Page 42 of Their Fierce Little Monster

Grinning like a fool at the thought, I grip the handle and turn. It’s locked.

How adorable. She thinks that will keep us out.

Dropping down to one knee, I collect from inside my boot the pin I always carry for picking locks and press it into the mechanism.

She’s my mission, after all, and I can’t have the last Ice Fire heir vanish on us, so I need to check her on. Otherwise, it would be a clear dereliction of my duty, giving her the chance to escape from us. It’s the perfect excuse⁠—

“What the fuck are you doing?” Corvin snarls from my right side.

I sigh at his rude intrusion and glance over my shoulder at him. “What’s wrong, boyfriend? Pissed you didn’t think of this first.”

Fast steps close the distance between us in seconds, and he snatches the back of my hand. The bastard moves quickly as he wrenches me up on my feet. Fury bleeds into me that he dares touch me, and my monster side rushes out of me. Fire charges up my spine, my body stretches, skin splitting gold, and the inferno deep inside me surges forward.

I twist in his hold with a growl and throw myself at him.

He transforms into his monstrous form just as I slam into him, all that ash-gray skin, the fucking scarecrow smirk, grinning too wide, and the light beaming from his teeth.

We slam into the wall with a cracking thud, him beneath me. “Don’t fucking touch me, or I’ll cut your hand off as a souvenir.”

“Try, asshole!” His eyes are pure hatred when he drives a fist right into my chest, shoving me off him and across the hallway.

I gasp for breath, the dull ache throbbing across my ribs. “You’re jealous like you’ve always been. Tell me, Corvin, when you look at Dawn and think of her spreading her legs for me, do you see Vivee, because I’m certain you do.”

Mentioning our ex, the one who used us against one another, infuriates him.

“You fucker!” His gaze burns up, and his shoulders jerk back, spine bowing as his boned wings punch through his skin and unfurl with a sickening clicking sound. They split outward on either side of him as skeletal wings, but he barely seems to notice as he glares death in my direction. “She chose me over you, so that’s rich coming from you.”

His wing slashes in my direction, a deadly spur running along the edges.

I duck, the blade inches from the top of my hair, but the bastard has always been fast, and suddenly there’s a blade in his hand. One hand fists my hair, hauling me up just as cold steel finds my throat.

He slams my back to the wall, and I laugh in his face.

“Do it,” I dare him. “Cut me. It’s what you’ve wanted to do for so long, and I guarantee you I won’t report to your father that you finally committed to something.”

“You’re fucking broken. Something’s missing from inside of you.”

I chuckle because men like Corvin, who’ve had it all handed to them, treated like a king from childhood, have no fucking idea how much those like me have had to endure just to survive.

“Stop stalling, love.” I tilt my head back as his blade bites into flesh. He leans in close, nostrils flaring with each rushed exhale, eyes narrowing with the promise of death behind them.

“Just stay the fuck away from her,” he growls. “She’s not your plaything.”

“And not yours either,” I hiss just as Dawn’s door wrenches open.

We both freeze, and I twist my head in her direction.

She holds on to the door with a death grip, eyes bulging at the sight of two huge monsters about to kill each other. Brave little thing doesn’t scream, but she gasps as her mouth drops open.

She hasn’t run yet, and I’m so proud of her. “Hello, petal,” I say. “Don’t mind us. Is everything all right?”

“Lian, that’s you?”

“In the flesh, and this ugly bastard is Corvin in his monster form.”

“You’re safe,” he says to her.

I chuckle as the blade tightens against my throat. “Says the one about to cut my throat. Real convincing there.”