Page 104 of Demon Monster's Little Human

The emotions war inside me, clashing like a violent storm.

This is the moment it all changed.

This is the moment I was betrayed.

Her voice is quiet. "Dain… please."

I snarl at her. “You have no right to say my name.”

She flinches, but her resolve does not break. She lifts her hands, magic gathering at her fingertips. I feel it snake toward me, curling around my body like a promise, like a curse.

"Don’t do this, Amara." My voice is ragged, torn between rage and something else, something I won’t name.

Her eyes glisten with unshed tears, her fingers trembling as she presses them to my chest. The spell burns.

"I have no choice," she whispers. "I have to stop you."

The pain is unbearable. It sears through my soul.

The magic wraps around me, burrowing deep, chaining me in ways I cannot fight.

She presses her lips to mine.

The memory stabs into me like a dagger to the gut. A kiss. A final kiss.

She seals me away.

The vision ends with a violent snap.

I gasp, choking on air as I lurch back into the present. The shrine’s ruins come back into focus, the towering stones, the swirling magic, the shattered ritual.

And Liora.

She collapses against me, her body shaking, her breathing uneven. I catch her before she hits the ground, my hands curling around her shoulders, anchoring her to me.

Her eyes meet mine. And I notice it.

Not just Liora.

Not just Amara.

Both.

The truth crashes into me, vicious and undeniable.

Liora was never just a girl. She was always Amara.

A fractured soul, reborn and bound to me by a fate neither of us can escape.

I shake my head, my grip tightening on her as my own breathing turns ragged. “What have you done?”

She doesn’t answer.

She doesn’t have to.

I already know and nothing will ever be the same again.

44

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