Chapter 6 Tell Them That I’m Coming #2
And then he says, “I’m only a danger to your gold, demoness. But seeing as you have none, I’m your best chance at going after your friend. Unless you’d rather return to Sombra for other reinforcements.” He pauses. “Can you go back?”
I shake my head. “Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Not without Rafe.”
“Even if you have to go all the way to the Gilded Court to retrieve him?”
“There isn’t anything I won’t do to bring him home again.”
Especially since I’m the reason he was left behind in Brille Rouge long enough for him to be taken…
Thane studies me for a long moment, and I’m starting to think he’s decided to withdraw his offer of help when he lets out a soft breath.
“If you’re set on going that far,” he says, “there’s something you should understand first. And I offer this for nothing but your agreement that you’ll think about accepting my help.”
“Why you?” I wonder. “Why does any of this mean that you need to help me?”
“Because a lone outsider doesn’t reach the Gilded Court.”
My fingers curl at my sides. “I can take care of myself.”
“I don’t doubt it,” he replies easily. “In Sombra. In worlds where your shadows answer you. Not here.”
I bristle. How does he know my shadows aren’t working? “You don’t have any idea what I can do.”
“No,” he agrees. “But I know what Noctavara does to those who don’t belong.And I know what the Court does when it sees something it wants.”
Something—or someone.
“And what,” I say carefully, “makes you think letting you join us will stop that from happening?”
In answer, he draws his sword. “This isn’t just for saving pretty demonesses from snare traps.”
Pretty demonesses… my cheeks heat, and I try to ignore it.
“And what do you get out of it?” I demand, fiercer than I mean to because, gods damn it, he’s getting under my skin.
His lips twitch. “You stay alive long enough to reach the queen’s throne room.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It’s the only one you need right now.”
Of course. I guess I should be grateful I’ve gotten any at all so far.
“What if I decide you’re a mistake?” I ask. “If I tell you to leave?”
Thane inclines his head. “Then I will.”
And the fae can’t lie…
I draw in a slow breath. “I don’t have gold.”
“I know.”
“I won’t owe you.”
“You won’t thank me,” he corrects lightly. “That’s enough.”
Okay. Fine. “I’m considering it. So what did you want to tell me?”
He gestures vaguely at me. At my horns. At the shadows that still curl too close to my boots, restless and uncooperative. At the way Binx is nuzzled against my neck, the monarch butterfly still perched in my hair.
“All of that can be hidden with a simple fae glamour. But I can only hide so much, and nothing from the queen. And Queen Celeste doesn’t allow shadow magic in Noctavara.”
My spine tightens. That explains so much.
Is that why I was blocked before? Why I haven’t been able to open a portal to leave?
Why my panties vanished, and Thane is better at disappearing into the darkness of the woods than I—one part shadow demon—is?
If the ruler of this realm is against my type of immortal, what happens when the slavers bring Rafe in front of her?
And why is he telling me that now?
“Why doesn’t she?” I ask.
His jaw works, like he’s choosing how he wants to word this. The fae can’t lie, after all, but that doesn’t mean they always tell the truth—and that’s something I must remember while I’m stuck in this world with someone who might have his own motivations to help me.
Finally, he answers me. “Because there’s a prophecy.”
That’s the last thing I wanted to hear.
My stomach sinks. No. Absolutely not. It’s bad enough that I overheard my parents talking about a second prophecy that involves me. I refuse to believe there could be a third.
“A prophecy?” I echo. “About what?”
“It doesn’t concern a simple bandit. But I’ve heard things. There are stories,” he continues. “Warnings. About outsiders who shouldn’t exist in Noctavara, and how shadows cling to them even in the Shadowed Woods. The queen is very interested in their existence.”
I know what he isn’t saying. “She’ll want Rafe.”
“She might keep him. If you come for him, she might choose to keep you, too. And that’s if she hasn’t sensed your arrival in the Shadowed Woods already. The queen and the entire Gilded Court.”
You know what? She can try.
I think of the butterfly in my hair. One of them brought me here. There has to be a way for it to guide me back to Sombra once I save Rafe. Maybe that’s why my portals aren’t working now. Deep down, I can’t leave without him, and Binx agrees.
He bit Thane. If my soul-pet thought that the fae was a danger to me, he’d be flying at him, claws out, aiming for his eyes.
He’s not. Sure, Binx is watching Thane unblinkingly, but I can sense how my soul-pet trusts that my one true mate would want to help me, even if he doesn’t know that he’s mine just yet.
I’ll have to tell him. If I agree to journey with Thane, I won’t be able to keep that secret. For now, though, I have to think about how careful he’s been to warn me against going after Rafe without insisting that I shouldn’t.
It doesn’t matter.
He’s right. I need him, and not only because the gods have given me a tricky fae who seems too good to be true. He probably is, but I have to do everything I can for Rafe—including taking on a fae queen and her Court.
I lift my chin and meet his gaze head-on. The mate bond grows a little stronger as I see the honest if somewhat baffling offer of assistance in his amber eyes, and know that my own fear for Rafe and yearning for my one true mate reflect back in my golden ones.
I’m not afraid of this fae queen. I’m loyal to Apollyon and Lilith, the clan leader and clanmother. I obey—for the most part—Mom and Dad. My lieges are Duke Haures and Duchess Susanna of Sombra, not Queen Celeste of Noctavara and the Gilded Court.
They think they can stop me from saving Rafe?
“They might know. The might not. It doesn’t matter. Tell them that I’m coming.”
And when I get there—with Thane or not—I’ll bring Rafe back to Sombra, then figure out what I’m supposed to do about having a fae mate.