“They do attack me.”
“Because you’re meeting them with your sword drawn. You’re confronting them as for battle—provoking them. They have no choice.”
She shook her head. “Sometimes you talk like a crazy man.”
“Has there been anything different about these entities? Anything . . . unusual?”
“You’re talking about demons.”
“Even the demonic has its own normal. You’ve encountered enough to know what is and what isn’t.”
“Yes,” she said finally. “They’ve been . . . like animals, but not . . . not like they usually are.”
“Describe them.”
“They’re a pastiche. The last one, it was a wolf. But a spider too. I’ve never seen a demon in a form like that.”
He nodded. “It makes sense. They’re coming to you like this for a reason, Reese. And it isn’t to fight you.”
Her eyes flashed as she turned to face him. She could barely make out his features in the darkness; the cabin was dark on the inside too, with no light escaping from cracks in the door. “What are you trying to say?”
“Demons that embody like you say these are doing are not working for anyone. They’re taking on forms as they please, trying to establish an identity or personality. They don’t do that if they have a master, because they simply allow the master’s personality and identity to inform theirs.”
She raised an eyebrow. “I’m being approached by demonic mutts?”
“They see a master in you,” Jacob said. “They’re offering their help.”
She was on her feet before she knew what she was doing. Shaking.
“Don’t just reject this gift, Reese,” Jacob said, his voice rising. “They’ve never come to me like this. They’re offering themselves to you because you’re a warrior and a power they can recognize. Most of us have to earn their allegiance. You already have.”
She turned on him. “I don’t want that! I don’t want anything to do with them!”
“Don’t you?” he asked. “What if they can help you get what you really want?”
“And what is that?” Reese asked, trembling even harder now. The sword was beginning to form in her hand, but it was only half-there, a response to her anxiety.
“The same thing I want,” Jacob said. “Justice.”
He stood. She heard the boards creaking under his weight. He paused at the cabin door and turned back to her.
“They didn’t trust you to deal with him,” Jacob said. “They were afraid you would demand justice if he didn’t change. So if he doesn’t—if he hasn’t—they will simply let him go on, unchanged and unrepentant, and gloating over the damage he’s done you. Think about that.”
He went through the door and shut it behind him.
And Reese still shook.
Finish reading Renegade!
Other Books by Rachel Starr Thomson
Novels
Worlds Unseen: Book 1 in the Seventh World Trilogy
Burning Light: Book 2 in the Seventh World Trilogy
Coming Day: Book 3 in the Seventh World Trilogy
Exile: Book 1 in The Oneness Cycle
Hive: Book 2 in The Oneness Cycle
Attack: Book 3 in The Oneness Cycle
Renegade: Book 4 in The Oneness Cycle
Rise: Book 5 in The Oneness Cycle
Taerith (Fantasy)
Theodore Pharris Saves the Universe (Juvenile/Humour)
Lady Moon
Angel in the Woods
Reap the Whirlwind
The Babel Chip
Short Stories
Magdalene
Butterflies Dancing
Ogres Is
Fallen Star
Journey
Wayfarer’s Dream
The City Came Creeping
Of Men and Bones
Non Fiction
Tales of the Heartily Homeschooled (Humour/Memoir)
Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer
Letters to a Samuel Generation: The Collection
Fifty Shades of Loved
Mind Soul Ink Paper
Now For the Not-Yet
Undivided Devotion
Still Praying in the Wilderness
Attack Page 19
