The Monsters We Keep (The Monsters Trilogy Book 1) by Kelsey Epler

Author:Kelsey Epler [Epler, Kelsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-05-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

There’s a sickening thud, the sound of liquid colliding with leaves, the ground, everything between me and the monsters. A shriek—one similar to the other two in the past minutes, ripping through the fabric of the night, pulling terror through the veil to settle heavy on our shoulders.

I can’t open my eyes.

Another thud, like a body collapsing to the ground. Footsteps.

What if the monsters are still alive?

I suck in a sharp breath, eyes flying open—but only Addeon is there, tears of blood still rolling down his cheeks, crimson-streaked black dripping from his fingertips like he dipped his arm in a pail of it.

His eyes are green.

“Liliya,” he says, voice dropped low. He stoops slightly so he can look directly into my eyes but I don’t say a word, my thoughts muddied. “Liliya,” he says again, this time in that singsong voice, and I jerk from my shock.

“We’re alive,” I whisper, my voice catching on the remaining threads of panic still winding around my throat.

“It would seem so,” he murmurs, one eyebrow raised, so close I can count the few freckles that spill over his nose, disappearing beneath the drying blood.

“And you…” I suck in a stuttering breath. “You didn’t abandon me.”

He huffs a laugh, straightening. “I should have. You almost used the Bond against me.” Something hardens in his gaze. “Again.”

I swallow hard against the desert dryness in my mouth. “I thought you were going to kill me. With them.”

He sighs, bending to rummage through his bag. “I told you I would protect you.”

My fingers go to my throat without thought. “Well, excuse me for not believing you.”

“Fine. I deserve that. But do you really think that if I wanted to kill you, I would have let other monsters have a part?” His lips quirk and he turns more fully back to me. “I wouldn’t be sharing, Liliya. You’d be all mine.”

Heat prickles the back of my neck. I clear my throat as I uncurl my fingers from the pistol, knuckles aching with how hard I’m gripping the handle, fighting to push away the words lingering in the air. The pistol drops to the ground as Addeon chuckles and I leave it there, trying to ignore the sprays of black blood across the dirt, the bodies that’ll likely be food for the vultures in the morning—or the moment we leave this awful place.

Addeon’s pulling a roll of cloth free, lips pinched with frustration as he tries to unroll it one-handed. “I’ve had many chances to be free of you,” he says, all teasing gone from his voice.

I crouch next to him, tugging the roll from his hand, and he fires his gaze at me. I don’t back away, even though we’re barely a foot apart. Even though whatever I can see there burns into me, like a fire is lit beneath the surface. It’s terrifying, all-consuming, so much so the bodies and gore that surround us fade, the remains of monsters not so unlike Addeon.

Or maybe…

Maybe they’re not the same at all.

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