Page 28 of Thane's Demon
This could not happen.
It should not happen.
Yet everything inside me leaned toward her as if she were gravity itself. My demon surged first, eager and hungry, its voice curling through my veins like flames.
‘Ours.
Take her.
She wants us.’
But it was not only the demon reacting, and that was what terrified me. The pull toward her was not primal instinct alone. It wasn’t just hunger or fate or the madness thrumming beneath my skin. It was something painfully human. Something I had spent years burying under violence and darkness. Something I thought had died the moment I stopped trying to be anything more than the creature people feared.
Because the truth was simple and merciless.
Iwasafraid of her.
Not the way she feared the dangers of the world, but in the way a creature fears the one thing capable of destroying it completely. Because she had power over me, even without meaning to. A dangerous kind of power. The power to hurt me. The power to break whatever fragile control I had left over the demon inside me. The power to shatter what remained of my restraint with nothing more than a look. And far worse, the power to make me want something I had long convinced myself I was not allowed to have.
I swallowed hard, trying to soften my voice but failing.
“You don’t understand what you are saying.”
Her brows pulled together slightly. The expression was small, barely a shift in the air between us, but it struck something deep inside me, something that felt too close to tenderness.
“I understand enough,” she said quietly before adding, “You’re not the monster you think you are.”
A sound escaped me, low and harsh, half warning and half disbelief.
“You’re wrong,” I said, leaning closer without meaning to, the tree bark creaking beneath my weight as I braced a hand beside her head.
“You have no idea what I am capable of. You have no idea how easy it would be for me to…” I cut myself off, jaw tightening so sharply it ached.
‘Hurt you.
Break you.
Lose you.
We will not… We will be gentle… We can be for her.’
The demon snarled before turning the damaging thoughts on their head, trying to reassure me. I tried to ignore it all, forcing myself to look anywhere but at the softness in her eyes. I did not deserve that softness. I did not deserve any of the quiet bravery she was offering me. Yet when she spoke next, her voice gentle enough to scrape against every raw nerve I had left, it nearly undid me.
“I told you, I am not afraid of you.”
For a moment, I felt myself sway. My breath stopped. My thoughts scattered. I wanted to believe her. I wanted it more than I had wanted anything in years,maybe ever in my life.The idea of someone looking at me without fear, without flinching, without turning away from the darkness I carried was almost too painful to bear.
Then reality twisted, cold and merciless.
I stepped back, dropping my arm from the tree with more force than I intended.
“Then, as I said,you are foolish!”I snapped, making her flinch in response. The tiny recoil hit me harder than any blade ever had. Pain lanced through my gut, sharp and immediate, guilt punching its way up my spine until my breath stuttered. I had killed hundreds without a flicker of remorse. I had torn through monsters and murderers and human filth without ever feeling a single ounce of regret. But the sight of her shoulders tightening, the slight tremble in her hands after my harsh words,made something inside me twist so violently I nearly reached for her in apology.
‘Fucking idiot!
You hurt her!
Fix it… NOW!’
