Page 139 of Glitched Fates & Stolen Mates

“So… is that plant for Kit?” Rory asked.

I tensed, though there wasn’t a trace of mockery in his voice. The small pot sat wedged between my feet on the SUV floor, its delicate pink-speckled leaves trembling with every bump in the road.

I sighed heavily. Was it really so weird to carry a plant across the globe? “Yes.”

“Could it not have waited at home for him?”

Groaning, I pressed my forehead against the cool window. “I bought it to give to him Thursday morning. When we were meant to meet under the lime tree.” Then I mumbled, “I was going to tell him I wanted to be his mate. Like, properly. For real.”

The car swerved violently as Rory’s hands jerked on the wheel. “Seriously?!”

“Eyes on the road!”

“Sorry, sorry.” He straightened us out, an enormous grin brightening his face. “Kit definitely didn’t need a plant to bribe him into accepting that offer, you know.”

My cheeks burned. “What’s it like?” I blurted out. “Having a mate?”

Rory went quiet for a moment, his usual energy settling into something soft. When he finally spoke, his voice had a weight to it. “Honestly? It’s pure magic. It’s like… finding the other half of your soul, even though you never knew it was half missing. It sounds so cringe, but Theo is my world, my everything, my—” He rubbed his chest absently, over his heart. “Well, you’ll see for yourself, soon enough. Once we get him back.”

That last bit was said with such fierce determination that I almost believed we’d actually manage this insane rescue mission.

“You’re so lucky to have Kit,” Rory continued. “He’s the best person I know. When we were kids, I only survived because of him. He was super popular at school, the bastard, but I wasn’t. Got bullied a lot. Not just the usual crap, but physical stuff too. I was… small. With a big mouth. So you can imagine the trouble I got into. But Kit swept in every time to save me.”

I watched the mountains grow larger on the horizon. “Then things became… distant between you two, right? Because of your father?”

Rory’s face split into a frown. “Yeah. All our Da’s fault. I don’t blame Kit at all, even though he’s convinced he still needs to make it up to me. Ever since he gave me a home in London, it’s like he’s been trying to earn my forgiveness, but he’s never needed to. He’s the strongest, most loyal person I’ve ever met. So you’re bloody lucky to have him.”

“I know how lucky I am,” I said quietly. I stared out the window for a moment before forcing myself to turn to him. “For two years, Kit barely spoke to me, to the point sometimes I thought he must not like me. Then everything changed and suddenly we’re together, and I’m discovering what it feels like to be completely, utterly in… in love with someone for the first time.” I swallowed hard. “I can’t lose him now, Rory. Not when I’ve only just found him. Kit chose me, and I’m going to prove that was the right choice.”

Rory shot me a lopsided grin. “Sounds like Kit’s lucky too, I suppose.”

I hoped he was right. Kit deserved someone who would fight for him the way he fought for everyone else. He deserved someone who would love him fiercely and follow him anywhere—even into whatever hell had swallowed him whole.

“You should sleep,” Rory said, glancing over at me as we merged onto a quieter stretch of motorway. “One of us may as well be rested for whatever we’re walking into.”

My eyes felt like they had grit behind the lids. The hour’s nap on the plane had barely touched the exhaustion weighing me down.

“Wake me if you need anything,” I mumbled, letting my head fall back against the headrest.

The gentle rumble of the engine and Rory’s surprisingly steady driving eventually lulled me into unconsciousness.

When I opened my eyes, the world had transformed.

We were driving through a postcard. Snow-capped peaks towered on either side of us, their jagged edges cutting into a grey sky. The mountains seemed impossibly vast, ancient guardians draped in pristine white that caught the afternoon light and threw it back in brilliant sparkles. Pine forests clung to the lower slopes, dark green against the snow, whilst higher up the peaks disappeared into wisps of cloud.

I’d seen mountains before, of course—climbing the rugged slopes near Seoul had been a weekend ritual when we visited our extended family. But nothing could have prepared me for this. The Swiss Alps were a different beast entirely, a spectacle that felt like stepping into a dream. In Korea, the mountains felt familiar, more like old friends. Here, they stood as formidable giants, inviting and yet intimidating in their grandeur.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Rory said, noticing I was awake. “Been like this for the past hour. Roads are much quieter up here too.”

He was right. We hadn’t passed another vehicle. The motorway had given way to smaller roads that wound between valleys, following the natural curves of the landscape. Everything felt hushed, muffled by the snow.

Then we rounded a bend and found our first obstacle.

Orange and white striped barriers stretched across the road, along with several warning signs covered in German text and alarming pictographs showing cars sliding off cliffs.

“Right,” Rory said cheerfully, pulling over. “Snow chains time.”

We both stared up at the sky. It was past two in the afternoon—we hadn’t left the airport car park until after eleven, what with all the faff of buying gear and the car rental desk. The winter sun was already beginning its descent towards the peaks.