I nodded. A moment later, the honey badger waddled in, his claws clicking like heavy dice on the stone floor. He didn’t head for his usual corner. Instead, he made a beeline straight for Zane and, without hesitation, climbed onto his lap, settling directly on top of him.
“What the—” Zane tried to shift, lifting the dagger out of the way. Boris didn’t budge. “Finn. Your demon rodent is using me as furniture.”
Finn’s eyes flickered with a spark of pure, silent mischief.What?
“Don’t ‘what’ me. Get him off.”
Boris yawned, showing all his teeth. His head rested on Zane’s chest, beady eyes staring up at him with unsettling intensity.
“Finn.” Zane’s voice dropped low, lifting the dagger in a pointed gesture. “You did this on purpose.”
Finn’s face was the picture of innocence.Did what?His shoulders lifted in a helpless shrug that almost made me laugh.
“Bullshit. You told him to sit on me.”
I might have suggested you looked comfortable.
“Comfortable?” Zane placed the blade on the floor and tried to shove Boris off his lap. The honey badger responded with a low, offended grunt.
“Don’t hurt him,” I warned. “He’s still banged up from the labyrinth.” I glanced up at Finn, who beamed at me like this was all perfectly normal.
Zane exhaled through his nose, resigned. “I’m being held hostage by a glorified weasel.”
Boris is a honey badger, Finn corrected primly.Very different.
“I don’t care what he is. Get. Him. Off.”
Finn tilted his head, considering. Then his eyes unfocused.
Boris’s tongue lolled out. He leaned forward and licked a long, deliberate stripe up the side of Zane’s face.
“Oh, you absolute—” Zane sputtered, wiping badger saliva off his cheek. “That’s foul!”
I pressed my hand over my mouth, trying not to laugh. Finn’s expression remained perfectly neutral, but his shoulders shook.
He signed,He says you taste like salt and bad attitude. He is trying to help.
Zane slumped back against the headboard. “I hate both of you.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing again. Whateverelse happened tonight, at least we’d face it together. All of us. Including our increasingly chaotic animal companions.
“That one!” Noir exclaimed, pointing at Finn. “We’re going to be best friends.”
I signed it to Finn, who grinned and signed back,Glad someone A-P-P-R-E-C-I-A-T-E-S my work.
Boris finally climbed off Zane’s lap and ambled over to curl up at the foot of the bed like he’d completed an important mission.
The ride on Ash’s back to Harmony was a blur of racing thoughts, yet I felt lighter without the bracelet, a small breath of freedom returning. The mastiffs shadowed our journey, pacing us as silent sentinels, ready to help at the first sign of trouble.
Emmeline’s voice lingered in my thoughts, echoing like a warning I couldn’t outrun.“Figures matching your description leaving the mansion grounds on foot.”She was circling the truth with a predator’s patience, closing in for the kill with every question.
On top of that, the empty loop on my hip was a wound, a hollow space where my stake should have been. I brushed my fingers over the leather. The absence pulsed like a phantom ache.
Early morning sun shone through scattered clouds as I made my way across the city to the Temple of Aetherius. My animal companions waited at the forest line as I entered the human quarter. It smelled the same—bread and horsesand unwashed bodies pressed too close. I kept my head down and my hand near my dagger.
The gates stood open. The guards tracked my approach, not hostile, but no longer offering an easy smile or friendly word on my way by.
I continued on, a manufactured purpose hiding the exhaustion dragging at my limbs. I needed Carlyle, his steadiness and logic, something to anchor me before the trials swallowed the last of my balance.
