Page 17 of Demon Monster's Little Human

Dain slams into it before I can scream.

The fight is brutal.

They clash in the tight tunnel, claws tearing, teeth snapping, the beast screeching as Dain shoves it back. But the tunnel is too narrow, the walls too close. He can’t move properly.

Neither can the monster.

But I can. I move.

Instinct—not thought—drives me. My feet catch the loose ground, muscles pushing forward. My hands burn, that strange flickering energy curling at my fingertips again, the same thing that nearly killed me before.

But this time, I welcome it. It pulses, raw and angry, begging to be used, to be unleashed.

I reach for it.

Pain explodes in my gut.

I crumple. Dain sees it, the way my body locks, convulses.

His snarl deepens.

He doesn’t hesitate. He grabs me.

The monster strikes at the same time the ground gives way.

The ground collapses again. Stone vanishes beneath me. I don’t scream, don’t have time to.

Dain’s arm clamps around me, wings snapping open but it’s too tight, too compact, the cavern closing in too fast. We’re falling.

He shifts, turns, throws his body beneath mine. We slam into the rocks below.

The impact cracks through my bones, knocks the breath from my chest. His body takes the brunt of it.

I land on him and silence follows.

My breath stumbles out, shallow and shaking.

He doesn’t move beneath me.

My fingers twitch, pressing against the solid, too-hot flesh of his chest. He’s warm, too warm, his skin like heated stone, like something forged instead of born.

He could have let me take the fall. He could have let me break instead of him.

I don’t understand why he didn’t.

He exhales, low and sharp. “Get off.”

I shove myself back, limbs weak, legs unsteady. He moves slower than he should.

Not weak. Not broken. Just… watching me.

Like I did something he wasn’t expecting.

It’s as if wasn’t expecting to protect me, either.

The space between us is too small, too charged.

A sound interrupts.

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