Chapter 2 Someone Summoned a Human

Hectevia

I don’t know how. I don’t know why. I don’t know who.

But someone just summoned my Xarus straight into my bedroom.

The remains of the summoning circle burn beneath her feet, thin white lines already disappearing into the black stone. I can taste forbidden magic in the air. Whoever cast it knew exactly where to send her.

They sent her to me.

No portal should have reached this room. Zev laid the outer wards himself, and I buried Kilan through every seam. The spell crossed both as though they were never there.

The woman sways, her eyes darting around the room as her warm honeycomb scent sours.

Human.

My Xarus is human.

Shit.

I turn back to the bathroom I just came out of, rip open the vanity doors, and send half the contents toppling across the floor as I grab the scent suppressant.

Then I’m running back to her.

I spray her from top to bottom.

She coughs and splutters, trying to swat the mist away. I wish I had time to be more considerate, but the others are home. They cannot scent her.

I take her arm and lightning floods my fingers. The force of it almost makes me let her go. I hold on, turn her, and spray her back, her hair, her hips, her...

“Whoa. Okay. What are you doing down there?”

Her voice carries the same honeyed warmth as her fading scent.

I turn her again and barely raise a finger to my lips before Ren speaks from the other side of the door.

“Tee? You got company?”

Her eyes widen, and she clamps her lips together and looks toward the door.

“Tee?” Ren asks again, knocking.

“No. No company.”

“Thought I heard someone. Kai’s got dinner on the table.”

“I’ll be out in a second.”

I listen as his footsteps retreat along the hallway. Only when I hear him reach the stairs do I look back at her.

Big brown eyes stare up at me through a sweep of dark hair. Freckles scatter across her nose and cheeks. Her face is soft, stunned, and completely unfamiliar, yet every part of me recognises her.

My Xarus.

A few seconds pass before she begins to fidget beneath my stare.

“How are you here?” I ask quietly.

“I don’t know where here is,” she whispers.

I glance toward the sealed door.

A human in the Nether is unheard of. Encounters happen on Earth, far from Council law and anyone important enough to care. Here, her existence is a crime.

Kai would attack before I could explain. Zev would do what the law demands. Ren might hesitate, but hesitation will not keep her alive if either of the others sees her.

She is already frightened and confused. A lie will only make it worse.

“You’re in the Nether, honey.”

I wait for the scream, one hand twitching at my side, ready to cover those soft lips.

They part, but only a strained laugh comes out.

“As in...” She points toward the floor. “Down there?”

Humans always imagine the realms stacked on top of one another, with their world caught between reward and punishment.

“Earth and the Nether exist beside each other,” I tell her. “Gates connect them.”

She stares at me, tilting her head. “So this isn’t hell?”

“That depends on who you ask.”

Her laugh comes again, a little fuller, but she quickly presses a hand to her mouth and closes her eyes.

“I’m a little drunk.”

“I noticed.”

“I’m passed out on the footpath.”

“You’re actually standing in my bedroom.”

“Maybe I’m dead.”

I take her wrist before she can pull away. The contact strikes through my hand again, warm and exhilarating. Her pulse beats quickly beneath my thumb.

“You’re alive.”

Her gaze drops to my fingers around her wrist, then slowly rises to my face.

“What are you?”

I force myself to release her.

“Kilandra.”

“Yep. That clears everything up.”

Despite everything, my mouth threatens to curve.

“A demoness,” I say.

The weak amusement leaves her face. She grips the strap of the bag hanging from her shoulder and takes one careful step away from me.

“Right.” Her gaze flicks toward the weapons covering my wall. “Of course you are.”

“I’m not going to hurt you.” I raise my empty hands.

Kai’s voice carries from downstairs, impatient and growing louder.

“Tee!”

I look toward the door again. I need to go down before one of them comes looking. I also need to erase the summoning marks, collect whatever residue remains, and work out how someone reached through the boundary between realms.

Most of all, I need to get her home.

I hate that thought.

I have searched for my Xarus without admitting it. Every crowded hall, every battle gathering, every trip beyond our territory carried the possibility that I might find the one soul made to answer mine.

Now she is standing in my bedroom, and I have to send her away.

“What did you call me?” she asks.

“When?”

Her eyes narrow. “When I landed. Zar... something.”

“Xarus.”

“What does it mean?”

The bond pulses beneath my skin, impatient with the distance between us.

“We don’t have time for that.”

“Well, I have plenty of time. What’s out there?”

She gestures toward the door, and my Kilan climbs higher across the frame.

Her eyes lock onto the moving shadow.

“Did that just move?”

“Yes.”

“The shadow moved...”

“It’s keeping the others from hearing you.”

She watches the darkness spread over the wood and stone. And I watch her fingers tighten around the duffel strap, but she stays where she is.

Braver than she should be.

“What’s your name?” I ask.

“Uh… Nora.”

Nora. My Xarus. So beautiful.

“I’m Hectevia. They call me Tee.”

“Okay, Tee.” She swallows. “How do I get home?”

“I don’t know yet...”

Her nose scrunches in a way I don’t like.

“I will find a way,” I add. “Until then, no one can know you’re here.”

“Why? Someone going to kill me?” She weakly jokes.

“Yes.”

She nods slowly as she takes that in, looking pale beneath her warm complexion.

I lower my hand and call Kilan away from the door. A thin strand peels from the stone and slides across the floor toward her shoes.

Nora jerks back suddenly, but she can’t evade my Kilan. “What are you doing?”

“Hiding you.”

She doesn’t look the least bit okay with that.

“It listens to me.”

Usually.

The shadow touches her shoes, and I expect resistance. Human bodies carry heat, scent, sound, and restless movement. Concealing one should require my full concentration.

Instead, my Kilan climbs her leg without effort.

It spreads over her clothing, curls around her hands, and slips beneath the fall of her dark hair. Her scent disappears completely. Her heartbeat vanishes from my senses. Even the quiet scrape of her shoe against the floor is swallowed.

I stand an arm’s length away and can barely detect her.

Nora looks down at the darkness coating her fingers.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

No human has ever accepted Kilan.

I stare at the place my Xarus should be.

“No.”