Page 52 of Monster's Secret Baby

Sior's mouth opens, but whatever plea or curse he means to utter never forms. His body contorts, spine arching at an impossible angle. His wings crumple like paper in flame. The man who shaped my career, who I once looked to as family, falls to the ground at my feet with a soft, anticlimactic thud.

The silence that follows roars in my ears. Sior lies crumpled like a discarded marionette, limbs bent at unnatural angles, eyes open but seeing nothing.

"You actually killed him." Harmony's voice comes from behind me, quiet with shock.

I turn to her, my breath still coming in harsh pants. "He touched you."

My words hang in the air between us. Simple. Factual. As if they explain everything—and to me, they do.

"You just... gods, Adellum. You didn't even hesitate." She's not moving away from me, but her arms wrap around herself protectively.

I look down at Sior's body, then back to her. The rage that fueled me moments ago doesn't ebb. It transforms, crystallizing into something colder and more focused.

"He was going to hurt you." I flex my fingers, still crackling with residual magic. "I've spent five years without you. I will not lose you again—not to him, not to anyone."

"That's not—" She stops, swallows. "That's not normal, Adellum. You can't just kill people who threaten me."

A harsh laugh escapes me. "Can't I?" The blue crystal in my pocket digs into my palm where I've unconsciously grabbed it. "I told you I would tear the world apart to find you. Did you think I was being poetic?"

The wind shifts, carrying the scent of smoke and cooking food from the restaurant. Behind us, there's the sound of a door opening, someone shouting in alarm.

Harmony meets my eyes, and I see something there I hadn't expected: not fear, but a dawning realization. "You really would do anything, wouldn't you?"

"For you. For Brooke." I step closer to her, careful not to touch her though every cell in my body screams to hold her. "Everything I am belongs to you both now. I failed you once. Never again."

Harmony just stares at me, looking at me like she did after I killed that nymph. Right before I found her trying to run again.

And I can almost feel it now. That I've shattered what little I've been able to rebuild with her because she will never be able to accept me for who I am, for how I became so twisted and obsessed over her.

I stand over Sior's body, my chest heaving with ragged breaths that feel like they're tearing my lungs apart. The silver light still dances at my fingertips, unwilling to recede back into my body. My wings spread behind me involuntarily, the soft gray feathers bristled and full—a defensive posture I haven't needed since I was a child being beaten in the streets.

Sior's eyes stare emptily at the sky. The man who shaped me, molded me, used me. The man I trusted for years despite everything screaming that I shouldn't. Dead by my hand without a second's hesitation.

I turn to Harmony, and the expression on her face hits me harder than any magic ever could. She looks at me like I'm a stranger. No—worse. Like I'm exactly what she always feared I might be.

"Harmony." My voice breaks on her name. "He was?—"

The restaurant door bangs open wider behind us. I hear Marda's sharp intake of breath, followed by her urgent whisper, "Gods above and below."

Panic floods through me, a cold rush replacing the hot fury of moments ago. I can't lose her again. Not after finding her. Not after finally getting this close to her. The thought of Harmony pulling away, taking Brooke, running where I can't follow—it hollows me out from the inside.

"Get inside," I say to Harmony, my voice rough. "I'll take care of this."

I bend down, grabbing Sior's cooling corpse by the shoulders. His wings drag uselessly behind him as I start hauling him away from the restaurant. Away from her. My own wings fold tight against my back, an unconscious attempt to make myself smaller, less threatening. The irony doesn't escape me—as if I could erase what she just witnessed.

"What are you doing?" Harmony calls after me, still frozen in place.

"I'm protecting you." The words come out more harshly than I intend. I drag Sior's body toward the tree line at the edge of Marda's property. "Go inside. Please."

"Adellum, stop." Her voice has that edge to it, that steel I'd first fallen in love with. "You can't just drag a body through town."

I halt, my hands still fisted in Sior's fine jacket. "Then what would you have me do? Leave him for everyone to see? For Brooke to see?" My voice cracks on our daughter's name. "I won't—I can't have her look at me the way you're looking at me right now."

Harmony takes a hesitant step forward. "How am I looking at you?"

"Like I'm a monster." The words tear from my throat. "Like I'm everything you ran from."

I wait for her to speak, to tell me I'm wrong. To reach out and pull me back from this cliff edge I'm teetering on.

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