Revealing the Monster (Playing with Monsters #4) by Amelia Hutchins

I sobbed brokenly as Lucian swallowed hard, watching me cry harder than I’d ever cried in my entire short lifespan.

It ached, like everything was on repeat. I felt it all from the moment of my birth until my life had ended at my hand. It was like being forced to watch the lamest, low-budget film with a shitty ending.

Thanatos hummed, his golden needle slowly working while I screamed at him to stop hurting me. He turned me away from Lucian, who had stepped back while they worked.

My eyes slid to the Fates, seeing them thread a spindle. I blinked as one spun the fiber while another held out the length. The third was holding a pair of shears, watching it all with a bored expression on her face.

The thread glowed blue, the size of it getting shorter as they whispered, bowing their heads together. Thunder clapped in the distance, and lightning struck the ground.

The immortals gathered around the Fates as if they sensed someone else coming. I stared through them, ignoring the growing masses while pain continued to tear me apart. Atropos opened the scissors, smiling as she slid them toward the fiber.

The moment she began to close them shut, everyone working on me stepped back, and the thread turned blood red, breaking her shears before she could cut through it. Numbness swallowed me while everything faded away to darkness.





Chapter Thirty-Eight




Rebirth wasn’t something I wished to endure, but neither was dying. I’d fought too hard to live, and I sought the life for which I fought. I wanted Lucian above anything else. I needed my monster, and I wanted to be his, the monster he adored and loved above all else. ~Lena



The sound of people talking nearby woke me. I blinked, staring up at the cathedral ceiling above me. Every ache and pain made itself known immediately. I trembled uncontrollably while something blocked my vision of the colorful roof. I opened and closed my eyes as my stomach rumbled, and everything seemed to grow to an unbearable level.

“Stop screaming!” I shouted, listening as my voice echoed around me.

“She lives,” Lucian murmured. “Welcome back, gorgeous.”

“I had the strangest dream,” I muttered, grunting as my belly growled once more.

I blinked slowly. I hadn’t felt my stomach rumble since I’d died. My hand moved to my tender abdomen, and I winced. My mouth was dry and tasted like I’d swallowed one of my mother’s concoctions that never seemed to cure ailments, but always added a few more to the complaint list.

“How do you feel, Lena?” Lucian asked while pushing hair away from my face.

I tried to get up, but he prevented it with his hand against my chest.

“Careful, it is going to take a little while to remember how to move correctly,” he said cryptically. I stared at him, narrowing my eyes while I replayed his words.

“Did I die again?” I questioned skeptically.

“Not entirely.”

I groaned, closing my eyes, then opened them to look up at him. “It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

“Nah, Kitty,” Spyder laughed from where he stood beside me.

“Why am I sore? I feel. I feel everything.”

“Because you’re yourself again, Magdalena,” my mother whispered.

I sat up, grateful that Lucian caught me before I could topple off the altar where he’d placed me. My lips quivered as tears flooded my eyes.

“Momma?” I sobbed, covering my mouth with my hand as emotions slammed into me. “Grandma?” I all but screamed, staring at them both.

“Easy, Lena,” Lucian warned. “You’re basically human again. Your body needs time to adjust to the change.”

“How is this even possible? You died! I burned your bodies on funeral pyres!”

“You set fire to our corpses, but Lucian claimed our souls. Here, in his world, we’re real. It was the only way he could save us from what we’d done to ensure our bloodline would survive. When you died, Lena, we used the sand to see which one of us would live. The answer was you, and you needed to be yourself again to continue the line. Lucian knew what we’d done, and he made us an offer. He allowed us to choose who would go on without being born into a cursed loop,” my grandmother explained. “He offered us a chance to live inside his world and to be able to watch our line go on through you.”

“Kendra?” I asked, watching their smiles drop.

“She wasn’t capable of accepting the offer because of Makenna. She couldn’t die before her daughter was born. We were created to protect our children, even if it meant shielding them from ourselves. Kendra made a deal with Lucian without us knowing. She allowed him to shield her womb so that he could place it back into you when the time was right. You’re whole again, Lena. You’re a witch, one that will never die or be cursed by any being.”

I slipped from the altar with Lucian’s help, moving closer to them as my mother held out her arms. I reached out, touching her as a sob broke free. She was solid and whole. She wrapped around me, hugging me closely before she placed a soft kiss against my brow.

“My sweet girl,” she whispered thickly. “I am so sorry that we had to make you think we didn’t want you. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, pretending to be afraid of you so that no one suspected what we’d done.”

I inhaled her familiar scent, wrapping my arms around her to hug her tightly. “It’s okay.”