Page 22 of The Edge of Dawn

It hurt.

And he couldn’t embrace it the way he usually did.

You did that when you kicked the man in the back of his leg with all that force. I wouldn’t be surprised if something in my foot is broken.

Don’t you have proper footwear? He wasn’t entirely sure why he was chiding her as if she were a young child.

I… Mentally, she sighed. It’s a long story. I didn’t have time to find my steel-toe cap boots. These are just my walking boots. Kind of hard to think about health and safety when you’re on the run, you know?

And now you have a broken foot. He couldn’t believe how flippant she was. Tch. Humans.

What was that?

Never mind.

Well, you’re the one who made me kick him.

It was imperative that I immobilize him immediately. Why did he even feel the need to justify himself to this human? Stop bickering.

She wrestled with him for a moment, then went still in her own mind. Then… will you release me now? Because I can’t seem to break free of your mental hold.

Her plaintive words surprised him, and there wasn’t much in the Universe that could surprise him anymore.

He had no idea he’d been holding onto her essence so tightly.

How strange.

He deftly untangled his consciousness from hers, releasing the threads of control. A weird sensation coursed through his extracorporeal form. It felt as if he were in his very own body and his skin was being peeled away from his flesh, only it wasn’t painful or even unpleasant.

There. Better now?

No. Inside her own mind, the human went very still. I am not. I need to get out of here.

He felt her panic, a state that was so very alien to him and utterly disturbing.

Why was he here, anyway, bothering with a human who meant nothing to him?

He had other things to worry about—there was the not-insignificant matter of Tarak al Akkadian and his cursed plans. If he fucked up, the General might throw him in stasis for an eternity—or simply kill him.

Not to mention the other demon of his kind—Ashrael.

They controlled him now.

He’d swapped his mental prison for an infinitely more dangerous one.

What did he want, anyway?

Freedom?

Death?

Not this, anyway—cavorting inside some strange human’s consciousness while his real body remained unguarded.

Why should he care about what happened to her?

She has the Talent, and not an insignificant measure of it, either…

She is rare.

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