Page 107 of Demon Monster's Little Human

His challenge hangs between us like a blade.

The dark presence laughs again, relishing the destruction, the agony.

Dain trembles, his body shaking as if it is taking every ounce of his will not to tear me apart. His wings flex, his muscles coiling.

He turns away.

My breath catches. “Dain?—”

He flies.

A gust of wind tears through the cavern as he shoots into the air, vanishing into the night, leaving me behind.

Alone.

45

LIORA

The ruins stretch around me, lifeless and empty. There is no warmth here, no sound but the ragged draw of my breath and the faint rustle of wind through the broken stone. Dain is gone. He left me.

The truth is a blade inside me.

I press a trembling hand to my chest, feeling for the bond that should still be there, the invisible tether that has bound me to him since I first drank his blood. It’s weaker now, slipping, fraying. He’s pulling away, forcing it to break.

A sharp, searing pain shoots through me, an ache that isn’t in my body and everything to do with my soul. He’s actually doing it. He’s tearing me out of himself, piece by piece, as if I never mattered.

I stumble forward, my knees hitting the jagged stone, my breath hitching as the realization crashes over me like a storm. He doesn’t want me. He never did.

"He will never come back to you."

The whisper slithers through my mind, thick and suffocating. The dark presence is closer now, its voice a curling thread of silk and poison.

"He’s already made his choice, little Purna. You are nothing to him. But you could be something to me."

I squeeze my eyes shut, pressing my palms against my ears. "Leave me alone," I rasp, my voice hoarse, cracked from too many screams.

"You are breaking, Liora. You feel it, don’t you? The bond unraveling? The pain will only grow worse. But I can make it stop."

I lift my head. The ruins waver in front of me, my vision blurring. My heartbeat is uneven, my body cold. Dain’s rejection is a weight pressing down on me, suffocating, crushing.

"All you have to do is sever it completely,"the voice purrs.

A sharp wind cuts through the ruins, whipping my hair across my face. My fingers tremble as I clutch my arms, digging my nails into my skin to ground myself, to stop myself from considering it.

"Cut him from you, and you will be free. No more pain. No more bond. No more love."

The offer slams into me like a wave. Freedom. From him. From the ache of his absence. From the unbearable knowledge that I will never be enough for him.

My chest tightens. The temptation burns.

Wouldn’t it be easier to let go? To stop this agony? If he can sever the bond, why shouldn’t I? Why should I keep chasing after something that was never mine to begin with?

The pain throbs through me, sharper now. I can feel him pulling harder, like a hand wrenching a chain, twisting it until it snaps.

He’s almost succeeded.

I could finish it. Right now.

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