Chapter 15
Evan
The world exploded into blinding white. Thunder crashed through the room with such violence that a startled shriek tore from my throat. “Holy Jesus, fuck!”
Outside, rain hammered the windowpanes like fists demanding entry. Dust motes froze mid-air, suspended in the stillness. Static electricity crawled across my skin like invisible spiders, and the honey cake turned to ash and ozone on my tongue.
But the storm raging beyond the walls wasn’t the true source of this overwhelming force. It was Adam.
My awareness of everything else narrowed to him, so much so that Lyra’s touch only registered when her fingernails bit into my knuckles.
Her palm was clammy with sweat, trembling against mine.
Her face held an apology, a silent plea for the comfort I wasn’t sure I should accept.
She must have been close to the original Evan, a best friend, perhaps.
Adam snapped his head toward Gregory. “Explain,” he said, dropping his voice an octave.
Under the weight of Adam’s commanding scrutiny, Gregory folded inward like a kicked dog. I struggled to reconcile the two versions of him. Seconds ago, he’d been the dangerous, handsome mountain man from the forest, and now he resembled a teenager caught breaking curfew.
Gregory clamped his palm down on my thigh, fingers digging in to the point just shy of bruising that made my breath catch. The stormy blue in his eyes had faded, leaving behind a worried sky.
“I suspect that Evan…” Gregory cleared his throat and drew his hand away, leaving a cold patch where warmth had been. “He’s a Conduit. But he’s… not the same. He claims a portal was used to… to swap his soul and…” He trailed off but lifted his chin to meet the other man’s challenge head-on.
Adam lowered his face, his interest clearly caught by the fractured crystal on the table. The brown leather of the couch creaked faintly as he moved in his seat, and he took off his glasses, rubbing his eyes as if fighting a massive headache. “Son, since when did the Qilinx eat your tongue?”
Gregory deflated, letting out a breath that seemed to come from his boots. In a monotone, he recounted the story of my waking and the violent confusion that followed.
He detailed the chase among the trees and the slow realization that I was not the man he knew. His account was selective, omitting the parts where this body had betrayed me.
As Gregory finished, Lyra loosened her grip on my hand. Her face grew haunted by a terror that erased any hint of surprise, her head turning from Gregory to her father and then back to me. Her brow furrowed as she visibly struggled to piece together a story that made no sense.
Adam stroked the full length of his coarse beard. “A simple question, then.” He turned his full attention on me, and the sudden, undivided pressure of it pinned me in place. It took effort not to squirm.
“How does one of the Empire’s most valuable and controlled assets walk away? You expect me to believe you are some lost soul from another world, yet you wear the face of a bound mage.”
Adam’s expression hardened, his mouth tightening into a rigid line. I recognized it—the same detached, unyielding stare the detectives wore when they questioned me at twelve years old, asking why I hadn’t called anyone about Mom for three hours.
My lungs seized. I squeezed my eyelids shut as my breathing turned shallow and fast, a clammy chill breaking out across my skin.
Gregory shifted his body, creating a subtle barrier between Adam and me. A protective growl started in his chest. “Adam, he doesn’t—”
Adam raised his hand, palm out. A simple gesture, but Gregory fell silent immediately. Adam’s uncompromising silence stayed fixed on me, with one silver brow arched as a clear command to answer.
I forced myself to breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth. The panic receded enough for me to function. I straightened my shoulders, lifted my chin, and forced myself to meet his challenging posture with a manufactured calm I wasn’t feeling.
“I have no proof,” I admitted, my voice steadier than I expected. “Other than my story. Someone murdered me.” I dropped my head, studying my hands as if seeing them for the first time.
I angled my body toward Gregory. “When I woke up, I was here. My only thought was to find my mother who passed away years ago. I thought I was in heaven. I don’t know anything about an Empire or what Conduits are. Where I come from, nothing like that exists.”
I turned back to Adam, struggling to hold my ground under his scrutiny.
“The woman with the scarred face…” I touched my abdomen, imagining the path her nails had scraped.
“She was searching for something,” I continued, patting the pocket of my trousers.
“She ripped the rock from me. She didn’t understand why he’d used it, but I believe that portal brought my soul here. ”
Gregory cleared his throat and interjected, “Mordaine is the one tracking him, Adam. Now she knows my location.”
Lyra gasped as she sprang to her feet, tears streaming down her face while she pointed a shaking finger at me. “What lies is he telling?” Her hair whipped around her shoulders as she moved. “The Mother Goddess would never allow such a thing!”
Before anyone could stop her, she dropped to her knees in front of me, her white apron billowing with the movement. Swiping messy strands from her tear-streaked face, she reached out. “You’re lying, Evan, right? You’ve lost your memory. I can help you. I can bring it back.”
She pressed her fingers to my temple, and her eyes began to glow with the now familiar healing magic. But this time, the sensation was off. Invasive. Wrong.
“Don’t.” Gregory’s roar filled the room as he seized Lyra’s forearm, his hand swallowing it whole. A thick vein pulsed at his temple.
Lyra blanched. The glow in her eyes sputtered out as she gaped at Gregory in disbelief. “Gregory…”
“Enough!” Adam barked, the command cutting through the room like a whip. Gregory gave his head a quick shake, as if trying to clear the crimson rage, then released Lyra’s arm.
