Page 57 of Unveiled

He pivoted, sweeping Garrett’s leg in a clean, practised arc. He stumbled but stayed upright, snarling as he came in again. This time angrier. Each blow designed to punish rather than defeat.

Adrian didn’t meet him strength for strength. He used angles. Timing. Precision.

Garrett swung. Adrian ducked. Garrett charged. Adrian sidestepped and redirected his weight, sending Garrett crashing into the courtyard wall.

The crowd murmured.

Garrett pushed off the stone, his chest heaving. “Fight me properly!”

“I am,” Adrian said softly. He waited.

Garrett roared and rushed him. This time, Adrian met him head-on. He twisted in close, hooking Garrett’s arm and using his mass against him. With a sharp shift of weight, he brought Garrett down hard, pinning him to the ground with his forearm braced across his windpipe.

Garrett thrashed beneath him, fury burning hot in his eyes. “Get off me.”

“Yield,” Adrian said.

Garrett shoved against him, but Adrian didn’t budge. “Yield,” he repeated, his voice calm and firm as stone.

Garrett bared his teeth in humiliation. “You think this makes you fit to lead?”

Adrian leaned in enough so Garrett had to hear every word. “I think you don’t know what leadership is.”

Garrett’s breath hitched in rage. “You’re going to get us killed.”

“And you’re going to tear this clan apart if you keep trying to divide us.” Adrian tightened the pressure, enough to still Garrett, not kill him. “Yield,” he said again.

Garrett resisted a moment longer. A heartbeat. Two. Then slowly, he slapped the stone beneath his fist.

Adrian stood, his chest rising with controlled breaths. Garrett rolled onto his side, coughing, surely humiliated, but alive.

Silence swallowed the courtyard. Then Piper whispered, “Thank the stars.”

Rowland exhaled shakily. Jasmine nodded once. Her respect unmistakable.

Adrian lifted his head, gazing at the faces surrounding him. His clan. His responsibility.

He spoke clearly. “We face whatever we do and are together. Not fractured. Not fighting one another. Tonight was proof that fear can twist us into enemies. I refuse to let that happen to us.” His gaze swept the crowd. “I refuse to let anyone, anyone, tear this clan apart.”

Max lowered his head in a slow nod. Piper pressed a hand to her heart. Even Garrett, still on the ground, looked away.

Adrian straightened his spine. Then suddenly, something pulled again. Not pain, not exactly. Awareness. Adrian’s head snapped toward the tree line.

Connor.

He wasn’t here. Adrian couldn’t see him, but he felt him. A presence moving closer, drawn by the same invisible thread Connor had been denying for days.

The crowd murmured, unsettled, sensing the shift in Adrian even if they didn’t understand it. Garrett spat blood and grinned. “There it is,” he said, his voice thick. “You feel him, don’t you?”

Adrian turned to Garrett. “Shut up.”

Garrett laughed. “You’re not a King now. You’re a Valour. No more than a puppet on strings.”

Adrian’s rage flared hot and clean. He moved fast, closing the distance and taking Garrett down again. This time with ruthless precision, hooking his leg, driving his shoulder into Garrett’s chest, pinning him to the ground. Garrett thrashed, but Adrian had the advantage of leverage.

He leaned close, his voice low enough for only Garrett to hear. “I’m no one’s puppet.”

Garrett’s eyes were wild. “Then prove it. Break the—”