Chapter 12 One Bed #2
Thane turns to me slowly. “No,” he says, gentle but unyielding. “You won’t.”
Something in his tone stills me.
“But—”
“We’re out of the woods now,” he continues.
“The low fae have a tendency to talk. They watch. I’d hoped that the innkeeper insisted we only have one room because I couldn’t let you out of my sight, Alana, but I didn’t want to unnerve you.
I’ll take the floor, but I won’t leave you alone.
As it is, if there are already rumors spreading through Noctavara, I don’t intend to feed them any further. ”
“Rumors,” I echo. “What kind of rumors?”
“I spoke with Morgane last night while you were asleep—”
“He challenged you again?”
Thane shakes his head. “Not quite. It’s our bandit code.
He knows I have you. He knows I’ve won you.
That’s why, when he heard talk of a shadow demon traveling under glamour…
of slavers asking questions and soldiers listening…
he told me. That’s why the inn was safer for us tonight.
They’d never expect Thane Aurex would bring his shadow demon prize to this inn. ”
The way the fae on the first floor watched him as closely as they did Binx and me, I got the feeling that he was as well known in this part of the realm as he was the Shadowed Woods.
“And you?” I ask. “What do they say about you?”
“That I’m trouble,” he says without any hesitation. Then, a hint softer, “And that anything under my protection is off-limits.”
Protection.
He doesn’t say mine. He doesn’t need to. Whatever the other fae think when they see us together, it’s clear he’s continuing to stake his claim on me.
At supper, he keeps me close; too close to be coincidence. His arm drapes behind my chair, his presence a shield I didn’t realize I’d been leaning into until I try to straighten on my wooden seat and I can’t.
Binx wedges his shadowy body between us on the bench, tail flicking lazily, eyes never quite closing.
If anyone wonders if I’m a shadow demon, my soul-pet might give me away, but Binx refuses to stay up in the room without us.
Thane makes a point to say that he’s a creature we brought from the Shadowed Woods, letting the golden fae form their own conclusions.
It’s true. We did bring Binx out of the Shadowed Woods—only because I led him into it in the first place.
When supper is done, we return to the room to find that the fire in the hearth has burned low. Shadows pool along the walls, familiar and strange all at once.
Thane waits.
That, more than anything, unravels me.
He doesn’t reach for me. Doesn’t crowd me. He simply watches as I move, as I unlace my boots, as I hesitate before leaving my dress in place.
“You can sleep,” he says quietly. “I’ll be right here. You’re safe with me, Alana.”
I don’t ask what that means, though I do realize that I’m being ridiculous. This male is my mate. It’s one thing for him to climb up in a tree to have a better vantage point in the woods. To make him sleep on the floor
“Are you sure?”
“If you can handle the stink from traveling, then yes.”
He chuckles under his breath. “I’m sure it’s no worse than mine.”
Bullshit. One of my Mom’s favorite Human expression, but it’s never been more apt.
Whether it’s a fae thing or a Thane thing, it doesn’t matter.
He has that same spicy masculine scent that drives me wild.
I’d almost prefer her to stink of a feral demon, of brimstone and acrid smoke, because then I wouldn’t start thinking about giving in to temptations again…
“Sleep,” I say,. “Or don’t. But, please, I’ll feel like crud if you sleep on the floor.”
Then, I climb onto the bed, careful, stiff with total awareness. After a moment, Thane follows, sitting on the edge at first—close enough that I feel the heat of him, the slow, steady rhythm of his breath—before he eases his body back.
On his side. Facing away from me, but still so close, I can breathe in his scent without him noticing.
I turn toward the wall, heart pounding far too hard for sleep to come easily. Binx climbs in between us, warm and solid, and I close my eyes.
I must fall asleep. Since I wake up, I had to have been asleep. How long was I out for? I don’t know, but it’s long enough for me to come to with a start and notice two very important things.
One? There’s a single monarch butterfly perched on the end of my nose.
I jump once I notice it, scurrying back before I pull myself up into a seated position. The butterfly flaps its orange-and-black wings, fluttering away from me as my heart damn near beats its way out of my chest. Even in Sombra, the faripoz don’t interrupt my sleep.
Maybe it was a good thing, though. Because the second thing I notice?
Is that the bed is empty. So is the room.
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?
Thane pulls back, jaw set, gaze fierce. “But I won’t let them take you,” he adds, deadly quiet. “We’ll get your demon, no matter what it takes, but if you go to Queen Celeste, it won’t be in chains.”
And as my mate makes his vow—as I see the true male behind the charming fae mask that is even more irresistible—the bond between us grows infinitely stronger.