To Marry A Monster (by Brey Mitchell) novel Chapter 154

Chapter 154

ATASHA’S POV

“We need to talk,” I said as soon as the door opened.

Prince Kaelith filled the frame first, but my gaze went past him to the older man behind him. Elder Agape stood there with the kind of calm that made you feel like you were already late to something he’d seen coming.

“Grace, wait outside,” I said over my shoulder. She gave me a look that said this was a terrible idea and took up position by the steps anyway.

I stepped into the small cabin. I’d ridden straight from the manor the moment Lady Kenneth finished her spectacle. No rest. No message left. I didn’t bother pretending Cassian wouldn’t notice. He always did. But there were questions he wouldn’t answer, and the one person who might was here.

Agape’s eyes took me in. “Tea, Your Highness?” he asked mildly, already turning toward the brazier. “Traveling in the middle of the night is tiring. And dangerous.”

“It’s careless,” Kae added, flat.

I met Kaelith’s stare for a moment, long enough to catch the irritation in his eyes, but I didn’t rise to it. Instead, I turned back to Agape and said, “We need to talk.” My tone left no room for debate.

He studied me briefly, as if weighing whether to ask why, before nodding once. “I owe you that much.”

Then I looked at Kaelith again. He was still standing there, arms folded, clearly not planning to move. “Perhaps I wasn’t clear,” I said. “I need to speak with the Elder, alone.”

Kae rolled his eyes in response, like the world’s most overqualified chaperone, then moved to the stair and disappeared to the second floor without another word.

Agape didn’t speak until the sound of footsteps above faded and the old floorboards stopped creaking. Only then did he move toward the small table in the corner, his hand reaching for a shallow bowl filled with dull gray stones.

“Do not fret, Your Highness,” he said calmly. “We’ll have privacy.” He placed three of the stones in a neat triangle across the table, and within seconds, the atmosphere shifted, the air thickened, the faint noises from outside seemed to vanish, and it felt as though the entire room had sealed itself off from the rest of the world.

I recognized the stones immediately. They were sound wards, fae–made and nearly impossible to break. “Good,” I said, relieved that at least no one else would hear what came next.

I remained standing, unwilling to waste time on courtesies. “Can I take the witches‘ test?”

Agape’s hands froze mid–motion. When he finally looked up, his face gave nothing away. The silence stretched between us, and I felt my patience thinning.

“You already know why I’m asking,” I said, my voice sharper than I meant it to be.

“I do,” he replied.

I frowned, feeling a knot tighten in my chest. “Then let me rephrase it. Will the Stone of the Goddess hurt me?”

Agape took a slow, measured breath before answering. “Not necessarily.”

My stomach twisted. “What kind of answer is that?” The question came out louder than I intended. My pulse quickened, and a thought I didn’t want to name pressed at the edge of my mind.

Agape’s gaze softened, though his eyes were still assessing, cautious, like a physician examining a wound he already knew was infected. “Your Highness is a very intelligent woman,” he said evenly. “I believe you’ve already begun to piece it together.”

“No,” I said, forcing the word out. “I haven’t.”

He gestured toward the chair with quiet insistence. “Sit. Please.”

After a long pause, I did. He turned to the small kettle, his movements unhurried, as though the conversation wasn’t pulling the air tighter around us. The faint sound of water being poured filled the silence, but it did nothing to calm the pounding in my chest.

Finally, he set a cup in front of me and spoke. “The answer to your question…” he said slowly. “Is a yes.”

He lifted his gaze to mine, and for a moment, it felt like his words were heavier than the silence that followed. “The Stone of the Goddess will cause you pain.”

My breath hitched. The taste of iron touched the back of my tongue.

The pain from earlier flashed back, the sudden burn under my skin, the way it vanished before I could breathe, and then Cassian’s face in the same moment, blank to everyone else but tight through the bond.

I turned my head toward him, forcing my voice to stay even. “You knew about the bond, didn’t you?”

Agape didn’t hesitate or feign confusion. “Yes,” he said simply, his tone calm. “There are things the fae have always understood better than wolves, and mating is one of them.”

I hesitated, the words forming in my throat but refusing to come out. “If the pain I feel…” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought, because saying it aloud made it real.

He didn’t need me to finish. He gave one slow nod. “Yes. The pain you experience and will experience from the Stone will not stop with you. It will pass through the bond and reach your mate.”

“Cassian,” I said quietly.

“His Lordship, yes,” he confirmed.

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