Page 97 of Demon Monster's Little Human

She flinches at the sound of her name. Not much. Just a twitch of her fingers. Barely noticeable, but I see it.

I push off the wall, stalking toward her. “What. Did. You. See.”

This time, she moves. Just slightly, her head tilting to the side, but she still won’t look at me. Won’t answer. The fire crackles between us, sending flickering light across her face.

The silence is unbearable.

“You’re avoiding the question,” I growl. “And I don’t like it.”

Her fingers tighten in her lap. I don’t miss how pale her knuckles have become, how her breathing has subtly shifted. She’s trying to hide something from me, and it’s not working.

The bond pulses again. The longer she refuses to answer, the worse it gets. It feels like she’s sinking inside me, pressing into me from the inside out.

A whisper.

Not spoken aloud. Not from her lips. But I hear it. In my head.

Dain.

I freeze.

She still hasn’t looked at me. Still hasn’t moved.

Another whisper. Closer. More insistent.

Dain.

My jaw clenches, my wings tensing behind me. This isn’t possible. She isn’t speaking, but I can hear her.

I move toward her. “Liora,” I say carefully, low and dangerous.

Her shoulders rise. “I—” She stops herself, exhaling roughly. “I don’t know.”

Liar.

I don’t need the bond to tell me that. The way she grips her arms, like she’s holding herself together, she’s unraveling.

“I don’t believe you.”

She turns on me then, finally. Her eyes flash in the firelight, and I feel it again, that flicker of something that doesn’t belong to her. Something old. Something wrong.

Something that makes my instincts scream.

I reach for her wrist. She jerks away. “Don’t touch me,” she hisses.

I snarl. “What the hell is happening to you?”

She presses her hands to her temples, breathing too fast now. “I don’t know,” she grits out, voice shaking. “I—It’s like—” She groans, shutting her eyes, her whole body shuddering.

The whispers change.

They’re not just in my head anymore. They’re in the cave. Around us.

They’re not hers.

My wings flare as the temperature drops. The fire flickers, shrinking as a heavy presence slithers between us.

I whirl, searching the shadows, but nothing is there. Just an emptiness that wasn’t there before.

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