Page 68 of Thane's Demon
“Wait, you’re giving me a key to Thane’s apartment?”
She lifted one elegant brow.
“You need a safe place, and he needs a reason not to lose his mind searching for you. And since I am the only one he doesn’t scare off within five minutes, I decided to intervene before he reaches the stage of… um… let us call it,a catastrophic overreaction.”
I swallowed hard, gripping the key tightly, the weight of it settling into my palm with a strange mixture of fear and comfort.
Janie pushed open the door to his building and motioned for me to go inside.
“Up the stairs, the top floor. It’s the only door with a reinforced lock. You will know it when you see it.”
Then she leaned closer, her hair brushing my cheek in a whisper of silk, her voice dropping into something quiet enough to feel rather than hear.
“And, Alora… whatever you think he is… he is worse. But for you, he will learn to be better.”
Before I could even form a reply, she straightened with a small, enigmatic smile tugging at her lips and stepped back toward the waiting car. The door opened as if anticipating her, the interior lighting casting her in a brief halo of cool white before swallowing her silhouette entirely. I opened my mouth, some mix of confusion, fear, and curiosity rising to the surface, but the car door shut before any sound could escape me. The driver pulled away a heartbeat later, the sleek vehicle sliding back into the stream of city traffic without a trace, leaving me standing alone beneath the flickering light.
The echo of her words clung to me, heavy and unsettling.
Whatever you think he is…he is worse.
But for you, he will learn to be better.
I stayed rooted to the bottom step for several long breaths, replaying that cryptic warning until the meaning tangled itself into knots I could not unravel.
He is worse…The word pricked something deep in my gut, conjuring every instinctive fear I had ignored since the night he saved me. The way he moved. The way people reacted to him. The way he seemed to be constantly at war with something inside himself. Janie had said it so calmly, as though the truth was too large to fit into a single explanation, and too dangerous to offer to someone who hadn’t earned it.
And yet she followed it with something gentler, something that lodged beneath my ribs like an ache.
But for you, he will learn to be better.
Better. For me.
The idea felt impossible. Terrifying. Beautiful.
I found myself climbing the stairs almost mechanically, my fingers trailing along the cold railing as if touching something grounded could steady the flurry of thoughts spinning insideme. I kept glancing back, half expecting Janie to reappear with more riddles. Half hoping she might explain what exactly Thane was, what she meant by worse. But the hallway remained empty, the echoes fading behind me, leaving only the whisper of her warning twining through my thoughts.
By the time I reached the third floor, my mind was a storm of questions with no answers. Even when I found his apartment and unlocked the heavy locks, even when I stepped inside, and even when I stood in the dim quiet of his home, Janie’s words followed me like a ghost clinging to me.
His apartment was… simple. Clean. But worn in a way that whispered of long nights and little comfort. The furniture was mismatched but tidy, the walls rough with peeling paint, the light dim but warm enough not to feel cold. It was not the kind of place you invited people to. It was the kind of place you hid in.
Yet somehow… it felt more like home than my father’s penthouse ever had. My gaze drifted over the small kitchenette, the battered couch, the window that looked out over the city’s oldest district. And then to the far corner where a bed sat, neatly made but undeniably worn, the dark sheets faintly rumpled as if he had left them in a hurry.
The sight of that bed stole my breath.
Everything from the last few days, the fear, the kiss, the danger, and the confusion crashed into me all at once. The exhaustion I had been fighting finally caught up with me, dragging heavy chains of fatigue across my body. My knees wobbled as I crossed the room and sank onto the edge of the bed.
His scent surrounded me instantly.
Warm. Dark. A hint of spice and something earthy I could never name. It wrapped around me like a blanket, comforting in a way that made my throat tighten with emotion.
I lay down slowly, curling onto his pillow, burying my face into the soft fabric that still held his warmth. An involuntary sighescaped my lips as the scent lulled my frayed nerves, smoothing the jagged edges of everything I had survived tonight.
For the first time since the alley, since he told me to go…
I felt safe.
My eyelids grew heavy, my breath deepened, and as the world faded into darkness, one last thought drifted through me with soft, aching certainty.
