Page 92 of Monster's Pretty Bride

A sacrifice.

Her words sink in, slow and suffocating.

My stomach twists. “What kind of sacrifice?”

41

NARANUS

We retreat back into the sanctuary, Eryss and Catalina dragging me inside. Catalina speaks, talking about the sacrifice. I can’t process it.

Catalina’s words hang in the air like a curse of their own, choking the life from me. Two ways.

Kill me, sever the magic, end the curse. Or offer another willing soul of equal power.

I can feel Eryss trembling beside me, though whether it’s from rage or something else, I can’t tell.

Doesn’t matter.

I won’t let her make that choice.

My jaw tightens as I force my breath to steady, though my body screams in protest. I don’t have time to waste. Not for arguments. Not for hope.

“You already know the answer,” I growl, stepping forward. “Do it.”

Eryss recoils as if I struck her. “What?”

“Kill me,” I say again, harsher this time. “Before the Elders send someone who won’t hesitate.”

She shakes her head, violently. “No.”

I snarl, grabbing her arm. “Do it, damn you!”

She shoves me off with enough force that I stumble back a step, my balance slipping from my body’s growing weakness.

“You think I’m just going to stab you in the chest?” Her voice shakes, but her anger cuts through it like a blade. “That I’m going to stand over your body like some glorious executioner?”

Her hands tremble at her sides. I catch the flicker of magic curling around her fingers. A warning. A threat. A refusal.

I press forward anyway.

“You think the Elders will let you refuse?” I snarl. “They’ll send another assassin. Maybe a dozen. And when they kill me, they’ll take you back to the coven in chains.”

“Then I’ll fight them!” she screams.

She moves before I do. Her palm cracks against my cheek. Hard enough that my head jerks to the side.

The sting barely registers. The shock does.

My fingers brush my jaw as I slowly turn my head back to her.

Her chest heaves, her eyes burning with something I can’t decipher. Grief. Rage. Desperation.

“I won’t let you die,” she chokes. “Not for them. Not for me. Not for anything.”

The words slam into me like a warhammer to the ribs.

Suddenly, I’m drowning in all of it.

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