Page 24 of A Monstrous Claim, Part 2

And he blamed it all on me.That motherfucker.

“I’m not leaving until you talk to me,” I taunt, more than willing to pick the lock on the door to get in. If I were Rafe, I’d simply kick the door down. Elio would have already broken in without trying to reason with her.

But I hesitate because that’s not what I want. I want her towantto talk to me.

I know I’m too soft–Elio reminds me all the time that I’m not vicious enough to be a monster–but I don’t care. I don’t plan to change. Sometimes the greatest acts of strength come from kindness and understanding. What they view as weakness, I see as my own personal advantage.

A long, tense moment passes and I shift my weight from side to side. Am I really willing to stand here until she’s ready to talk to me? What if she makes me sleep out here and doesn’t open the door until morning?

Maybe if I come back with dinner…

Footsteps shuffle behind the door, distracting me, and a second later the door pops open. Devyn stares up at me, cheeks flushed and eyes welled with tears. Her arms are crossed tightly over her chest, and rather than spitting venom at me like I expected, she looks like she’s going to fall apart.

“Fuck.” I rush forward, shoving the door open wide as I step into the room. Everything else melts away, dissolving to nothing as Devyn’s heartbreak consumes me, and I wrap her in my arms.

I expect some kind of resistance, for her to push me away and tell me to leave, but she melts into me. Her shoulders shake once, a single sob breaking free, and I squeeze her tighter.

“We just want you to be safe, Darling,” I mumble, shifting to kick the door closed behind us. “If there were any other way–”

“I know,” she cuts me off, the break in her voice like a knife to my chest. Gods, I hate hurting her like this. “But that doesn’t make it any easier.”

We stand there for several seconds with her nestled against me firmly before she uncrosses her arms and slides them around my waist. At least she isn’t so angry that she doesn’t want my company. And she understands to some degree why we have to do this,why we have to send her away.

“No, it doesn’t,” I agree.

The thought of taking her back through the woods to the abandoned city to portal to Earth weighs on me heavily. Even though we still have a handful of hours together, our impending goodbye causes a sinking weight to form in the pit of my stomach.

“I should have minded my business,” she says, her voice muffled against my chest. “That’s what I get for being nosey, I guess. One day I’ll learn.”

“Nosey?” My brows knit together in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I wanted to hear what you and Rafe were talking about so I found a broken board in Elio’s room and eavesdropped,” she admits, stunning me into silence.

So Elio had nothing to do with it after all.It’s a good thing I asked. Otherwise kicking his ass would have been for nothing.

“And what did you hear?”

“You said I should be sent home to keep me safe,” she answers. “And Rafe agreed with you. Elio is the only one that wants me to stay.”

“Devyn, that’s not true.” I pull away enough to stare down into her wide eyes. The welled tears have disappeared, but they’re still heavy with sadness. “I want you to stay. Ido. But it’s not safe for you.”

She steps back further, pulling out of my reach, and bites her bottom lip as she stares up at me. “And when was anyone going to ask what I want?”

Fuck.

She isn’t going to like my answer, no matter how I word it.

If she was a monster or a powerful warlock, things would be different. We wouldn’t have to work so hard to keep her safe and she could stay here in our realm while the war unfolds. Hell, she could fight alongside us.

But she’s almost completely human. Like Rafe said, she’s a liability to all of us if she stays. An enticing, delicious liability, but one nonetheless. There’s too much risk involved with keeping her here, and as much as I want to tell her that we can abandon the plan and keep her here, I can’t.

I have to crush any remaining amount of hope she has, and I hate myself for it.

Maybe I’ll kick Elio’s ass later just because.

“If it would have made a difference, we would have.” She flinches, and I immediately feel sick. “Darling, we only want to protect you. I want to keep you–”

“If you say safe one more time, I will stab you,” she bites out, her eyes narrowing slightly.

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