Page 65 of Demon Monster's Little Human

But I know one thing.

I am not the same.

Something inside me has changed.

Dain hates it.

His claws flex, his posture rigid, as if he is fighting himself.

I should be afraid.

I should push away the remnants of his blood inside me, pretend it never happened. Pretend that when I said his name, it did not feel like I had said it before.

But I can’t.

Because the worst part is that I don’t want to.

Dain exhales sharply, running a hand through his damp hair. He moves away, putting distance between us, as if my presence is a sickness he cannot afford to catch.

His jaw tightens. “We leave at dawn.”

The words are final. No room for argument.

But I can’t let it go.

I rise on unsteady legs, my body still too light, too full. I want to shake off the sensation, but it lingers—his magic, his blood.

“Dain.”

He stills.

Something flashes across his face, so quick I nearly miss it.

Regret.

I take a slow step toward him. “Tell me what’s happening to me.”

He doesn’t turn.

“You already know.”

He’s gone, slipping into the shadows, leaving me standing there, alone with the ghosts inside me.

27

DAIN

Ishould leave.

I should slip into the night and never look back.

Instead, I press my back against the crumbling wooden frame of the abandoned house, fists clenched so tight the knuckles crack. The wind howls through the gaps in the walls, carrying the smell of damp earth and the lingering trace of her.

Liora. She shouldn’t have said my name like that. Like she knew it.

Like she had always known it.

It wasn't just the way it rolled off her tongue, unthinking, unconscious, it was the way it settled inside me. Like something falling into place, like a puzzle piece I had been missing for centuries.

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