Page 105 of Unveiled

“What? No.” Adrian shook his head. “Not happening.”

“It has to,” Xiathen said softly. “The mark recognises you now. You share the tether. The pain. The pull. The visions. The breach.”

“No.” Connor’s voice shook. “If anyone is going to take pain here, it should be me, not him.”

“Connor.” Adrian caught his hand. “You didn’t choose this.”

Connor shook his head. “I chose you. That’s what did this.”

Adrian’s eyes burned. “I know.”

Xiathen stepped back. “The Veiled Consequence has already begun.”

Adrian sighed heavily as his gaze met Connor’s. “Meaning?”

Xiathen looked at them with grave solemnity. “It means that if the Council tries again, your souls will be pulled together. And if only one of you resists,” Xiathen paused, “the other will be dragged fully into the Veil.”

Connor spoke, his voice a low snarl. “So we fight together, or we fall together.”

Xiathen nodded. “Yes.”

Connor grabbed Adrian’s face, forcing him to meet his gaze. “Well then, we know where we stand,” he said.

Adrian shook his head. “If they take you, I will follow.”

Connor’s jaw tightened. “Then don’t let them take me.”

Xiathen exhaled softly. “You have until the Council’s deadline. One day.”

Connor stood and paced the room. “And we’re going to spend every minute,” he said, his voice like iron, “figuring out how to break their anchors, mute the mark, and keep you alive.”

Adrian raised an eyebrow. “And what if we can’t figure it out?”

Connor leaned in, his forehead touching Adrian’s. “Then we go together and take hell to them. They’ll never know what hit them.” He grinned savagely.

The mark pulsed sharply beneath Adrian’s skin, warm, bright, and alive. A response. A vow echoing back at them through the Veil itself.

Outside the window, somewhere near the river’s bend, a fracture glowed faintly and then dimmed.

Chapter Thirty

Connor

He and Adrian returned to the castle in the early hours of the morning. Xiathen was with them because he’d had “a feeling he was needed.”

Connor was fed up of hearing about everyone’s prophetic feelings, but the logical part of his brain said it was always better to be safe than sorry.

At dawn Adrian bolted upright with a strangled cry. Connor hadn’t left Adrian’s side. He’d dozed a little, but his eyes were gritty from lack of sleep.

Connor caught him immediately. “Adrian, it’s me. Look at me.”

Adrian gasped, his hands clawing at his chest. The mark rippled beneath his skin. The sigils twisted, moving like serpents under his flesh. Connor felt pure animal terror slam through him. Not his own. Adrian’s.

Adrian’s back arched violently as light burst from the sigils, illuminating the entire room in a cold, unnatural glow. Connor cursed and grabbed Adrian’s wrists as they flailed.

Xiathen, who’d been sleeping silently in a chair, shot upright. “Get him on his back. Now.”

Connor pinned Adrian gently but firmly to the mattress, his larger frame keeping him from twisting into another seizure. “Adrian, stay with me. Listen to my voice.”