Revenant by Patti Larsen Page A

Andre. “And, in return, I’ll protect your petite pet project,” he flicks his fingers at Sage who glares with wolf eyes, still chewing his sandwich. “I’ll even do my best to find a way to save him, if that pleases you.”
    Why would he do that? “I don’t believe you.” He’s never given me a reason to trust him. The opposite, in fact. I fight memories, the girl inside me wanting to fall into the darkness of them, but I can’t do it. I have to stay present, if only for Sage.
    “Believe me or not,” Andre says, “it’s the truth.” He leans toward me despite Sage’s rumbled growl of a warning. “I owned you once,” he hisses in my ear. “And I will own you again, Charlotte Girard. Mark me.”
    —I crouch, naked, in a corner, my tiny girl’s body shifting into wereform as Andre laughs, shedding his belt, pulling at the zipper of his expensive dress pants—
    I jerk back from him, though his hand grasps my wrist and holds me.
    “That’s the deal,” he says. “I save your revenant, keep him safe, and you submit to me.”
    I can’t, I can’t, but how can I not? I turn to look at Sage who shakes his head, wolf eyes retreating.
    “It’s not worth it,” he says.
    “You don’t have a choice.” Andre releases me. “I have you trapped on board this plane. One message from me, and the Enforcers will come. Say no, and your boyfriend dies in fire. Say yes, and I keep them from him.”
    “Or I kill you and your filthy children.” I’ve never felt so fierce. Is it Sage’s influence? But now the girl in me is no longer afraid. She’s furious.
    Andre flinches a little, just enough I know I’ve scared him. “You can try,” he says. “And the boy dies. You can’t take all of us out at once without making a scene in front of normals. And if anything happens to me or mes fils , the revenant will suffer for it.”
    No, I won’t be trapped. But I am, and I allowed it to happen.
    Despair surges inside me, the old hurts waking and trying to swallow me. The little girl I was wails her desperation. I turn to Sage, feeling panic devouring me. I reach for his hand, feel his fear for me, not for himself.
    Charlotte , his mind touches mine.
    I can’t let him die.
    But I can’t give in to Andre.
    Cold fingers run over my cheek. I turn my head, meet those ice blue eyes and something in me snaps.
    My power surges, reaching for rescue. And finds the veil between planes. I jerk at it, a desperate action, and I’m suddenly falling through a slice in the veil, seatbelt doing nothing to hold me in place, Sage held tightly to my hand.
    My last view before darkness is Andre’s angry face disappearing as the tear snaps closed.
     
    ***
     

Chapter Thirteen
     
    I’m falling in the dark, but it’s far different than the sorcery tunnel I’m used to. The veil has never felt this way before, so empty and loose, the rubbery membrane not holding me in place, but flowing around me like a thick river. I know I have some kind of demon connection, thanks to the trip I took to Demonicon with Syd. She claims I have access to that power, through fire, and I felt it, have used it in the past to speed my steps when in werewolf form. And I’ve even experienced the zing of it when I ride the veil with Syd. But, there’s a purpose to our movement when I travel with my friend, a firm grasp of magic keeping us on target. This simply has the sensation of being lost in the vastness of nothing, sucked down deeper and deeper with no end in sight, the burn of the demon power inside me nowhere to be felt.
    My panic still holds, as tightly as I cling to Sage’s hand. I barely see him, even with my wolf senses at maximum. It’s impossible to stop my mind from screaming its distress into the emptiness of the veil between planes.
    I don’t know what happens to those who enter the veil but don’t come out the other end. But I can make an educated guess. The veil is vast, connecting thousands of planes. Sage and I could fall forever and