Page 41 of Blood Currents
He gasped—once, twice—and then came with a soft, broken sound, his arms tightening around me like I might vanish if he didn’t hold on.
For a long time, we stayed tangled together, my forehead pressed to his, his heartbeat slowly calming beneath my palm.
“I love you,” he whispered again, quiet but sure.
I kissed his cheek and then his lips, soft and lingering.“I love you, too.”
Outside, the world still waited with all its dangers and betrayals and impossible stakes.But here, in this quiet moment, it was just us.Just Marigold and Keane.Healing.Wanting.Loving.
19
Marigold
Cyrus and I continued tofollow Guard Parker, memorizing her altered patrol routes and her deviations.Tonight, she’d visit her tunnel office again and contact the vampire, and tonight, we would confront her.
“She’s late,” Cyrus whispered.
We were pressed together in an alcove, the space barely wide enough for one person and hidden by Elio’s charms.Cyrus’s body threw off heat like a furnace—not just his magic but him.I could smell clean fire and something that was just him, and it made thinking harder than it should have been.
“She’ll come,” I murmured, though my pulse jumped every time he shifted against me.
He gave a quiet huff.“Still insane, you know.Confronting a Shroud Guard who might be feeding intel to a vampire—in the middle of an abandoned tunnel system.”
“You agreed to this,” I reminded him.
“I agreed to protect you from your terrible ideas.Not the same thing.”
Before I could answer, bootsteps echoed in the passageway—measured and purposeful.
Guard Parker.But her movements were sharper tonight, her head turning repeatedly to check her surroundings.She stopped right in front of us when she shouldn’t have even been able to see through the magic.
“You can come out,” Parker said, her voice steady but carrying just enough edge to make my stomach drop.“Both of you.I know you’ve been following me.”
Cyrus’s hand brushed my wrist—a silent question.I nodded.There was no point hiding now.
We stepped out from cover.Parker’s eyes flicked over us, the faintest smile tugging at her mouth.“Elio’s illusion charms are good.But I was expecting you.”
“You knew?”Cyrus asked.
“I’m Shroud Guard,” she said simply.“Surveillance is my specialty.Come on—quickly.”
Cyrus looked at me, but I shrugged.We wanted information, and this was the only way we were going to get it.
Guard Parker led us deeper into the tunnel to the same chamber we’d seen her use before.This time the space looked even more like a war room: maps pinned to the stone walls, folders marked classified, and the magical mirror lying dormant on the table.
“You saw me talking to Levon,” she said, turning to face us.
“The vampire,” Cyrus spat, heat rippling under his skin.
“My ally,” Parker corrected, unbothered by his hostility.“They call him the Last Witness.He was there when the council destroyed the peace movement—and he still has the evidence to prove it.”
“Evidence?”I asked.
“Names.Records.Council signatures that can’t be faked.”She tapped the mirror.“Documentation of the experiments.Of what they did to witches like Keane.He knows what happened to your father, Marigold.What James Grimley really died for.”
My breath caught.
“Levon’s testimony can’t be dismissed,” Parker continued.
