Page 120 of Demon Monster's Little Human

My knees buckle.

I feel Dain react before I can even think, his arms catching me, his snarl vibrating through me. But even as he holds me, I can feel his body stiffen. He doesn’t know what to do.

He doesn’t know how to stop it.

"Don’t listen to it," he growls, voice sharp as steel. "Fight it, Liora."

But I can’t.

Not when it’s inside me. Not when it’s tearing through my soul, threading itself into every piece of me, whispering.

"You were made for this."

The words slither into my mind, seductive and patient. It doesn’t need to kill me. It just needs me to give in. To accept.

To surrender.

"Just let go,"it croons."Dain will be free. You will finally rest. No more pain. No more running. Just peace."

It’s a lie.

I know it’s a lie.

Gods help me—I want to believe it.

I tremble in Dain’s arms, my hands gripping his shoulders hard enough to leave marks. My body wants to step forward, to submit, to let this thing take me so it can finally end.

But Dain won’t let me go.

He feels it, the moment I start to slip.

He reacts the only way he knows how.

He kisses me.

His lips crash against mine, furious, desperate, unyielding. His claws bury into my waist, dragging me against him as if his body alone can keep me from breaking apart. He is not gentle. He is not kind.

He is claiming me back.

The entity screams in rage.

Pain explodes through me as it tries to pull me away, as the magic anchoring me to it shreds apart. The artifact cannot take what Dain is willing to destroy for me.

Heat flares between us. Not fire. Not magic.

Something older. Deeper.

The bond.

Not the one I severed.

A new one.

Something stronger. Something forged by choice, not by fate. Not forced.

I gasp into him, my fingers twisting into his hair, and the abyss howls in fury.

"No!"

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