Page 141 of Our Radiant Embers

He huffed a damp laugh into my shoulder. “Can you break up with your family? Because I think I just did.”

Oh, Christ.

I drew him fully into the house and knelt to take off his shoes while he simply stood there, gazing down at me with a painfully lost expression, dripping water onto the tiles. Laurie poked her head in and quickly assessed the situation. Without a word, she retreated, refraining from any remarks about how, if I had to be on my knees for Adam, we might as well take the party to my room.

Rising from the floor, I draped my magic around his shoulders and my arms around his waist. “Come on,” I murmured.

He let me guide him to my room, one foot in front of the other. I sat him down on my bed, then dashed into the bathroom to get a towel. When I returned, he was still sitting in the same spot, staring down at his hands, unblinking.

“Adam.” I drew him down onto the sheets with me, covered him up with my own body, and tangled a hand in his hair, fingertips gentle against his skull. “Talk to me. What happened?”

He inhaled and bit his lip, eyes finding mine. “They knew. About us.”

How? Not important.

“Are you all right?” Stupid question—of course he wasn’t. “How did it go?”

He exhaled a snort that caught in his throat. “They told me that I should have been more discreet in handling my ‘leanings’. I think they meant sex workers rather than, you know…you.”

“Classy,” I muttered.

“I sure thought so.” The distant glint of humour in Adam’s tone drained almost immediately. “They also wanted me to tell them…I don’t know. Something about you. Maybe just fishing, I’m not sure. Probably.”

I swallowed around the shards in my throat. “Well, shit.”

“I didn’t tell them anything.” His eyes cleared, fully focused for the first time since he’d shown up. “I wouldn’t.”

“I know, okay?” My voice came out gravelly, and I didn’t realise how true it was until I said it. I’d fallen back into him so quickly—like gravity. There was no point in fighting it. “I trust you.”

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” The tiny upwards quirk to Adam’s lips was gone too soon. Then he hid his face in the crook of my neck, but not before I caught how his expression crumpled, a soft hitch to his intake of air. All I could do was hold him, ache for him, wrap him up as best as I could while he pretended not to cry.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my magic painting warm circles onto his skin. “I’m so sorry.”

“Not your fault.” His words were slightly blurred around the edges.

“A little my fault,” I corrected.

“No.” When he turned his head just enough to look at me, the wet tangle of his lashes damn near broke my heart. “I was never going to be what they wanted me to be. Maybe, if I hadn’t met you, I would have done my best to pretend. But I’d have been deeply unhappy.”

It pulled on a string in my mind. “Cassandra said that I might be your reason to finally break free. Something to that effect, anyway.”

He frowned. “You spoke to Cassandra?”

“She dropped by while you and I were…” I pressed my lips together. “While you’d given up on us.”

He drew a hiccuping breath that might have been intended as a laugh. “And now you are the one thing I’ve got left.”

“I’m not.” I tightened my hold on him. “You’ve got me, yes. But you’ve got my family, too. And Cassandra. Gale, I’m sure. We’re right here with you.”

He hid his face against my neck once more, curling into me as though it were a way to disappear. “I didn’t…” His voice faded. “I was supposed to find out more, I know. But I didn’t, really. Just that they made…My uncle called it ‘alternative plans’. Which I guess means an alternative to me.”

“It’s okay, babe. It’s okay.”

It wasn’t. My bones felt hollowed out, aching for him, while my mind sifted through a potpourri of what-if scenarios. With heavy rain painting rivers on my bedroom window, I closed my eyes and willed the world away. Even just for a minute.

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