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

I’d thought I’d won Lucian and Katarina’s game, but he hadn’t quit playing it, ever. While I’d been adjusting to my new life, he’d been fighting to get my old one back. I’d come to terms with what I’d become and rolled with the punches, but he’d never accepted it.

I peered over at Lucian, where he was settling Benjamin into his bed. We had our son with us, and I had my life back. We were together, and he loved me. Lucian Blackstone loved me, with all my flaws and insecurities. He didn’t judge who I was or that I’d always wanted to remain a witch.

I no longer had wings.

I didn’t have American Horror Story eyeliner anymore.

I was whole.

“You’re sure this isn’t a dream?” I asked for the hundredth time in the last hour we’d been holed up in the nursery. “It seems too good to be true, and that usually means it is.”

“Does this feel real?” He leaned over to grip my chin before his mouth crushed against my lips.

I moaned at the delicious taste of his lips. His other hand went around my back, yanking me up until I was pressed against his warmth. Lucian’s tongue slipped between my lips, claiming mine in a loud, urgent-sounding growl that had my core tightening with need.

He pulled away, pressing his forehead against my brow before he swooped down, picking me up into his arms. Lucian didn’t ask if I was ready to leave our son before he marched to the connecting door.

He held me close instead of placing me onto my unsteady feet, stopping at the entrance of the nursery to whisper words in a strangely soothing language that had runes dancing over the pastel walls of the babe’s chamber. Closing the door, he walked me toward a large, marbled room that had a splendid tub in the middle of it.

“This is beautiful,” I whispered thickly.

“It’s the one you dreamed of fucking me in once. I plucked the details from your mind, knowing that one day you’d be here to make good on that fantasy you were having inside your pretty head,” he admitted, placing me gently onto the counter.

He lifted my gown off and over my head, tossing it aside. His large hands cupped my breasts as he peered into my gaze. Leaning forward, I chased his lips, but he refused to allow me a taste of them. I winced slightly at the movement, and he smirked, slowly running his fingertips down my belly.

“I wasn’t willing to lose you, Magdalena. I couldn’t let that happen. So I freed Asmodeus, knowing that his greed and his need to rule would lead him to Lucifer. He needed you there to open Pandora’s Box, but I removed her from the coffin where you left her and placed her somewhere safe. I hated that you would be in pain, but I wanted to give you back everything you had lost.”

I held his face between my palms, smiling at him. “Thank you, Lucian. You’re a good man, even though you’re not really a man at all.”

“I am a monster,” he confirmed.

“Yeah, but you’re my monster. I’m not concerned about what you are or that some great force created you to house the evil beings threatening gods and humans. I only care that you’re mine and that I love you.”

He leaned closer to me, brushing my lips in a feather-soft kiss that sent a shiver rushing through me. I hadn’t noticed how the furies inside me had numbed my emotions and senses. In this form, I could smell the heady scent of masculinity that clung to him better. I could see every speck of impurities and perfection in his gaze.

Lucian had eyes that sparkled with actual galaxies in their depths. I saw the souls within them as well. He was unguarded, and yet he never completely allowed his shields to drop. I’d learn to accept that he wasn’t human, and he’d never be fully able to lower his defenses.

“I wanted to tell you so many times about Benjamin, Magdalena. Every time I came here, I imagined what it would be like when you learned he lived. Your family, if I’d said anything to you about them the others would have known what I intended to do, they’d have ruined my plans before they had begun. What I did for you is not allowed. You cannot bring back the dead, and I intended to do so.”

“I wasn’t dead, though, not really.”

“You were. You were simply a body that the furies were consuming. When you slumbered, I fed you parts of the souls I’d captured to keep the furies from completely devouring what was left of your soul. That was why I trapped you in our bedroom at the club. The thought of you being away from me and them eating your soul and leaving your corpse—it would have been the end. The furies cannot remain inside someone without a soul to consume. Once they had finished feeding on you, they would have moved on to another soul. Hades and Nyx, they didn’t realize how much the three furies would devour.”

“I was dying?” I swallowed past the lump that formed in my throat. “They were killing me to escape the hold I held on them?”

“From the moment of your rebirth, yes. Luckily, you were resurrected with a large portion of your soul, or larger than you’ve held since. You’re missing the portion they consumed. It isn’t something I can get back.”

“And we don’t know what part it was, either. Do we?” I questioned carefully.

His dark head shook as my hands dropped into my lap. So, I was missing parts of myself. Was I upset about it? No. Because losing it didn’t change how I felt about Lucian or our son. To me, those were the things that mattered most.