Page 82 of Monsters in Love: Lost in the Stars

Eryxxus

I moved through the ship like a shadow, silent and unseen. My hands, slick with blood, held the remains of the sabotage—subtle, methodical. A few wires snipped here, a power junction rerouted there, all of it designed to pull the crew’s attention elsewhere. To sow chaos. To unsettle them and make them question everything they thought they knew.

I could feel the ship groaning beneath my feet, each fracture and break a sweet song of impending destruction. They didn’t know it yet, but they were already spiraling toward their doom.

And as I moved beneath the heart of the ship—the prison where she was kept—there was something else in the air now.

Dr. Scil. The researcher.

His presence was everywhere. I could feel it seeping into the very walls of the ship, like a foul scent clinging to the air, tainting everything. And then, as I rounded the corner toward the chamber, I felt it. His aura was different. No longer the cold, clinical detachment I had sensed before. It was... twisted. Tainted .

I paused in the doorway, the breadth of my shoulders beyond its size.

He stood before her, his back to me, his body rigid with something I couldn’t quite grasp. His hands were clenched at his sides, as if fighting some internal battle. But it was the way he stood—too still. Too controlled. There was a deep tension in the air, a brittle silence that hung between them.

He had touched her. I didn’t need to ask.

His infatuation had crossed a line. I could feel the shift in him. The jealousy that burned in my chest flared higher, hotter. He was no longer just a researcher, no longer just a male. He was a fool who had become entangled with something that should have remained far from his reach.

She was mine. She had always been mine.

And now, Dr. Scil had defiled her.

I couldn’t stop the growl that bubbled up from within me, low and guttural, as I stepped into the room. My body swelled with power, the walls themselves misshaping around me in response to my presence with a metallic groan.

His head snapped up, his eyes wide with what seemed to be close to panic, like he had only just realized I was there. But it was too late. The moment our gazes locked, everything between us transformed.

“What have you done?” I hissed, my voice a blend of fury and disgust.

He took a step back, his hand flying out in an attempt to protect her, but I could see the fear in his eyes. It wasn’t fear of me—not yet. It was fear of the truth he had just realized.

“Stay away from her,” he growled, but there was a tremor in his voice.

I smirked, stepping closer, my power crackling through the air like a storm on the horizon. “You think she belongs to you?” I said, my voice dripping with venom. “You think your touch is what’s binding her? How laughable.”

His eyes burned with… defiance? Or was it desperation?

“You have no idea what you’ve done,” he muttered, taking another step back toward her. “This... this isn’t just about power. She’s—she’s not a weapon! She’s something so much more!”

A flash of rage surged through me, and before he could blink, I was upon him. My fingers curled into his throat, the tendrils of shadows wrapping around his torso as I lifted him off the ground with ease. He gasped for breath, but I didn’t care. The bones of my hand contorted, cracked, and expanded as my claws dug deeper into his skin, twisting with the intent to break.

“She is mine ,” I snarled, my voice low and dripping with a primal rage. “And you?—”

But before I could finish, I felt it.

Her.

Her song. That haunting melody that had wrapped around me for so long, now echoing louder, clearer. It was pulling at me. Her presence—it was like a star burning in my chest, brighter and stronger than anything else in this damned ship.

And Dr. Scil was touched by it.

That was what had changed. That was what I hadn’t realized.

She had given him something , tying him to her as well as leaving him open and vulnerable. Leaving him weak. He wasn’t simply a fool anymore.

He was connected to her, too. In a way I didn’t fully understand.

I felt the air around me shift, the power within me rising like a storm. My eyes flashed as the walls began to buckle under the pressure of my fury, the ship groaning and creaking as it trembled.

I growled, slamming him into the floor. For a few moments, he remained motionless, slowly gasping for air.

She stood there, watching everything quietly and I glared in her direction, wanting both to punish her for allowing his touch as well as wanting her to beg for my forgiveness by submitting to me.

The body at my feet stirred, and Dr. Scil stood, his eyes wild and his body trembling. I narrowed my eyes when I realized his continued to hold the same defiance from earlier rather than fear.

“You can’t have her,” he groaned, spitting blood onto the floor next to him. His eyes burned with a ferocity I hadn’t expected. “You’re nothing but a broken being, a monster . I’ll stop you. I’ll destroy you before you touch her again.”

A challenge? He was more dangerous than I had realized.

I smiled, a dark, twisted smile. “We’ll see about that.”

With a roar, I unleashed everything I had—my power surged outward, a black tidal wave crashing through the room, tearing apart some of the walls, the floor, and everything in its path. The ship bucked, the metal groaning as if it couldn’t withstand the weight of our fury.

But he fought back.

He pushed against the force, his own power pulsing with a light I hadn’t expected. It was blinding, almost, like something new was awakening within him.

And in that moment, I understood. He had touched her—and in doing so, he had awakened something deep within the fabric of the universe.

His power was tied to hers now.

And that made him a dangerous opponent.

The battle between us waged on, sending shockwaves throughout the ship as it began a crash course toward the nearest planet’s gravitational pull. Each blast of energy tore into the inner walls, breaking apart the ship piece by piece. We were both a storm, and the ship was caught in the middle.

I could feel the heat of his power searing against mine, but I could also feel him weakening, just barely. His control was slipping, and I would exploit that. Whatever he siphoned from her was beginning to dissipate.

He was never prepared for this game, never meant to win. In his delusion, he truly thought he was going to keep her.

As the shadows around me began to pulse, seeking to siphon the essence of death that grew on this ship, I laughed. How utterly foolish mortals are, to think they can go against a god. The ship was on the brink of collapse as it trembled through the atmosphere toward our impending crash.

I cackled as my body began to contort and my jaws elongated. Everything would burn.

Little did he realize that only one of us would walk away from this alive.