Page 42 of Tell Them That I’m Coming

Thane is gone. No Binx, either. And the door? It stands open just a crack, letting in enough light that when the shadow in the corner moves, I see it.

I open my mouth.

“Don’t scream,” a voice murmurs, smooth and unfamiliar. “I’m not here to harm you, demoness, but the queen has questions.”

My breath catches. I don’t know what’s worse: that he knows what I am despite the glamour I can sense near my forehead, or that he’s here because of the queen.

Oh. I know what’s worse: it’s the sound of boots scuffing against the floor, the flash of light reflecting off of the sword the cloaked male carries easily like he’s never without it.

Soldier, I think. And somewhere in the pit of my chest… the bond or something else… it tightens, not from fear, but in the certainty that Thane will come. I don’t know where he is, where he’s gone, and what happened to Binx, but I sense them both on the other end of each bond and know that they’ll come for me.

The soldier takes three purposeful steps toward me, but he never gets the chance to take a fourth. The door slams open hard enough to rattle the walls, and the shadows move.

Not mine. Theirs.

Binx streaks in first. A flash of black and white, all teeth and fury as he launches himself straight at the hidden soldier’s face. The man shouts, staggering back, and that’s when Thane appears in the doorway, his sword already in motion.

There’s no flourish, no warning. He simply follows Binx into the room, pivots once, and drives the blade clean through the soldier’s neck, taking his head with one strike.

Gold blood sprays everywhere.

It paints the wall. It spatters the floor. A few warm drops hit my cheek, but I’m too stunned… halfway lost in a dream that’s turned into a nightmare… to do more than dab at it with my fingertips.

That’s when I make a mistake. I think that it’s over. That, for whatever reason the queen sent her soldier to me, she only sent one.

And then Thane turns to me.

For half a heartbeat, I see it—the open worry, the raw fury, something dangerously close to panic—and then he’s moving again, crossing the room in three long strides.

His hand closes around my upper arm. “There will be others coming, but we won’t be here for them to find. We’re leaving,” he says. “Now.”

Binx bounds to my other side, shadows flaring as he turns and snarls at the door, daring anyone else to try. Thane yanks me out of bed, then forward, hauling me through the hall, down the stairs, past startled faces and half-risen patrons who are too slow, too shocked, or too smart to intervene as he drags me into the kitchen where a drowsy cook stirs something in a pot.

A male voice yells behind us, making the cook jump. “Someone get the guards⁠—”

Thane kicks the back door open.

Cold night air slams into us, sharp and alive, and the golden light of Noctavara in the early morning hours welcomes us like an old friend.

My mate doesn’t slow.

He drags me off the road, into the golden trees, his grip never loosening even as muffled shouts follow us. I stumble once—twice—and each time he adjusts without looking, pulling me closer, shielding me with his body as though that’s the most natural thing in the world for him to do.

Only when the inn is far behind us… when the sounds of pursuit fade into nothing but the hush of the forest waking up in a way better manner than I did… does he stop.

He turns on me then, hands gripping my shoulders, eyes burning amber in the dark. “I knew it. They came for you,” he says, his voice suddenly tight. “It was more than rumors. They had orders.”

“How do you⁠—”

“The innkeeper warned me they were near. I went to check… Binx followed after me to see what I was up to… and the soldier snuck up. Near! She let him in!”

If the innkeeper still has her head, I’d be very surprised. “But why?” I get out.

Thane exhales sharply, closing the gap between us, forehead dropping to mine for just a second. Just long enough for me to feel the tremor in him before he purposely drops the glamour, sliding his skin along the edge of my horn.

“For the shadow demon,” he murmurs. “For the one the queen wants brought to her alive.”

What?