Page 65 of Veil of Night & Flames

“I’ve done nothing but deny it,” I say primly. “And this conversation is over,” I add, wishing my cheeks weren’t burning.

Chase looks at me for a long second. Then, clearly despite himself—despite everything—his mouth twitches.

“You really are unwell,” he says to Adric. “Both of you.”

“Possibly,” Adric says. “But I find that I do not mind.”

I share a look with Adric, and we both break into laughter. After a moment, Chase joins. They’re not suddenly best buds. But at least they’re not trying to kill each other.

And that’s not nothing.

I’m about to tell them both to scoot because I have an early class when Chase’s phone buzzes.

He pulls it out, and whatever ease we’d found drains out of his face as he reads.

“What?” I ask.

“My Hunters, reporting in. Activity’s up everywhere—more mares, fewer of us, everyone stretched thin.” He scrolls, then sucks in air and looks up. “And a text from Tia. She’s with Riley. The Widow Maker spiked tonight. More in the last six hours than the last six weeks combined.”

“Oh,” I say stupidly. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I know it’s not good. And what really scares me is watching the two men who—less than an hour ago—wanted to kill each other go rigid in the exact same breath.

“It’s the keystone,” Adric says.

Chase doesn’t say a word. He just pinches the bridge of his nose.

“What does that mean?” I ask. “Keystone?”

“It means that the Widow Maker’s not one bad breach among hundreds.” Chase’s voice is flat. “Everywhere else is the slow bleed, the barriers between realms wearing thin the way they’ve worn thin for ages. The Widow Maker’s always been thin. So have a hundred other places. But something’s been pulling on the barriers in a pattern that lands the load here.”

Adric nods. “My brother is correct. Six months ago, the area around that tree was just one of the weak spots. Now it’s the proverbial stone. It goes, all the barriers go, too.”

I suck in a breath and look between them. “How can you possibly know—” I cut myself off as the answer arrives and fear cuts through me along with it. “The Guardian. What you told me,” I say to Chase. “What you two once were.”

Adric nods. “We held them. The barriers.” His voice has gone quiet and far away.

I look between them and let the strangeness of it settle. The two halves of the thing that used to hold the universe together, standing in my dorm, telling me the sky is coming down.

And then a thought catches up to me, and I round on Adric. “Wait a sec,” I snap. “You want the barriers down. You’ve never hidden it. You want to unite the realms, remake the world, all of it. So why do you look as if someone just walked over your grave? Isn’t this what you’ve wanted?”

Something hardens in his face, and for the first time tonight, there’s no amusement in it at all.

“I want them eased down,” he says. “It is absurd that the realms must be separated, and I want the barriers down in a way that will bring order out of chaos, not bury us under it.”

He nods at Chase’s phone. “This is not the walls coming down, but bursting. If the keystone goes all at once, your world doesn’t wake. It drowns.” His silver eyes hold mine. “And, beloved, I am not the one doing the pushing.”

The words settle cold in my gut.

“Then who is?” I ask, my voice shaking a little. “Why is this happening now?”

“The barriers have been weakening,” Adric says. “We all know this. Left alone, they’d have lasted eternities yet. For the keystone to surge like this, something must be pulling on it. Hard. On purpose.”

I look at the tight line of Chase’s jaw, then back to Adric. “You’re saying someone’s doing this.”

“Beloved, I do not know. I can only say that it would have to be something strong enough to lean on the bones of the world—and something hidden even from my brother and me.”

He glances at Chase, his head tilted as if in question. Chase gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head. Then Adric turns back to me. “That’s what’s most unsettling, my love. Not the surge. But that we can’t feel the hand behind it.”

I hug myself, fighting a shiver. “So let me make sure I’ve got this right.” I hold up a hand. “The barriers aren’t just thinning the usual slow way. You’re saying they could come down. Everywhere. All at once. Like Humpty-Dumpty.” I grimace. “And you can’t put Humpty together again.”