Page 98 of Unveiled

“Adrian?” Connor asked, his voice tight. “Tell me what’s happening.”

Adrian forced his eyes open. The room swayed. “It’s worsening,” he said. “The mark is still spreading.”

Connor stopped his restless movement. In the silence that followed, Adrian could hear something else. He swallowed hard. “I feel the anchors. All of them. Everyone they placed last night. It’s as if,” he shuddered, “as if the valley is trying to breathe through me.”

“That’s impossible,” Connor said sharply.

Adrian looked up, giving him a hollow smile. “Mon ami, we’re living in impossibility.”

His mark pulsed under his skin with a rhythm that wasn’t his. Something in the air shifted. A faint echo of a whisper only Adrian could hear: Valour.

Adrian’s breath caught and Connor stiffened. “What did they say?”

Adrian rubbed a shaking hand across his forehead. “Nothing. And everything. It’s like hearing a storm in a tunnel.”

Connor’s grip tightened. “You need rest.”

“No.” Adrian jerked away from the touch so suddenly Connor took in a sharp breath. “If I sleep, the mark grows. You saw it yourself.”

Connor’s jaw ticked. “You’ll collapse.”

“Perhaps,” Adrian murmured. “But it’s safer than…” He broke off with a gasp.

The room twisted. The fire popped. The floor lurched up as though the earth itself had spasmed.

Connor grabbed him. “Adrian.”

He didn’t hear the next words. The mark flared white, violent, burning so bright it erased the room. And then, he fell.

***

Connor

Connor caught Adrian as his body went limp, his eyes rolling back, his muscles spasming. Panic slammed into Connor’s chest so hard it stole his breath. He gathered Adrian in his arms, cradling him against his chest.

“Adrian,” he whispered fiercely, shaking him gently. “Wake up. Stay with me.”

Adrian didn’t respond.

Connor lifted him, carried him to the bed, and laid him down, his hands trembling as he brushed curls from Adrian’s forehead. The mark glowed through the thin cotton of Adrian’s shirt, spreading like frost across glass.

“No,” Connor whispered. “No, no, stay with me. Don’t let them pull you—”

Adrian’s body arched. A thin cry tore from his throat soundless, agonised.

Connor grabbed his hand. “Adrian. Adrian. Listen to my voice.”

Connor felt Adrian leaving. An awful, invisible shift, as though something had snagged Adrian’s soul and was dragging him somewhere else.

“Damn it,” Connor growled. “You’re not going alone.” He pressed his palm to the mark without hesitation. A blast of heat surged into him, along with a thousand whispering screams. Connor sucked in a breath, and then the world vanished.

***

Adrian

Adrian didn’t know if he was dreaming. He didn’t know if he was alive.

He stood on a flat plane of stone, water shimmering on all sides, reflecting a sky that wasn’t a sky at all but a moving tapestry of impossible colours. Sound was warped here. He shivered. The air tasted like metal and something familiar, but off and ancient.