Page 72 of Thane's Demon
“Don’t change the subject.”
He exhaled, long and heavy, the amusement fading into resignation.
“Fine. You want answers. Then understand this part first.” He stepped toward the wall, pressing his hand to a seemingly blank portion of cracked plaster. The moment his skin touched it, a faint glow spread across the surface, illuminating intricate geometric lines etched beneath the paint. I couldn’t understand it, but it looked a lot like magic. Like my eyes were playing tricks on me. The wall shifted with a soft grind of metal, and a hidden compartment slid open.
A safe was revealed. One hidden with something not of this world, and that only added so many more questions than all the ones I already had.
He reached inside and pulled something out. A piece of pale green jade, smooth and carved with symbols that pulsed faintly beneath the dim light.
“This,” he said quietly, turning it in his palm so I could see it clearly, “…is what they want. And they are willing to use you to get it.”
I stared at the object, confusion tangling with fear.
“What is it?”
“That is even more complicated to explain, but all you need to know is that it is priceless and something deadly in the wrong hands.”
The weight of it settled over the room like a storm cloud.
“And because of this,” he continued, closing the compartment with a flick of his wrist, “We have to leave Shanghai.”
My breath hitched. “I can’t leave. I have school. My father and…”
Thane stepped toward me slowly, something dark and determined settling behind his eyes.
“You don’t have a choice.”
“Thane,”I whispered, fear threading through my voice. “What are you saying?”
He closed the final distance between us, his shadow falling across mine. He lifted a hand and brushed it along my jaw, tilting my chin up just enough to meet his gaze. His voice lowered, soft and dangerous and unbearably intimate.
“I’m saying you are not safe here. I’m saying they will come for you again, and I’m saying I will not let them.”
I swallowed hard and my pulse raced as he leaned in until his breath warmed my lips, his eyes burning.
“So do not argue with me, do not run from me, and do not try to tell me what you think you can handle, little dreamer.”
His voice lowered further, a rumble of warning and promise.
“Because if you do, you won’t like the outcome.”
“The outcome?” I questioned quietly, before his thumb brushed my lower lip, slow and deliberate.
Then he told me…
“Don’t make me kidnap you, little prey.”
30
THE DEMON INSIDE
The air in the room thickened the moment he spoke the words, as if the walls were closing in. His warning about how far he would go to get me to go with him clung to my mind like alarm bells were blaring. I tried to steady myself, to cling to logic, to cling to the life I had been desperately trying to build, but every attempt unraveled under the weight of his presence and the danger coiling around us like a living thing.
“Thane, you don’t understand,” I said, trying to reason with him, even as my pulse raced. “My father will be furious if I disappear.”
His expression sharpened, that dark, cutting stillness returning to his features.
“I understand more than you think.”
