Chapter Four
Adrian
Adrian had the feeling someone was watching him as he walked back to the car with Max.
Pah, it is the townspeople. They are curious and much has been said today that would be unsettling to anyone.
But the hairs on his body rose, prickling along his forearms beneath his wool coat, lifting at the nape of his neck as if some unseen hand had combed against the grain.
This is the first rule, non? Don’t give the thing watching you the satisfaction of knowing it had landed its hook.
“Hang on a bit,” Max muttered as he stopped. “I left my bloody beanie back there in the pub. Give me a minute, I’ll be back in a jiffy.”
As he strode off back toward village, Adrian continued walking.
Lamps were lit against the fading dark, light spilling in warm puddles onto the cobbles. Smoke threaded from chimneys in thin, lazy ribbons. Everything looked ordinary. But the air didn’t feel right.
He reached the edge of the village and slowed, glancing back to see where Max was.
A woman with a basket moved behind a lace curtain, her face a pale oval that vanished the second he met it. A dog barked once, sharp, nervous, then went silent.
Adrian’s mouth tightened. He turned toward the car parked at the edge of the moor. Gravel crunched under his boots, too loud in the hush.
The sensation of being observed intensified. He stood by the car and pretended to pat his pockets. Then he turned and saw it.
A patch of shadow where there shouldn’t be one, tucked between the gable end of a cottage and the narrow lane behind it. The lamp above the lane was lit.
Adrian’s pulse thudded hard. He forced himself to breathe through his nose, slow and quiet. He told himself it was an illusion, a trick of angles.
The shadow moved. It didn’t step or slink. It slid along the stonework, smooth enough to turn his stomach. It was simply…there.
Adrian’s throat went dry. He didn’t look away, didn’t blink. A memory surfaced, sharp as broken glass. His grandmother’s voice, low and furious, as she slapped his hand away from a candle flame.
Never stare into what stares back, mon petit. It invites itself in.
He’d laughed then. He wasn’t laughing now.
Adrian became acutely aware of the ceremonial ring on his finger, cold metal, a weight he hadn’t earned but wore anyway. King. Alpha. He swallowed. “Can I help you?”
His voice came out calm. Almost bored.
The lane answered with silence. Then, so faint he might have imagined it, a sound like cloth dragged over stone. A whisper of movement that wasn’t movement at all.
Adrian’s wolf stirred under his skin, restless. He took one step toward the car park. The shadow slid with him, keeping pace, still wedged in the lane, as if tethered to the place but able to stretch its attention like a hand.
Adrian started walking faster. His keys were in his pocket. He curled his fingers around them, the metal biting into his palm with the comfort of a knuckle-duster.
The car came into view. Relief loosened something in his chest, then irritation. Mon ami, you’re letting it rattle you.
He unlocked the door and yanked it open. Cold air spilled out with hints of leather and pine. He slid inside and shut the door hard enough to make the vehicle shudder.
For a moment he sat with both hands on the wheel, staring straight ahead. The village framed the windscreen: stone, slate, lamplight, the suggestion of hills beyond. He forced himself to breathe, then glanced back.
The shadow had moved. It lay across the edge of the car park like spilled ink. His wolf growled silently.
“Non,” he murmured. “Absolutely not.”
His gaze flicked to the rearview mirror. For an instant, the backseat was empty. Then the reflection darkened, as if something leaned closer from behind him.
Adrian spun, hand half-raised—
Nothing. The seat was empty.
The windows clear.
The village blurred beyond the glass.
Cold sweat broke across his spine.
Adrian let anger rise, hot and steady, to meet the fear. “Fine,” he whispered. “Watch me.”
Max appeared then, beanie in hand, smiling. Adrian started the engine. The headlights snapped on. The shadow recoiled, thinning, retreating to the edges where light faltered.
“Found it,” Max said cheerfully, climbing in.
“Close the door,” Adrian said. “Let’s go.”
“You all right? You look spooked.”
Adrian reversed. “I’m fine. Long morning.”
He didn’t look back again, but he could still feel it like a weight in the air.
As he departed, the lamplight fell away and the road narrowed, flanked by stone walls and dark hedgerows. The hills rose like sleeping beasts on either side. The sky was a bruised purple, the first light of the upcoming sun pricking through.
Adrian exhaled slowly, trying to shake off the sensation of facing off with a malevolent shadow.
Suddenly, the car’s interior temperature dropped. Not the gradual chill of evening. A sudden, unnatural cold that fogged the edges of the windscreen.
Adrian’s breath misted.
Max swore. “What the fuck’s going on? Is the air conditioner on? It’s bloody freezing in here.”
Adrian couldn’t hide the situation any longer. He tightened his grip on the wheel and spoke into the empty car, his voice clipped, no longer pretending. “I think we’re being followed by something.” He shifted gears. “If you want something, show yourself.”
The darkness beyond the headlights seemed to ripple. And in that ripple, for a heartbeat, Adrian saw a shape that wasn’t a shape. A suggestion of height with long limbs.
“Jesus, what the hell is that thing?” Max leaned forward to stare out of the window. “Something from the village?”
Adrian nodded tightly. “They did warn me about shadows. I guess it’s decided to introduce itself.”
He forced the car faster, the engine responding with a low snarl. His lips pulled back from his teeth, a silent snarl. “You picked the wrong King to mess with,” he said, his voice rough. “And you picked the worst day.”
The cold eased slightly, as if the night itself had listened. Then, from somewhere ahead—too far to be human, too close to be weather—came a sound like a sigh.
The road dipped. And the village vanished behind him, along with the shadow.
“It’s gone,” Max said quietly. “Whatever the fuck it was, it’s gone.”
Adrian didn’t speak, simply drove on, the headlights carving a narrow tunnel through the dark. “Don’t say anything to anyone about this,” he muttered softly. “Let’s keep it between us for now.”
Max nodded, his face contemplative. “I guess this is all getting real now, isn’t it? I think we have some interesting times ahead.”
Adrian nodded grimly. “And I think it’s only just begun.”