Page 91 of Demon Monster's Little Human

"Why did you stop me?" My voice is hoarse, barely audible over the river’s roar. My body shakes, but not from the cold. I push at his chest, weak but insistent. "Why couldn’t you let me go?"

Dain doesn’t answer right away. His expression is unreadable, but his hold on me is crushing, a grip meant for restraint, not comfort.

His lips curl, and his voice is dark, vicious. "You don’t get to choose when this ends."

The words slam into me harder than the river. My breath comes out ragged, my pulse spiking.

"You—!" I shove at him again, useless against his weight, but the frustration surges out of me in unstoppable waves. "You have no right to decide that for me!"

His grip tightens, not enough to hurt, but enough to remind me that he could.

"I have every right."

The words coil between us like a threat, like a vow. His face is too close, his expression wild, anger, desperation, something darker swirling beneath the surface.

"Let me go," I whisper.

His jaw tenses.

Finally, he releases me.

I shove away from him, gasping, shaking. My body feels unsteady, the bond between us burning like a fresh wound. My pulse refuses to slow, my chest heaving with emotions I can’t begin to untangle. Rage. Confusion. Fear. Something else.

Dain watches me, unreadable, his chest still rising and falling in sharp breaths. His wings flex, the tension in his body lethal, like a predator barely holding back.

"Why did you jump?" His voice is quieter now, but no less intense.

I don’t answer.

I can’t.

I don’t have an answer that will satisfy him.

Because deep down, I don’t understand it either.

Everything crashes into me at once. The whispers, the visions, the nameAmara.The feeling that I am not just myself, that something else stirs inside me, something ancient and wrong.

I lift my gaze to Dain’s, and freeze.

Something shifts behind him.

The shadows move.

A chill rakes down my spine, the hairs on my arms standing on end. The very air around us thickens, heavy with something unseen but felt in the deepest part me.

Dain goes rigid.

His claws flex, the sharp glint of his fangs bared before he even turns to face it.

We are not alone.

A low, guttural sound rumbles through the air, a voice without words, an entity without form.

It followed us.

Dain moves before I can react. His wings flare, shielding me, his entire stance shifting into something lethal.

The shadows pulse. The presence is closer than ever. Watching. Waiting.

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