Page 24 of Monster's Pretty Bride

She chews slowly, deliberately, refusing to look away, her throat moving as she swallows. Her lips are slick from where the juice smeared, a tiny drop of it clinging to the corner of her mouth.

I lift my thumb, swiping it away.

Her body tenses. And I should stop.

But I don’t.

I trace lower, along the curve of her jaw, down the column of her throat. My claws barely graze her skin, slow, deliberate. I can feel her pulse hammering beneath my touch.

"See?" I murmur, lowering my mouth just enough that our noses almost brush. "That wasn't so hard, was it?"

She exhales, her breath warm, her fingers flexing against the sheets as if she wants to claw me away.

Or pull me closer.

She swallows again, and the motion sends something dark and burning curling through my gut.

She doesn't break the silence. Neither do I.

I don't move. Neither does she.

But I feel it.

The hunger. Not for food.

Not for power. For something else.

Something neither of us should want.

But it’s something we can’t stop.

12

ERYSS

Naranus thinks he has me.

Thinks that because I let him feed me, because I lay limp beneath his hands, because I met his golden gaze with something less than fire, I have given up.

Good.

I let him believe it.

Let him believe I am too broken to fight back. But I am not broken.

I am waiting.

Waiting for my chance to strike. But first, I need my dagger.

I push away from the bed, wincing as the movement sends a slow throb of pain down my ribs. The fight may be over, but my body still bears the proof of it. The reminder.

The cost. I reach the door and press my palm against it, testing. Locked.

Of course.

Naranus wouldn’t be careless enough to let me just walk out.

But he forgot something.

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