Page 28 of Tell Them That I’m Coming

Only halflings do, as though that’s a hint of the shadows we can’t quite control like our demon parent.

“Interesting,” he says at last in a voice too careful to do anything other than get my heart racing.

I swallow, forcing myself calm. “What? It’s just blood.”

“It’s not the color I’m used to.” His gaze drags up from the cut to my face. “How bad does it hurt?”

“I’ve had worse.”

His jaw tightens like he doesn’t like that answer, but that doesn’t stop him from reaching for me.

That doesn’t, but my ungez might. Before Thane can touch me, Binx hisses, an ugly little sound that doesn’t belong to something that looks as cute as he is. His claws catch at my collar as if he’s preparing to launch himself.

Thane freezes mid-motion.

For a heartbeat, we all hold still: me, him, and my protective soul-pet.

Then Thane’s mouth curves.

“Ah,” he says, eyes flicking to Binx with open fascination. “So that’s what you are.”

Binx chitters at me with offense so sharp it feels like a jab under my ribs all because he doesn’t like the way the fae is staring at him now.

“He’s never seen an ungez,” I tell Binx under my breath. “And you hissed at him after he saved us.”

I don’t say thank you. I can’t. But despite the gratitude underlying my rebuke, he pays closer attention to Binx.

Thane’s brows lift. “Ungez?”

“It’s what Binx is. In Sombra, it means he bites first and asks questions never,” I say, and my tease comes out drier than I mean it to.

Binx makes a pleased, smug little noise at my description of him.

Thane nods. “It’s good. He’s obviously loyal to you.”

“Because he’s bonded to me,” I explain. That’s what it is. Binx isn’t a pet the way humans mean it. He’s a piece of my soul given claws and attitude and all because he picked me when I was a spawn. “And it doesn’t hurt. Not really. Demons heal quickly.” Quicker still if I could tap into my shadows. “I’ll be fine.”

“If you say so.”

I do. Tugging down my sleeve, hiding the cut, I use the toe of my boot to gesture at the cap left behind. “What were those things?”

Thane’s gaze shifts to it, and something in his face hardens. “Hunters.”

“Hunters of what?” I ask.

His eyes slide back to me. “Outsiders.”

I gulp. “Oh.”

There’s a slight flash in the depth of his amber gaze. “They’re called goldcaps. If they have another name for the ferocious critters, I don’t know it. They attack travelers, aiming to kill that which shouldn’t be killed. And when they do?” Thane crouches down, using the point of his sword to lift up the crusted-over hat that goldcap was wearing. “They dip their caps into the blood of their victims. That’s why they’re called goldcaps.”

I frown. “Who bleeds gold?”

A quick flick of his wrist sends the cap back to the ground. After resheathing his sword, Thane shrugs his cloak back so that he can show me the long scratch down the underside of his forearm. “The fae of Noctavara do.”

The glimmering, golden line doesn’t look real. It looks like pure Earth sunlight distilled into a liquid smeared on his equally gold skin, seeping from a shallow cut on his arm where one of the creatures got him before he killed it.

“You’re hurt,” I gasp.