Page 206 of Monsters in Love

“Wait, I can help you.”

“And if I fall, you will too. It’s okay. This won’t kill me.”

She looked at me with awe and a little disbelief. I must look worse than I’d assumed because she hovered near me as I picked my way down the stairs, as if she could stop me from toppling. I made it to the last steps before my legs gave out and I stumbled, hitting the stairs and sliding to the bottom landing. Tamara rushed after me, dropping to her knees beside me.

“Not far to go,” I said, my voice slurring slightly. I needed to get to the pool. The quicker, the better. She tried to help me up, but she was so much smaller, not just in stature but in build. I felt like a giant next to her, and it made me want to pick her up, to protect her from anything that might threaten her. I leaned against her, trying to keep most of my weight against the wall. I wanted her nearness, the feel of her skin against mine, the warmth of her body. A shudder wracked me, and it wasn’t just from the poison running through my veins.

The gentle lapping of water against rock hit my ears, and I moved faster, stumbling over my own feet. One hit the lip of the pool and I let Tamara go, falling into the cool water. The shock of it against my body made me gasp, but then I sighed, sinking into it, accepting the water into my body, drinking it down as it enveloped me.

This pool had been here for so very long, merging the water from inside my labyrinth with that of the ocean. The creatures beneath the sea gifted me with their magic in return for magic that could only be found on land. This was not just my place, but ours.

Tamara lunged into the water beside me, reaching for my head and cradling it, lifting it to the surface. She needn’t have feared, but it was sweet that she wanted to care for me. Maybe... Maybe my desires would be returned and I could claim her in all the ways I wanted to.

She pushed dark hair away from my face and I gazed up into her deep brown eyes, lost in them, lost in her, all thought of the aches in my body gone. The only places that burned now were where she touched me.

“You are beautiful,” I said, lifting a hand, stroking her cheek with my fingers.

I could crush her skull so easily, but the only thing I wanted to crush were my lips against hers. She tensed for just a moment, and then leaned into my palm, her eyelashes fluttering shut, and exhaled as if she knew I would be okay.

As if that mattered to her.

“And you are...” She bit her lip. “Like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

There was awe in her voice, wonder. Not the fear I knew she had held before. It was like she could see me for who I really was, and that rattled me to the core.

She winced then, and I realized my horns were digging into her leg where she was cradling my head. Such a fool, I was. I sat up, exhaling deeply and focusing on my wounds. The pool was doing its magic, drawing the toxins from my body. Now all that remained were the cuts themselves. I’d need to get back to my rooms and apply a poultice. Start the healing work needed, though all I could think about was her, how close she was. How I wanted her to be closer.

I stood, the water sluicing off my body, and reached a hand down to Tamara.

Tamara

He was a giant.

I sat there in the pool, my eyes travelling from the line of the water up his body. His hand stretched toward me, and without thinking I reached out and grabbed it. His fingers dwarfed mine, his hand twice the size, it seemed. Even wounded, he was exceptionally strong, pulling me to my feet with ease.

I cried out, my ankle somehow feeling worse even though this was meant to be a healing pool, and it had certainly worked its magic on him.

Magic…

It could be real, now that I thought about it. If a male such as him existed, then it would make sense that magic did too. My world had changed drastically all in one night. If I hadn’t come to this retreat, I would have known nothing outside of my mundane little life.

I hadn’t exactly enjoyed being chased through the forest, or falling into a labyrinth, or the battle between Kavi and the beast. And yet…

I wouldn’t change it because now I was here with him, and something about that just felt right. None of the pretty boys, bad boys, or other assorted creeps had ever taken my fancy. Yet Kavi did. I couldn’t explain it. I couldn’t even begin to comprehend how this beast of a man, complete with horns, furry legs, and hooves could make me want, make me ache, in ways that no one else had.

“Are you okay?” Kavi asked.

“My ankle,” I said, shaking my head. “I can walk. I’ll be fine.” Yet as soon as I stepped from the pool I bent over, gripped with pain. I’d barely stopped moving since I’d hurt it, so I guess it made sense that it was worse now. I’d thought perhaps the healing waters would work on me too, but I looked down to find my ankle swollen and bruised. Shit. I hoped I hadn’t done permanent damage to it.

“You are not fine.”

I huffed out a pitiful laugh. “No, I guess I’m not.”

The next thing I knew, he’d wrapped his arm around me, hooked another behind my knees and lifted me against his body, cradling me.

“Kavi!” I screeched. “Put me down! You’re more wounded than me.”

“I’m fine,” he said. And he seemed better, at least. Capable of this.

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