Page 48 of Thane's Demon
‘If they touch her,
We kill them all.’
My demon hissed, voice scraping the inside of my skull like claws on stone. And despite the coldness in those words, despite the brutality that threaded every syllable, there was something else there too.
Protectiveness.
Possessiveness.
Yes,I answered silently, we would.
When the doors finally opened, and Alora stepped outside, the world seemed to pause around her. I flew lower, masking my presence from the world, drawing in on my supernatural powers to do so. I landed on one of the smaller buildings next to her apartment, so I could watch her with a sharper gaze.
She wore another soft sweater, this time burnt orange, and paired it with a pleated brown skirt. Her sweater was also long enough that she could bury her hands inside when she was nervous or cold…or both.
She stood on the pavement with her shoulders slightly raised as if bracing herself for the day. Even from this distance, I could see the subtle tension in her brows. The hesitance in her posture, the way she glanced back toward the building as though expecting something sharp to leap from behind the glass. She looked small in that moment, not physically but in the way someone looked when they carried the weight of too many expectations. The sight made my chest tighten with an ache I had no language for.
I followed her from the rooftops as she began her walk toward campus, staying far enough back that no one would ever sense me. I watched every car that slowed near her, every person who lingered too long in her direction, every man who looked twice. She checked her phone repeatedly, holding it close to her chest each time she looked, her lips pressing together with a fragile hope she probably didn’t even realize was showing on her face.
She was waiting for me, waiting to hear from me. Waiting for something to look forward to. Guilt twisted inside of me because I could not meet her. Not today. Not with Xue’s suspicions gnawing at the edges of my world like a sickness. Not when the price of being seen with me could be her life. I couldn’t do that to her.
The phone in my pocket felt heavier than the Seal itself. It took everything in me to pull it out and type the lie I hated.
Something came up. I cannot meet you today.
The moment I sent it; I saw her slow her steps. Her shoulders dipped. The light in her eyes dimmed with a disappointment so clear it felt like a blade sliding between my ribs. She stared at the screen for far too long, the world moving past her in a blur while she stood still, absorbing the message with a silent hurt that made my demon thrash inside me.
‘Fix it!’
It snarled, outraged.
‘Tell her we lied.
Tell her we're coming to her now.
She waits.
She wants us.
She needs us.’
I had never felt the creature so unhinged, so ready to tear apart the sky itself just to reach her.
“No,”I whispered under my breath, jaw clenched until my teeth ached.
We could not go to her.
Not yet.
Not while she was vulnerable.
Not while Xue might still have men watching.
She typed back eventually, the tiny motion of her thumbs visible from where I stood, though I couldn’t bring myself to read her response yet. She tucked her phone away and resumed walking, though not with the same brightness she usually carried. Today, there was a heaviness in her steps, as though the world had taken something from her before the day even had the chance to begin.
I followed her until she entered the university building and disappeared from sight. Only then did I step back from the ledge, letting the morning wind cut across my face as if it could cool the fire spiraling beneath my skin. Distance was necessary, I toldmyself. Distance was protection. Distance was the only way to keep her alive long enough for me to take her somewhere safe.
But the truth was far more brutal than that.
