Page 56 of The Monster's Daughter

Bella’s building hums with soft music and bad plumbing. The front door creaks open before I knock.

Natalie launches herself at me like a missile. “You’re back! Mama said you’d be gone forever!”

Bella stands in the doorway, laughing too fast. “I said no such thing. I said youactlike he’s gone forever every time he leaves for more than ten minutes.”

I say nothing.

I hug Natalie.

Hard.

She smells like sugar and sand and something warm I can’t name.

I hold her too long.

When she pulls away, she squints up at me. “Why’re you frowny?”

“Just thinking.”

“About snacks?”

“Maybe.”

She beams.

Bella watches me from the kitchen doorway. There’s something brittle in her smile. Like glass trying to remember how to bend.

I don’t ask. Not yet.

Night again.

Stars blink into existence like wounds in the dark.

I sit on her balcony. Alone.

The air smells like fried oil and seafoam. Glimner sounds distant tonight—dull thumps of music, occasional laughter, a hovercar whining somewhere overhead.

I stare up.

Something is shifting in my chest.

I think about the way Natalie leans into me when she’s tired. The way she tugs my horns when she’s excited. The shape of her grin. The tone of her voice.

The way her eyes flicker silver when the light hits them just right.

She isn’t mine.

Except she is.

And I don’t know what it’ll mean when I finally say it out loud.

But I know what it’ll cost if I don’t.

CHAPTER 33

BELLA

The silence is thick enough to choke on.