To Marry A Monster (by Brey Mitchell) novel Chapter 204

ATASHA’S POV

“How is she?” I asked.

“She is fine,” Grace said. “She is currently resting, sleeping after you healed her.”

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I let the steam from the cup brush my face before I drank. The tea tasted faint, mostly herbs and heat. “Good,” I answered. “She will need the rest.”

Grace hesitated. I could feel her watching me instead of the window. “Your Highness,” she said finally. “I apologize for the disrespect earlier. I know you have a plan. However, that woman is very clearly up to no good.”

I set the cup down and shook my head, amused despite the exhaustion pulling at my shoulders. “You were not disrespectful,” I said. “You were honest. I would worry if you trusted her.”

Grace’s jaw eased a little, but the lines in her forehead stayed. I reached for the teapot and poured myself more tea, listening to the quiet trickle. Outside, the courtyard was a wash of white and gray through the glass, the snow reflecting the weak afternoon light.

“Everything is moving according to plan,” I said, eyes still on the window. “Celeste needed to see how far the witches are willing to go for me. Now she has. They were aiming for my chest and she stepped in front of the knife. That will not leave her thoughts quickly.”

Grace let out a slow breath. “I understand, Your Highness,” she said. “I only worry that they will try again. She is unpredictable. The witches are worse. If she… I cannot imagine if they somehow-”

“That is why we cannot make anything too obvious,” I replied. “If we push her, she will run to the first hand that promises her power. If we pretend to see nothing and let her feel clever, she will come to us with whatever she thinks she can bargain with. Until then, we watch her moves, not her words.”

Celeste was smart. She wouldn’t be able to manipulate me for so long if she wasn’t. Obviously, the best way to outmaneuver someone smart is by letting them think that they are winning, making them lower their guard.

Grace nodded, although the sound that left her sounded more like a sigh than agreement. Before she could answer, the door flew open hard enough to bump the stopper against the wall.

Cassian strode in as if someone had thrown him here.

I stood halfway up out of habit, the chair legs scraping against the floor. “Cassian?” I asked.I thought he was out patrolling the border with his men? Why is he here? My heart jumped before I could stop it. For a second I thought someone had brought news from the eastern outpost, or that the witches were back.

He looked as if he had come straight from a battlefield. His cloak hung open, one side half twisted over his shoulder, dusting melting snow onto the floor. His boots were damp around the edges. His hair had fallen forward in uneven strands, pushed through by fingers that had clearly dragged through it more than once. His chest rose and fell faster than usual, not quite out of breath, but close enough that I wondered if he had run up the stairs.

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Chapter 204

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“Are you hurt?” he demanded, crossing the room in long strides. He did not wait for an answer. He caught my hand and turned my wrist, eyes scanning my skin as if he expected blood to appear between my fingers.

I blinked, thrown off by the intensity. “I am fine,” I said. “Celeste was the one who-”

He checked my other hand, then my forearm, thumb brushing the inside of my wrist where my pulse beat. Only when he found nothing did his shoulders drop the smallest fraction. Up close, I could see the fine tension around his mouth, the tightness at the corner of his eyes.

Grace cleared her throat softly near the side table.

The sound snapped him out of whatever had gripped him. He stiffened, as if only now remembering we were not alone. He released my hand, took half a step back, and glanced toward her.

“You may leave now,” he said.

Grace bowed immediately. “Yes, my Lord,” she answered, then slipped out, closing the door behind her.

The second the latch clicked, Cassian turned back to me.

“What were you thinking?” he asked. His voice was low but sharp around the edges. “Walking around the park like that? Sitting on benches where anyone could approach you? Do you not remember that the witches are still out there?”

So the news had spread faster than the tea had cooled.

“I had Grace with me,” I said. “She had three men hidden within shouting distance. We were not alone.”

He stared at me as if I had just said I had taken a stroll alone on the outer wall during a storm. “Grace is not enough,” he snapped. “Three men are not enough. In front of a witch, they might as well be unarmed children. You know that. You saw what one corrupted stone did to a courtyard full of soldiers, and you still thought it was wise to put yourself in the open?”

“I was not in the open without protection,” I said. “There were more than three. Lucas stationed two archers on the tower above the park and he had men watching the paths. If that man had raised his hand a moment earlier, they would have put an arrow through his throat.”

His eyes narrowed. “They were not enough,” he said again, slower this time. “They were not enough because the knife still reached you. The only reason it did not tear you open is because Celeste moved first. Do you understand what that means? You are walking around with a target tied to your back. Every witch that hears about you will want to carve that ability out of your chest.”

I watched the way his jaw clenched as he spoke, the way his hands curled loosely at his sides as if he was fighting the urge to grab my shoulders and shake me. For some reason, I wanted to remind him that I could heal my own body but ended up not saying a word.

“You are the one who told me to stop hiding,” I reminded him. “To walk these halls as if they belong to me. To let them see me and to let them know who healed them. If I stay locked in a room, the witches will still come, and the people will still be afraid. At least this way, Celeste and whoever is watching her knows I am not easy to drag away.”

He opened his mouth, ready to argue, then closed it again with visible effort. “That is not the point,” he said.

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Chapter 204

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“The point is that you knew they would try. You knew Celeste might use you, and you still set yourself in front of them like bait.”

His voice rose on the last word.

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