Page 83 of Demon Monster's Little Human

The flickering torchlight catches on the sharp edge of his fangs as he exhales, slow and controlled, the kind of restraint that looks like it might snap at any second.

He doesn’t answer.

He doesn’t have to.

His silence says everything.

I step toward him, reaching for his arm, for anything that will ground me. “Who was she?”

Dain flinches before I even touch him. His wings twitch as if resisting the urge to pull away.

“Tell me,” I press, my pulse erratic.

Nothing.

He says nothing.

The dark presence fills the silence for him.

“Oh, he knows, little one.” The words slither between us like a knife’s edge, slow and deliberate. “But he will not tell you. He does not need to.”

A sharp pulse strikes through my skull.

I clutch my temples as the air around us thickens, pressing against me. Something ancient stirs beneath my skin, clawing its way up.

Memories that do not belong to me.

A woman standing on the cliffs, magic circling her hands, chanting words that make the very world tremble. The sound of stone cracking. The roar of something winged, furious. A promise spoken in a language I cannot name.

My vision blurs.

I stumble back, shaking my head, gasping, drowning in something I cannot understand.

Dain moves without thinking, his hands gripping my shoulders, steadying me. I collapse against him, panting, the vision still pressing down.

“Liora.” His voice is raw, his breath hot against my ear.

I look up at him, searching his face for something, anything to make sense of what is happening to me.

But when I meet his gaze, my stomach drops.

He is no longer looking like I’m Liora.

He is staring at me as if am someone else. Something he was meant to destroy.

My throat tightens, my hands shaking as I push him back.

“I am not Amara,” I rasp.

Dain does not respond.

He only stares, silent, unreadable.

I swallow against the panic rising in my heart. “Say something.”

His claws flex.

His wings shift, his entire body coiled in restraint.

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