The Rycke (Monstrous, #3)

by Lily Mayne

“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.