Page 12 of The Monsters We Are

She fisted his shirt, giving him a severe stare. “I’m one hundred percent committed to you. To what we have.”

“I know that.”

She tilted her head. “You don’t look all that pleased about it.”

“I’m far more than pleased, I assure you.”

“Then why did you frown?”

He sighed. “Because my monster is jealous.”

She double-blinked, confused. “I’m sorry?”

“It wants you to be just as committed to it as you are to me. That sounds petulant, I suppose, but my creature is very attached to you.”

Wynter figured she should probably find that disconcerting, given how very nightmarish his creature was. Instead, she was kind of touched. Well, she was weird like that.

She bit her lip. “Okay. Well. I don’t want it to feel left out. Or jealous. But I don’t see what I can do to make it feel better.”

He let out a low hum. “There is something you could do.”

Something about his tone made her skin prickle. “What?”

“My creature wants to bind itself to you.”

Wynter felt her nose wrinkle. “That sounds very . . . permanent.” A memory tickled her. “You mentioned something about this before. You said it would be a way to stop me from aging but that it would be too dangerous for me.”

“A mortal wouldn’t have survived my creature’s bite. That doesn’t apply to you anymore.” His gaze sharpened. “And the bindingwouldbe permanent. Everything about us is permanent.”

She rolled her eyes at the note of warning in his voice. “Like I didn’t already know and, what’s more,agreeto that.” Meaning to fold her arms, she went to take a step back, but the hands on her ass held her tight to him. “Now, what would it mean for me to bind myself to your creature?”

“It would mean that your life-forces would be tied.”

“Tied? But wouldn’t that make your creature vulnerable? It would die if I died, right?Youwould die.” Her stomach lurched at the thought.

“It doesn’t quite work that way. A soul is the core of a person. Their life-force is the energy that the soul generates. When a person’s body dies, their soul moves on, along with their life-force. The latter doesn’t die. As the soul remolds parts of itself for rebirth—like in the netherworld, where it’s beaten down to be purified—its life-force also transmutes right along with it, until it becomes a different energy.”

“Okay,” she said.

“As such, if you died, your life-force and that of my monster would remain intertwined. The break would only occur if your soul and life-force altered for rebirth. Which wouldn’t happen, since Kali would only send you back.”

“But what if She didn’t? What if, for some reason, I didn’t come back and then my life-force altered? Then what?”

An intensity gathered behind his eyes. “Then I’d fucking find a way to rain fresh hell on Her.”

Wynter barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes again. “Don’t get all snarly, I’m not saying She wouldn’t send me back.” Though there was always a chance it could happen. Deities were unpredictable, to say the least. “I’m speaking of a hypothetical situation here. What would happen to your monster if I died for real?”

“It would feel immense physical pain. I would, in turn, be weakened by the severance of its link with you. But I wouldn’t die. My creature and I would survive, and we would free your soul so that you could be reborn just as I promised you.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Just how much would it weaken you?”

He hesitated. “I would likely have to Rest for a decade or so. But that would be for the best in any case.”

“Why?”

“If I didn’t, I would eventually begin to . . . mentally deteriorate.”

“Go insane, you mean?”