This was my second piece of actual, tangible proof that the Void-marked women had met their own monsters.

Others would call them monstrous,but I call them beautiful. And Ivy has agreed to inherit the manor and its doorways, therefore I have freedom…

I wish to leave. I do not want to remain in this world, not without them.

I was nearlysick with anticipation as I found the slightly-fresher ink at the end. Most of the diary was lost to age, but what remained explained Rosalie’s vehemence at getting the hell out of here.

This ismy last day on this earth. After this, I shall live forever among the stars with the monsters of the Void.

Ivy will tell them I am dead. I will roam with my Shezhad, Khozra, and Arvoss. I am theirs now, and they are mine.

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