Page 49 of Thexan

Precise.

Entirely awake.

“He knows I’m with you,” I said.

Thexan’s attention shifted to me for the first time, and though his expression barely changed, the air between us did. “Yes.”

“Then I’m the pressure point.”

“You are the target he believes will alter my behavior.”

“That’s a softer way of saying pressure point.”

“It is the accurate way of saying he has miscalculated.”

I wanted to believe that as easily as he said it. Maybe part of me did. The bond between us had settled into something constant now, not a pull exactly, and not the strange instability I’d felt earlier. It was awareness. His presence lived somewhere beneath my skin, steady and unmistakable, and the closer I stood to him, the less I could pretend anything about this was temporary.

“What does he expect you to do?” I asked.

“To engage directly.”

“And what will you do?”

His gaze returned to the lower slope. “Engage on terms he does not control.”

That sounded reasonable until I saw movement below.

Not a charge. Not even an approach.

The third hunter stepped into view where the broken stone met the drainage cut, fully visible now, his posture relaxed enough to seem almost casual. He carried no weapon in his hand, though I knew better than to think that meant anything. The other two had been lethal before I knew they were there.

This one wanted to be seen.

Thexan went very still.

“Do you know him?” I asked.

“Yes.”

The single word was enough to chill me.

The hunter looked up toward the ridge, his golden eyes finding us with unnerving accuracy. When he spoke, his voice carried—not shouted, not strained, but projected with controlled precision.

“Thexan.”

The sound of his name in that alien voice was nothing like the way I said it. From me, it had become familiar, almost intimate. From him, it sounded like an accusation.

Thexan did not answer.

The hunter’s gaze moved to me.

I felt it like a hand closing around the back of my neck.

“So, the damage did not destroy your judgment,” the hunter said. “It merely redirected it.”

Thexan stepped slightly in front of me, not enough to block my view, but enough that the movement made his answer clear before he spoke.

“You should not have come here, Kaer’vas.”