Chapter 15
Finn
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Finn woke with a jolt, gasping for air before he even understood why.There was no sound in the house, no nightmare clawing at the edges of his mind, no sudden movement that should have startled him awake.The alarm was a deep pull in his chest, unmistakable and familiar, as if someone had hooked a piece of thread through his ribs and given the end of the string a deliberate tug.He sat on the edge of the mattress, heart thudding, trying to steady himself as the sensation lingered, refusing to fade.
He pushed himself to his feet slowly, feeling the weight of the moment settle over him.The room looked the same as it always did.The bare walls, worn floorboards, and the faint morning light filtering through the thin curtains greeted him each morning.
But the air was charged and at attention.He moved through the house with quiet steps.Something was happening.Something he had experienced twice before in his life.Something he had hoped for and feared in equal measure.
When he stepped outside, the town greeted him with its usual monotony.Boone pushed the mower across the same patch of grass he'd cut the day before.Vaughn swept dust off the restaurant steps, even as the wind kept undoing his work.Mace leaned against the lamppost, half-asleep, arms crossed, eyes unfocused.None of them looked up.None of them sensed anything.Their world was unchanged, unmoved, untouched.
But Finn was highly attuned to the changes.There was a deep vibration in his bones, drawing him closer.
He walked toward the edge of town, each step growing faster as he gained ground.The air thickened around him, humming with a tension that made the hairs on his arms rise.He recognized his reaction.
He'd seen men hooked on drugs who would do anything for one more hit.His dependency on Kallie was the same.
It happened to him when Kallie was ten.She'd stumbled into Everstill as if she'd been dropped from another world and set before him.He felt it again when she was sixteen.She was older, hurting, and desperate for a connection she couldn't name or explain.Both times, the veil had stirred before she appeared.
And now it was stirring again.
He stopped at the cracked line where the pavement changed, where the road looped back on itself in a way that defied logic.The wind shifted, brushing against him with a strange, deliberate warmth.He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the sensation wash over him, letting what he could only describe as a difference settle over him.
He'd lived so long without emotions, he'd forgotten what it felt like to hope that there was more to his life than living in Everstill, day after day.Though he'd sent her away, he wanted her back.She belonged to him.
"Kallie," he whispered.
He touched his wrist, his fingers brushing the frayed bracelet she had made him so many years ago.He had worn it so long that it felt like a part of him.The threads were soft now, worn thin from years of rubbing against his skin.He traced the knot with his thumb, as he always did when he thought of her.
Unlike the other men in Everstill, he regained the ability to remember what happened.It started with Kallie's first visit.Something about her appearance had changed him, only him.He became acutely aware of her and their time together.
She would be twenty now.A woman.The moment it clicked, his breath faltered.He finally understood.He had tried not to think about her like that, tried to bury the warmth that rose in him whenever he imagined her older, stronger, more beautiful, standing in front of him again.But desire stirred anyway.It had been years since he'd felt anything like it.Years since Everstill had allowed him to feel anything at all.
He swallowed hard, trying to steady himself, but the pull in his chest only tightened.The air ahead of him moved faintly.A ripple, and then a distortion.It flickered once, then again, like a heartbeat struggling to steady itself.Finn's breath hitched as he stepped closer, drawn to it.
The veil was opening.
The wind rose suddenly, swirling around him, tugging at his clothes, carrying the faintest hint of a scent that lingered in the back of his mind.The shadow deepened, stretching across the road in a slow, deliberate pulse.
Finn's heart pounded.
She was coming.
The black seam on the road thickened.The change came before Finn fully registered what he was seeing.A low vibration built in his chest, making it hard to breathe.He stood there, rooted to the spot, as the world around him tightened with a strange, electric anticipation.
