Page 33 of The Monster's Daughter

Her uniform is dark at the side, wet. My claws are slick when I press down. Not a kill wound, but deep enough to drain her fast if I don’t fix it.

She bats at my hands, voice hoarse but sharp. “Stop fussing. I’m fine.”

“You’re leaking,” I snarl, ripping her medkit open with my teeth. “Shut up and let me fix it.”

Her mouth twitches. “You’re bossy when you’re scared.”

I bare my teeth at her, pressing a clotting patch to the wound. She hisses, curses under her breath.

“Hold still,” I mutter.

“You’re not my—” she gasps, biting off the word.

I meet her glare. “What?”

She shakes her head, hair sticking to her cheeks. “Nothing. Just—hurry.”

We both laugh, but it’s brittle, a sound cracked down the middle.

Beneath it, something huge is shifting. Not just in the ground—between us. Around us. The edge of something enormous.

On the horizon, through the thinning smoke, a pulse of light flickers. Faint at first, then steady. A beacon.

Bella sees it too. She tilts her head, eyes narrowing. “Alliance evac point,” she rasps. “That’s?—”

“Far,” I finish for her.

“Yeah. But it’s our shot. If we can get there, we’re out.”

I squint at the terrain between us and the beacon. Nothing but open rubble, blackened ground, bones of burned-out transports. No cover.

My frills twitch, tasting the air. It’s wrong. The smell of hot metal laced with something sour, like blood left too long in the sun. The hair along my spine prickles.

It’s here. Not just in signals. In the air.

I fight the urge to pace, to roar. My instincts scream: run. Hide. Hunt from shadows.

“Move,” I say. My voice is too low, too steady. “I’ll draw it off.”

Bella blinks, pushing herself up on one elbow. “Excuse me?”

“You go to the beacon. I’ll keep it busy.”

She lets out a hoarse, incredulous laugh. “Are you out of your scaled mind?”

I bare my teeth. “I’m faster. Heavier. It’ll follow me.”

Her eyes flash. “If you think I’m leaving you again, you don’t know shit about me.”

“Bella—”

“No.” She jabs a finger at my chest, even as her hand trembles. “I’ve done the whole ‘abandon someone to survive’ thing. I’m not doing it again. Not to you. Not now.”

My claws curl into the rock. “This isn’t your choice?—”

“The hell it isn’t!” she snaps. “You dragged me through hell, Kage. You tied me up. You gagged me. And somewhere along the way you started acting like I was a person. Well guess what? You don’t get to choose for me now.”

I stare at her, every word a blow.