“I’m sorry, Lyra, I—” His voice died away. The horror of his own action crashed down on him, leaving him frozen and staring at her in mortification.
Lyra scrambled to her feet, rubbing the spot where Gregory’s grip had been. Her cheeks colored with a flush of shame, and with a choked, “Excuse me,” she turned and fled the house, slamming the door shut behind her.
I half-rose from the couch instinctively, reaching toward the closed door, but I hesitated, held back by my uncertainty. What could I say? Gregory’s fierce protection was confusing. Was it for me, the soul lost inside, or for the man whose body I stole?
“Hmm, how intriguing. I can see the mate bond is still stronger than ever,” Adam mused. “I will inform Lord William of the situation. The threat of Mordaine is not one we can take lightly.”
He leaned in as he addressed me, lifting one hand between us. Arcs of silver lightning began to dance between his fingers. They coalesced, weaving together until a miniature sun, no bigger than my fist, pulsed above his open hand.
I stared at the light. The sheer pressure rivaled standing next to a massive machine on the verge of overload, kept in check only through tremendous effort.
“The Empire teaches that all magic flows from the Mother Goddess, Celeste,” Adam explained. “The sun that gives life, the warmth that nurtures.”
He moved his other hand to the table, fingers wrapping around the cracked crystal.
He lifted it while speaking. “But they lie. Celeste was not born alone. She has a twin, Lunaris, the silent moon. Not good versus evil, but two parts of a whole. Sun and moon, light and shadow. They are meant to be in harmony.”
Adam separated the two, holding a shining star in one hand and a piece of darkness in the other. He raised his gaze from his magic, addressing Gregory. “And among these, a third force designed to traverse the twilight and keep balance: The dragons.”
He closed his fist, and the lightning sun vanished, leaving only the broken crystal. “The Empire sought to dominate everything, so they chose a side. They declared Lunaris a demon and hunted the dragons to extinction to shatter the balance in their favor. Now, the world is broken.”
Adam gestured with the crystal. “Our holy wards in the village are blessed only by Celeste’s light.
They can burn common shadow mages who are merely corruptions.
But Mordaine is no common shadow. She has touched the heart of Lunaris’s power.
She wields a divine darkness as a high priestess.
For her to have followed you, or the man you inhabit, this far…
it means our wards may not be enough to stop a true champion of the moon. ”
The glow in Adam’s eyes faded, but the impression it left lingered. This was the kind of man who knew violence inside out and certainly had inflicted it. But even he sounded unsure.
Cold dread settled in my chest. I was effectively hearing my death sentence. Again. I knew the sensation of life slipping away, the brutal finality of it. I had been given a miracle, a second breath, only to land in a trap.
Now, my survival depended on a fragile magic barrier that was about to break. Every instinct screamed to run, to leave this crazy place and try my luck in the woods, but where would I go? Gregory was here, and he was the one who could protect me, right?
Adam set the crystal down on the table with a quiet thud, and my eyes snapped back to it. “One last question,” he said. “Have you sensed anything unusual? A surge of energy or any magic awakening?”
I shook my head, maybe too quickly. “No. Nothing. At least I don’t think so. What is it supposed to feel like?” I asked.
Because how could I explain the only “surge” I knew? The one that tightened my gut and made my skin flush hot whenever Gregory’s proximity registered.
I remembered the woods, the hard-muscled weight of him pressing me into the dirt as my hips moved with a will of their own, grinding against him as this body became slick with a humiliating, desperate longing.
Heat spread through my neck, bringing with it that familiar wave of scent that seemed to drift from my own skin.
Gregory must have noticed it too; every muscle in his body shuddered as he sucked in a hissing breath through his teeth.
I pressed my palms to my cheeks, trying to douse the flame.
Getting flustered now was the last thing I needed.
Adam’s eyes kindled with a silver glow. “Every awakening is different. The trigger, the feeling. It’s a unique experience for every mage. For some, it is a whisper, for others a storm, but this is not my area of expertise.”
He turned serious again. “I will contact a binder mage. They have more information on matters like this than I could ever give. It is only a rumor that a Conduit can open such a portal. No one has ever confirmed it.”
I could only nod. Gregory raised his head, though he kept his chin down as he mumbled, “Thank you.”
Adam’s hard lines softened. “You don’t have to suppress yourself anymore.
Not here. Mordaine knows where we are. The time for hiding is over.
The village will have your back. I have your back.
” His hand settled on the crystal where it lay on the table, and he slid it across the wood until it rested directly in front of Gregory.
“I won’t have you torturing yourself over a mate who is right under your nose. ”
Gregory stared at the offering for a long moment, then lifted his eyes to search Adam’s face for… something. He must have found it, because his resistance crumbled.
He took the broken crystal, and his entire frame seemed to sag with relief.
A long, shuddering breath left his lungs, and the tense line of his shoulders finally eased, as if Adam had lifted the immense weight he’d been carrying all day.
The rich scent of sandalwood finally broke free, flooding the space between us.
The shift was jarring. The terrifying beast who had pinned me to the forest floor, the man who rippled with lethal power, looked… young. Vulnerable.
Seeing him surrender that weight to Adam, seeing him so desperate for help, didn’t bring me comfort. It terrified me. If someone like Gregory was this relieved to have backup, the danger coming for us was worse than I could imagine.