Page 25 of My Demon Husband
Why do Lucian and I keep drawing these people to us? Why do we keep attracting trouble? Is it…is it us? Is our love doomed?
I tug at my chains, but it’s futile. I’m as trapped as I’ve ever been. As I always am. Maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s my fate, and by being with Lucian, I’m just dragging him down with me.
“Fuck!” I spit out, and I catch his eye, over there, a few feet ahead of me that may as well be miles, and I try to smile, try to show him that I’ll be okay. Both of us will. I try to draw strength from his single look, but Lilith snatches that away from me by grabbing his face and turning him back to her.
Bitch!
No. It’s not me. I’m not cursed. We’re not cursed. Our love is pure. It’s the purest thing I’ve ever found. I refuse to believe we’re cursed. It’s her. She and people like her are the problem. Those who want what they can’t have. Those whose entire flex is stealing and consuming.
I breathe in and out. In and out. In…and out. My body is on fire, but I ignore it. I ignore the ache of my wounds and theitchy skin around them. I ignore the burning sensation on my face where my skin has been torn and try to find the peace inside me. Try to find the energy within myself. To attune myself to my surroundings like Lucian taught me.
I know trying to use my eldritch power is pointless. If it wasn’t, all the wounds I’d been subjected to would have summoned a creature within me already. No. Eldritch isn’t the answer. Lead is their only weakness, and as long as I’m bound by it, I’m going nowhere.
But there’s another way. There’s a way out. And I’ve been sitting here, tolerating the torture, the pain, until she returned with him. Until Lucian was right here with me.
There, that’s it. A sizzle of magic so minuscule it’s easy to miss. I open my eyes, concentrate on that register of magic energy strapped around my neck, and lick my dry lips.
“Protect me…protect me. Nothing…can hurt me.”
The magic laced in the threads of my bow tie erupts, a cloud of dust billowing around me, surrounding me from limb to limb. Head to toe.
I feel its tickle on the arches of my feet and down my arms, in the goosebumps that form there. It builds, thrumming to the beat of my heart, then against it like a timer, and when it reaches a crescendo, my chains shatter into a million pieces.
I fall to the ground and the monster inside me, the monster thatisme, roars like it’s the first time I’ve spoken. Like it’s the first time I’ve breathed.
I knew it would come in handy. I knew lacing a piece of clothing with one of my protection spells would be needed. After the last six weeks we’ve had, how could I not? I might not have known this would happen. I might not have known I’d be forced to attend the wedding from hell. But I knew something would happen. With us, Lucian and me, something always does. AndI’d be damned if I let my lover, my boyfriend, my fiancé risk his life for me again.
I let out a breath, and my tail and wings come out. It feels liberating to stretch them. They’re as much a part of me as all my other limbs, but when I look up, I find everyone…staring at me.
“Yu-jin,” Lucian calls out.
I can’t answer him. I don’t have the time as the creatures, who were watching the wedding ceremony only moments ago, take to the skies. When they fall back down, they’re coming straight for me.
Shit.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I can’t take all of them on my own. I may be stronger, but I’m not invincible.
I grab my ring and pull it out of my finger. The book of eldritch says the bigger the blood sacrifice, the stronger the eldritch, and for this one…I need the big guns.
I ignore the wounds all over me as they don’t count anymore. Fresh blood is what the eldritch crave. I cut my arm from the wrist to the inside of my elbow.
I hiss and look up.
Fuck. Fuck. fuck.
They’re almost on me. The first creature reaches for me with sharp claws.
Hurry up!
Master!
A monster grows inside me, and as it fills every inch of me with its body, I let it take control.
The bat creature scratches me, but I swat it away like a fly and swell.
At first, I don’t know what’s happening, but when the ground gets farther away and my head reaches the top of the large rock I’ve been bound to, I realize…
