The Rycke (Monstrous, #3)

by Lily Mayne

Why did humans have to try and ruin and torture and hurt everything that they didn’t fully understand?

Then the beastie turned their head to look up at Rig with big, pitch black eyes, and I got my first proper look at their face. Their dark, greenish-black hair was no longer falling over it in unwashed waves. I exhaled a sharp, quiet puff of breath, glad my mask muffled the sound. They were the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

“I read one of the others while I waited for you.” While he’d waited for me.

“My kind are… we abhor violence. We try not to hurt others, even if they are hurting us.”

“Wait… what’s your real name?” After a moment, One’s face broke into a huge, beautiful grin, and I knew that was it. I was utterly smitten. Totally, one hundred percent gone for this strange, winged monster with creepy black eyes and ghostly, green-tinged skin. “Aury,” he said.

“I’m happy for you. You two are so cute it makes my teeth hurt. And I would be a terrible friend if I didn’t encourage you to keep doing whatever it was you two were doing last night, because by the sounds of it, it was exquisite. Please, keep having as much freaky monster sex as you can. I’m living vicariously through you.”

“Do you have a heart?” He shook his head again, then reached out to take my hand. “Here.” Aury pressed my palm below his sternum, lower than where the heart sat in a human body. I thought I detected a faint vibration. “Is it… Does it beat? Like a heart?” Aury tilted his head. “Not really, but it does… I can detect it. It makes the life flow through me.” “You mean your blood?” He nodded, then gently clasped my face between his hands and drew me forward. After dropping a kiss on my forehead, he pressed my ear to his chest. “Listen.” I went quiet so I could. Beneath my ear, I could feel the warmth of Aury’s skin through his shirt. There was no heartbeat, but after a few seconds I realised I could hear a thrumming sound. Almost like the rhythmic whoosh of water being pumped. I imagined the seed in there—the last rycke seed in existence—pushing the blood around his body, through all his dark, prominent veins, filling him with life. I pictured it looking like a nutmeg seed still in its red aril. I wondered if Aury even knew what it looked like. It wasn’t like he could check. Maybe he’d seen a memory of one of his ancestors tearing the life seed out of another rycke’s chest. I suppressed the shudder that the thought triggered.

And then, for reasons known only to the deepest, darkest recesses of my anxiety-driven brain, I blurted out, “I love you.” Aury froze instantly. When I realised what I’d said, my entire body went hot with embarrassment. Panicking, I ripped my hand out of his grip and fluttered it uselessly, casting about for something, anything, to say to distract him. “Gage.” Aury turned me to face him, his black eyes so beautiful and warm as he smiled down at me. “I love you too.” He laughed, and my throat ached at the sight of his happiness. “You have terrible timing. I can’t even kiss you.”

“I’ve left something for you on the nightstand, but it’s not a big deal and when I come back, I don’t want you to mention it.” I frowned, looking up from my book. “What—” But he had already slipped out of the room. I looked over at the nightstand and froze when I saw the little wooden figurine on it. With big wings. One damaged.

“I knew he wouldn’t have gone far, because he would want to watch over you. So I just walked around until I got the sudden urge to flee in terror, which meant he was nearby.”

The life seed didn’t die. When we were done with living, we simply allowed the earth to take us back, to use our body for new life. When Gage’s human life came to an end, I would follow him. I knew it deep in the core of me already—there was no question. He was my mate. But until then, I would keep him safe. We had many years before that. I could feel the life in Gage’s body, strong and vibrant, because it sang to me now, tethered to the life seed. I liked the thought of giving my life, my memories, to the next rycke, because Gage would live on in them forever. He would be a balm, a reprieve from all the darkness. A sweet, delicate bloom that stayed rooted deep in the earth in the eye of a swirling storm of death and rage. I would make sure of it—I would make sure that my memories of him were never lost. I would make them the brightest spot in my mind.