Page 96 of Veil of Night & Flames

He sat up.

“Griff,” he said. “I should relieve him for an hour.”

Adric said nothing, just gave a quick nod.

Cora opened her eyes and blinked sleepily up at him. “Come back soon,” she said, extending her hand to him. “And give Whistler my love.”

He bent and kissed her temple. “I will,” he promised. Then, he looked across her at his brother. “Adric.”

Adric gave a quick nod, underscored by a tiny smile. “Brother.”

The word passed between them with nothing sharp underneath, and that might be the strangest thing that had happened this night.

Chapter

Twenty-Eight

Iwake with my cheek against Adric’s chest and the gold of late afternoon coming sideways through the window, his arm a heavy, comfortable weight across my back.

Chase, however, isn’t in the bed.

I roll over and curl against Adric as it comes back to me—Mr. Griffin and Solenne at the bookstore. Whistler’s injuries. And Chase leaving to go check on his Whistler. I sigh, understanding that of course he’d want an update on his friend. But at the same time, I want him here on my right side just like Adric is on the left. More, I want to look into his eyes again, just to make absolutely certain he’s okay with what happened.

With a sigh and a little bit of a wince—I’m pleasantly sore this morning—I snuggle closer to Adric and let the deliciously wonderful memory of last night wash over me.

Then I bite my lower lip, hoping both Adric and Chase are on board with that deliciously wonderful assessment. Because if they aren’t, I may have to hide under my bed for a year. And that would suck because I’d definitely fail my finals.

“You’re thinking very loud, Beloved,” Adric says, breaking the snuggle by easing back. I grumble but roll over to face him.

“I’ll try to think softer,” I say as he cups my head and then kisses my forehead.

“That’s not regret I’m seeing on your lovely face, is it? Because I do not regret a single moment of last night.”

The tension slips out of me. “Oh, thank goodness,” I say, and he laughs.

“I am glad we are of a mind,” he says.

“Chase?” I ask. “He’s at Griff’s, right? He didn’t bolt because he thought it was weird or awkward or⁠—”

He cuts me off with a soft finger to my lips.

“Trust me. He enjoyed himself thoroughly.”

“You two talked?”

“We did not,” Adric says, and though it takes me a minute, I remember their blood bond. “Right,” I say, feeling my cheeks heat. Which, under the circumstances, is a little ironic. But at least this time it wasn’t unexpected sensations at unexpected times. I think about that, then bite back a giggle.

Adric’s eyes narrow. “I shouldn’t have told you about Kali,” he says, referring to a conversation we’d had earlier, which had left me shaking with giggles.

“Are you kidding? You on the receiving end of that bond during a meeting with that bitch? That’s an image I cherish.”

“It does not trouble you?” he asks. “This bond. What my brother and I share and feel?”

I shift to see him better, then prop myself up on my arms. “I’ve already told you it doesn’t. But it’s kind of unfair that you both don’t have that privacy.”

He shrugs. “We were meant to be one being. I split the Guardian. There is a price.”

“You split it, but Chase is paying, too.”