Page 47 of Demon Monster's Little Human

She watches me warily, her fists clenched at her sides, still waiting for an answer she will never get.

I roll my shoulders, shifting my wings slightly before speaking.

“I don’t know.”

Liora blinks. “What?”

“My memories,” I grit my teeth. “They are fractured. Scattered. Some things I know by instinct alone. But that thing,” My lips curl in irritation, in something close to rage. “I do not remember it. I only know it is old. Older than even I.”

She exhales, shaking her head. “That’s not good enough.”

“It will have to be.”

She glares, but for once, she has nothing to say.

She looks exhausted, her body barely holding itself together, blood still drying on her skin, her limbs trembling with unspent energy.

She needs rest. She needs to be tended to.

I detest that I care.

I huff out a breath, turning on my heel. “Come.”

She hesitates, still waiting for something more. She won’t get it.

With a quiet curse, she follows.

I lead her into another cave just as the first drop of rain hits my skin.

A storm is coming.

20

LIORA

The cave swallows me whole, its mouth yawning wide as I step inside, trailing behind Dain with heavy, aching limbs. The deeper we go, the more the storm outside fades, its howling winds replaced by the slow, steady drip of water seeping through ancient stone. The scent of damp earth and lingering heat from his presence clings to the space, wrapping around me in a way I should not find comforting.

I don’t want to be here.

Not with him and everything that happened.

But I am too weak to leave, and he is all I have.

He moves ahead of me without a sound, his massive frame cutting through the dim torchlight he must have left behind earlier. Shadows coil around him, shifting, stretching, swallowing him whole, but I don’t lose sight of him. I never do.

I should hate him.

I don’t.

He has tried to kill me. He has saved me. He has left me behind. He has returned. He choked me.

He has fought for me, against me, beside me. I’m utterly confused as to what he wants from me.

Now, as he leads me deeper into the cavern, I feel the pull between us tightening, coiling around my ribs like an invisible chain.

I don’t understand it.

I don’t want to.

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