The Kid pressed themself against the gateway door, eyes wide and frantic and terrified. Just like Barns was at the auction. Just like he was back in Aos Sì. “You are not a monster, Mael. I know you are not.” “Does consuming a monster not make you just as monstrous?” Maybe I wasn’t a curse. Maybe I was just a monster. A monster controlling other monsters. A monster who brought death with it everywhere I went. Fear. Terror. Pain. But not my—not the Kid. Not them. Never them. I’d let my shadows consume the entire world before I let them touch the Kid.
