Page 100 of Unveiled

Suddenly, the plane dissolved into pure white light.

***

Connor

Connor hit the bed so hard he nearly rolled off. He gasped, dragging air into lungs that felt scorched. Adrian lay against him, his fingers clawed into Connor’s shirt. The mark on Adrian’s chest pulsed once, twice, then became a faint glow. Connor’s chest burned with unholy fire, then dimmed to a throb.

They were back. And alive. Connor pressed his forehead against Adrian’s, breathing hard.

“I told you,” Connor murmured. “You’re not doing any of this alone.”

“They won’t stop,” Adrian murmured, “until they take me.”

Connor wrapped both arms around him, pulling him close as though shielding him from the world itself. “Let them try,” he said softly, fiercely. “Let them try to take what’s mine.”

Adrian gasped. A sharp, involuntary sound that wasn’t fear.

Connor stiffened slightly. “I didn’t mean—”

“Yes,” Adrian whispered, his voice raw, “you did.”

Connor swallowed hard. He didn’t correct Adrian’s assertion. Instead, he lifted a hand and ran his thumb gently across Adrian’s cheek. Then he placed a gentle kiss on Adrian’s waiting lips.

“You’re back,” Connor murmured. “You’re safe.”

Adrian closed his eyes. “No,” he said. “But I’m not alone.”

Connor’s hold tightened. The kiss turned into something deeper, primal, and soon his hunger and passion for Adrian solidified their bond physically, as their bodies became one. Something else ignited between them. Something that could never be broken.

Somewhere deep in the valley, the fractures pulsed. Listening, waiting, learning the shape of this new bond. And the Council felt the shift.

***

Connor

By morning, the fractures beneath Heatherfell had dimmed, their glow withdrawn into the earth like heat retreating from a wound. The frost returned. Birds ventured back to hedgerows. From a distance, the land almost looked normal. Almost.

Connor stood on the battlements long after the sun crested the hills, his elbows braced against the stone. Beneath the fields, faint lines still pulsed, slow now, deliberate. Not dying. Waiting. Predators didn’t vanish because you wounded them. They learned.

Below, the castle yard stirred with a fractured semblance of normality. Clan members spoke in clusters too tight to be casual. Someone calmed a shaking horse. The deerhounds paced with their heads low, their ears pinned, refusing to lie down.

Connor curled his fingers against the stone until his knuckles scraped cold. The Council had touched his valley because he’d refused to give them Adrian.

Am I being selfish, putting everyone at risk?

His pack had assured him they were with him to the end. Fraser and Moira’s words from last night echoed in his ears.

“Connor, the only way our clan will be safe is when we beat these bastards. So whatever you and Adrian have to do, you do it. We’ll be fine here, we have people on guard watching for strange things and we’ll deal with it if and when anything happens. But we can’t hole up here in our home like prisoners in a jail.”

“Connor.”

He turned. Adrian stood in the archway leading to the wall walk, a blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He looked steadier than he had for hours. The mark beneath his shirt still glimmered faintly. A low star trapped under skin.

“You should still be in bed,” Connor said.

Adrian’s mouth tilted up. “And miss you glowering at the landscape like it personally offended you?”

Connor huffed. “I am absolutely offended.”