Revealing the Monster (Playing with Monsters #4) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,17

before I get to that point because me destroying this place would hurt you, and I can’t handle that type of guilt.”

“I don’t understand what that means.”

“Lucian will kill me so that I can be reborn without the mating marks on my flesh or soul. I won’t be me, but I will be what I was created to be. I cannot ask you to do what you’re not willing to do, and neither will Lucian. The only other way to stop the curse’s clock is to end the one on my life.”

Pain clenched my heart, and denial rushed through me. I shook my head, certain they were fucking with me. Lucian and Spyder were best friends, and he was Lucian’s right hand. They’d been together long before I’d even come into the equation. I couldn’t lose either of them. I wouldn’t allow that to happen.

“No,” I whispered, shaking my head faster. “No fucking way is that happening. Do you hear yourself? Spyder, there has to be another way. We just have to find it. We will figure this out together.”

“Aw, Kitty. If it was that simple, don’t you think we would have figured it out by now?” He appeared before me without warning, lifting his hand to cup my face, smiling as if he wasn’t talking about ending his life. “Would you die to save me?”

“Yes,” I said without hesitation.

“I’d ask you about Lucian, but you already proved how far you would go to protect him. Only Hecate knows how to end this without us paying a higher price. You tried to free me, and it didn’t work. You did what you could, and I can’t say I regret it, either. I have made my peace, and I’m willing to be reborn to stop this volatile need you create within me. It is my choice and not yours. You will respect my decision and allow me to do this.” His thumb traced over my cheek, wiping away the tears, and before I could reply, he’d vanished from the room.

“You are not letting him die, Lucian.”

“Lena, it isn’t that simple.”

“What do I have to do to free him?” I demanded, unable to hide the tremble in my voice that made his eyes close in response. “Tell me, and I will do it!”

“The only way we found was to give the bond what it wants, and that may not end the mating link, which means he wouldn’t crave you anymore, but we’d still be mated. He’d still carry the curse dictated by the laws of the mating ritual, unable to have sex with anyone else without it ending in their death. He fears he would eventually hate you for claiming him in the mating and would try to harm you. So to protect you from himself, he chooses death.”

Chapter Five

Secrets can either destroy the world or save it. It depends on the secret and who is keeping it. ~Lena

I stood in front of Lucian, stupefied by his words, with my jaw firmly planted on the floor. Spyder would choose death to protect me from a hypothetical problem that we didn’t even know would become an issue. Lucian watched me, noting how my head shook slowly, my mouth opening, but nothing came out. When the ridiculousness of the entire situation hit me, I laughed soundlessly.

“I will do it,” I stated, holding his gaze, unwavering in my declaration. “You cannot kill your best friend. I won’t allow it. Not when the answer to the problem is so easily remedied. If the bond breaks and Spyder is freed, then he won’t have to die or be reborn, right?”

“Lena, what is required, would not be something you’d want to do. Guilt is riding you. You’re not thinking with your head. You’re thinking with your heart.”

“I don’t have a heart, Lucian. I want to free Spyder. I want you and me to be done with this shit. I don’t want to lust after anyone else except you. We can’t keep dealing with this, and there’s one way out of it. We all fuck, recreate the spell, and see if it breaks the bond.”

“And you’d be able to go back to normal? You’re not that type of girl, Magdalena. You’re not built like that. Spyder won’t do it, and neither will I, unless you can honestly say you are okay with it. You’re not. I can see it in your eyes.”

I growled while strolling toward him, and he dropped his eyes to where the sides of my breasts