Page 2 of Tell Them That I’m Coming

I glance at the butterflies swarming nearby, then shrug. “Why? They’d just find me again.”

Stevie makes a soft sound in the back of her throat, an almost agreement that also tells me that she wasn’t specifically talking about the butterflies. Up until three gold moons ago, she was as determined to see beyond Nuit as I was.

And then, when one of Duke Haures’s soldiers came to Nuit to speak to Glaine—the head of the duke’s guard who, along with his human mate, Billie, spends half their time in Nuit and the other in the duke’s capital of Mavro—and saw Stevie walking through the village square.

All of the halflings I’ve met have different features from our parents. Take me for example. I have Mom’s colorless skin, Dad’s golden eyes, Mom’s pale yellow hair that’s closer to white, and Dad’s black horns even if mine are barely an inch long. Stevie favors her Dad more. Dagon is a fierce hunter with the standard deep red Sombran skin and vivid red eyes. Stevie’s flesh is more of a rosy pink with his black hair and red eyes; as a nod to her human mother, she plaits her thick black hair and lets it settle over her shoulders. Her horns are delicate and sharp, her body curvy, and her voice magical… but she didn’t even need to utter a single note before Corbin was kneeling before her, telling her that she was his one true mate.

Most Sombra demons have to wait centuries before they chance upon their one true mate. No one knew what to expect for us halflings. After all, I’m the first one that’s part human, part demon that’s ever been born. I almost understood Rafe’s desire to choose his own mate to soothe his loneliness, but I’ve always known I’d hold out for my fated mate.

And then Stevie found hers. Mom thinks it’s because humans usually find their mates early. She was only a few years older than me when she bonded with Dad, so though our parents all think of us as spawn still, it wasn’t such a shock that Corbin recognized Stevie as his—or that she agreed that she felt the same.

They haven’t bonded yet. Three gold moons have passed, with Corbin doing his best to woo Stevie in between his duty to Duke Haures, and I know exactly why Stevie is holding off on agreeing to be his for eternity.

It’s that word right there. Eternity. She’s not even twenty-five yet, while Corbin is two hundred and twelve, and she wants to get to know him before she promises him forever. And, sure, all she has to do is give him her essence—the part of a demon that’s everything they are, including thoughts, memories, hopes, and dreams—and take his for a mated pair to know everything about one another. She could do that, but while Stevie favors her father’s looks, her personality is much closer to Sierra, her human mother.

She wants Corbin to prove himself to her, and I don’t blame her. If I ever found my fated mate, I hoped I’d be able to ignore my libido long enough to make sure he’s the male for me rather than just foolishly trust that the gods got it right.

Even so, both Rafe and I have spent the last few months asking Stevie what it was like to look in Corbin’s green eyes and know that he was the male meant for her. She’s explained it the best she can, calling it a gut punch, and telling us when it happens to us, we’ll know.

Rafe doesn’t want to wait. He wants it to happen now, and if it doesn’t? He’ll be happy if the demoness he has his eye on will accept him as his mate before Stevie finally bonds with Corbin.

And then there’s me. At the rate I’m going, Clara will be happily bonded before I am, and she’s still a spawn. And with Kennedy growing another one of her own in her belly, I might still be sitting out back with Binx when the latest villager in Nuit matures and goes searching for their mate…

Sensing my frustrations, Binx climbs to his paws. He scampers up my skirts, curling in my lap.

Stevie leans over, running her fingers through his fur. She doesn’t have an ungez—she’s never wanted one—but she grew up around Binx. He tolerates her pets in a way he doesn’t Rafe’s, and he purrs softly beneath Stevie’s claws.

“Corbin offered to find me an ungez of my own,” she murmurs. “I told him I’d rather one of the fabled blue flowers in the duchess’s private gardens. My dad told me how beautiful it was when he served as Duchess Susanna’s personal guard. If Corbin can figure out how to bring me one, I told him I’ll bond with him before the next gold moon.”

Corbin is a full-blooded Sombran soldier who’s been lost for Stevie since the moment he genuflected in front of her. I have no doubt in my mind that, to get Stevie to choose him, he’ll find a way into the oasis near Duke Haures’s palace. Especially since Duchess Susanna is also a human—the first to come to Sombra ages ago—and is a romantic at heart. If Corbin tells the duchess it’s for his mate, she’ll probably pluck the flower herself.

I’ve only met the duchess a few times. Like every other Sombra demon male, Duke Haures is too overprotective to allow her to leave Mavro. I know enough about her, though, since she is kin to Mom’s close human friend, Amy. Plus, due to my status as the chosen spawn who fulfilled a prophecy and saved Sombra, I’ve spent more than enough time with the duke.

He believes I’m to thank for breaking the mad king’s hold on the shadows, saving his people, and eventually leading him and his mate to bring three royal halflings into existence. Why? Because my birth—that of the first ever human-demon halfling—brought the rain that threatened to snuff out Sombra’s fires, but somehow I managed to defeat him and save the entire demon realm, finishing off a prophecy that had been foretold nearly two thousand years before.

I don’t know the whole story. Mom’s kept most of it hidden, only admitting that I was abducted as a baby and captured by King Yelios, and that when she got me back, the rains stopped and Sombra was saved. As I grew older, I also grew resentful of anything to do with my past and a prophecy I’ll never quite understand.

You see, my whole life, I’ve known that I was the child of prophecy. Half human, half demon, I was only four months old when I supposedly saved the world. Twenty-five years later, I strive to have a future when I’ve already done what I was born to do.

I’m not bitter. I’m not. Just because Stevie is one flower away from forever, and Rafe is almost there, and I feel like I’m stuck in a rut, not belonging to any of the worlds I’ve spent so long visiting…

I shake my head, sending a few of the butterflies fluttering away. “That’s great, Stevie. Congratulations.”

She shrugs. “He’s a good male. I probably would’ve already accepted his claim if Mom didn’t bring me to Earth for the first gold moon so that I could decide for myself instead of letting my cunt do the thinking for me.”

I snort. “Your mom’s smart.”

“Sometimes,” Stevie allows. “She said that just because her generation had to accept their mates before the first gold moon, that doesn’t mean I had to.”

True. That’s the duke’s first law. Humans aren’t supposed to know about demons unless they’re a mate, and even then they must finalize their bond before the gold moon shines. My parents almost missed the deadline because, well, Mom, but if a pair of mates are in Sombra instead of hiding out on Earth, they can take as long as they’d like to bond.

Not like it’s easy. The gods give us our one true mates because they want us to bond our essences together. I’m surprised Stevie’s held out this long, but like I said, that’s the human in her.

Just like Rafe’s insistence that he’d rather have any mate than resign himself to searching for centuries might be the human in him.

“Where’s Corbin?” I ask. “Is he back at the barracks then?”

“For a couple of days. I figure he’ll come back with the flower as soon as he can.” She jerks her chin at me. “What about Rafe? When I saw the butterflies heading this way, I thought I’d find you both here.”