Page 60 of Becoming Monsterous

He smirks and raises his arms, drawing on his power.

Lines of worshipful obedience stretch towards him from the summoners at his back. Love, warped into devotion. I reach for those lines andsnapthem, drawing my fingers across the air like a puppet master.

The abandoned love and worship flows into me all at once, full of the power that the summoners carry.

Closing my eyes, I drop my bloody dagger on the floor, bring my palms together, and think of the gates I saw in my vision.

Tall enough for a giant to walk through. Imposing enough to make a semi turn around.

Drawing my palms apart, I imagine them opening.

And the whole world splits into two.

Before the monsters came.

Then after.

Chapter39

Aleron

She doesn't know the chaos of what she's unleashed. But I do, and I revel in it, letting my darkness unfurl.

Wings. Horns. Fangs. Claws. And the nightmares that live inside of me, oozing out into the air, dark and powerful.

There's real fear in the summoners' eyes.

Just before they bolt. Percy opens up a portal and frantically ushers his people through. They run, drawing their power up as they head back to their protected palace, where no monster can walk.

Cowards.

Percy will come back, I'm sure. He'll just wait until we've torn each other apart enough to be weakened. In the meantime, I'm sure he's hoping Ellie will die and leave her new powers up for grabs.

Not on my watch. I'll gut the Magistrate, string him up by his intestines, and bat his dangling head back and forth before I'll let him touch her.

Even better, now that our contracts are broken—because that's what opening the gates has done—I'll be able to hurt the bastard.

Winner winner golden retriever dinner.

"We have to get to Earth!" Morpheus rolls up his sleeves, flings out his wrists, and summons his tattoos. "Brute and Anima House—"

"They're there." I close my eyes, reaching through the veil between this in-between place and Earth. "I can feel it."

Fear. Terror. Pain. The worst of us monsters have descended on Earth, and brought destruction with them.

Ellie looks sick. "What have I done?"

Reaching for her arms, I draw her into the mantle of my wings. "Nothing that can't be undone, little not-so-human. All we have to do is make the effort."

"I don't see how?"

"I'm how," I tell her, pulling her against my chest and wrapping my arms around her. "Power to bend time and space, remember? Just hang on tight—and don't fall in love with me."

Despite herself, the anxiety and stress falls off Ellie's face for a moment, and she laughs a little.

Good. It warms my cold, black heart to see her happy.

Damned her, but I've fallen in love with the weak little screaming human from the sacrificial altar. If you'd asked me just a few months ago, I would've predicted that I'dactuallyeat a golden retriever over something like that happening. But life has its twists and turns—even a nearly-immortal life like mine.

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