Page 6 of Mate of a Monster

I shove up my sleeves. Running my hands over my arms, my legs—anywhere the vines touched. Nothing. My skin is smooth. Unmarked.

“Zev.” My voice comes out strange. “The thorns went straight through me. Where are the scars?”

He pushes off the wall. “There aren’t any.”

“That’s not possible.” I check again, pressing harder against skin that should be ruined. “Those vines were the size of my wrist. They punched holes—”

“I know what they did.” His words cut through. “He showed me.”

I still, too many thoughts rushing through me. If the wounds healed without leaving marks…

My hand flies to my sternum, but the gem is gone.

“Where is it?” I press harder against my chest, feeling for the edges of something, anything. I yank on the collar of the shirt, and there’s not so much as a burn mark between my breasts, let alone a gem.

“There was a gem. He put it right here. Where is it? What do you mean he showed you, showed you what? And why—”

“Slow down.” He tenses. “Take a damn breath, drink some water before you knock yourself out again or something.”

“I didn’t knock myself out! It was the demon. Hellpet. Whatever his name is.” I stop searching when I take in the room for the first time since waking. Concrete walls, a large sleeping slab, and a round metal tub right smack at the center.

“Where am I?” Nothing about this place is familiar.

Zev drags a hand over his face. “You’ve been out for six days.”

The room tilts. Six days. I grab the edge of the sleeping slab to steady myself.

“Good to know, but not what I asked, Zev.”

“We’re in one of the many catacombs.” Zev watches me process his words, as if I’ll explode any minute. I might. Undecided.

“Catacombs?” My brows pull together as I continue to study the room, cataloging every detail. “Since when does Exile have Catacombs?”

“Since you left.”

My attention snaps to him. “I didn’t leave,” I correct, not recognizing the softness in my voice. “I was taken. There’s a difference.”

Zev chuckles, moving until he stops right beside me. “So much has changed since you’ve been gone.”

“Tell me about it,” I murmur, turning my back to him and looking for the door. Why is this place mysterious and different?

“For one,” Zev begins while I’m trying to find any semblance of an exit. “Your mate has saved us all.”

“Don’t call him that.”

The word scrapes against something raw inside me. Mate. As if it means something. As if it’s supposed to anchor me, when the last person who used it threw me into a wall.

I scan the shelter, avoiding Zev’s eyes. The air hangs heavy, as if it’s clinging to my skin.

Sulphur.

The stench hits sharp and rotten. I caught it in the cavern with the flowers. It clung to the demon’s skin when he jammed that gem into my chest.

“Well, shit,” Zev murmurs, his boots clapping against the concrete ground when he follows me. “That’s what he is, Luda. These masks—they’re a part of him somehow, so we can feel it. The tie to you. It’s… I don’t even know how to explain it, I just know. He’s yours.”

I refuse to acknowledge any part of that claim. Or anything in the same vicinity as “mate” ever again.

“What is he to all the people here?” I ask, wincing when a sharp pain flashes through my mind.