25. Liam

For the second time in as many days, Adam showed up unannounced on my doorstep. He looked a mess—caught out in the rain with his hair plastered to his skull, lashes clumped together and eyes wet.

"Hey." I folded my arms around him and he sagged into me, skin and bones and sadness that radiated off him in waves. "Hey. What's wrong?"

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.

* * *

Adam's messageto Cassandra was straight to the point. ‘Had a fight with my dad, turns out he already knew about Liam and me. Staying at Liam's for now. You ready to come clean?'

‘Anytime, darling,' was her immediate response, followed by a heart. Funny—I hadn't taken her for the kind of person who used emojis, much less heart-shaped ones. Live and learn.

"Do you want me to give you some privacy?" I asked when Adam prepared to call Gale, and he shook his head and caught my wrist, pulling me onto the bed with him.

"Stay," he said.

"As you wish."

Adam's smile didn't reach his eyes, but it was a start. He put his phone on speaker just as Gale picked up with a low, "Hang on a second."

Something rustled on his end of the line. I tucked an arm around Adam's shoulders and he leaned into me, drawing deep, deliberate breaths.

When Gale came back on, his voice was clearer but still low and a little rushed. "Adam. Where are you? What the hell is going on?"

"I'm with Liam," Adam said, and Gale sighed in obvious relief.

"Good. That's good. Tell him I said hi."

"Hi Gale," I spoke up. "Adam told me you gave him a bit of a nudge yesterday, so thanks for that."

"Well, he's your idiot now." Brief laughter coated Gale's voice before he sobered. "But seriously, what's going on? Dad and Eleanor are stalking around the manor like…Like the Ashtons are at the gate or something. And Dad—he said something about how you've made your choice?"

"Yeah, I have." Adam turned his head for the quickest of looks, and I slotted our fingers together. "So, Dad knows about Liam and me."

"Ah." Gale was silent for half a second. "I take it he doesn't approve."

Adam blew out a breath. "Correct."

"I'm sorry. But he'll come around, I'm sure. You've always been…We need you. More than you need us."

"Gale, I think…" Adam trailed off, frowning. "I think that maybe they're trying to do something dangerous. Mess with things they don't fully understand."

"Things?" Gale echoed, confusion thick in his voice.

"Magic," Adam said. "It's…I'm not sure. We're still trying to figure it out, but can you keep an eye out? Anything unusual, you call me?"

"Yeah, I can do that." Gale's voice dipped. "Hey. I've still got your back. You know that, right? This isn't final. Just needs a moment for the dust to settle."

"I hope so." Adam blinked twice in rapid succession, and I turned my head to kiss the corner of his mouth. My fault, if only a little bit.

Brief silence dropped, then Gale sighed. "Listen, just so you know…Liam, are you still here?"

"Present," I said softly.

"Remember that French woman from yesterday, at the Southwark site?"

Isabelle Blanchard. I met Adam's eyes and strove for a light tone. "I remember her, yes. Family friend?"

"Something like that. Dad and Eleanor met her during a trip to Paris. Anyway, just thought you might want to know that she asked about you. Like…I don't know. But something seems to have caught her interest, and I don't think they're the kind of family you want interested in you."

Adam shifted closer while I dug my nails into my thigh. "What did she ask?"

"Something about your parents and whether you had relatives in France."

Which meant that just like me, she could read magic. Distant unease tugged at me. Focus.

"What did you say?" I asked Gale.

"That I know your parents and grandmother, and I've never heard of a French connection."

Good. That was good.

Was it enough?

"Is she still there?" Adam asked.

"No, she left last night." Gale's tone changed, his voice growing softer. "Guys, is this—you're okay, right?"

"Yes," Adam said. "We're okay."

Were we? It felt like the air was getting thicker around us, making it hard to breathe. All in my mind.

Or maybe not.

* * *

It wasa shame we only had our own model for the Green Horizon Initiative at hand given the Harringtons had done a far better job capturing the equilateral triangle with St Paul's at the heart of it.

"Ley lines?" Dad repeated after I'd mapped it out on our kitchen table, Adam my sad, silent shadow. "Didn't everyone but a few nutters give up on that in the seventies?"

"Not in France, it seems." Adam tugged on the hem of his T-shirt, no traces left of the cocky teenager I'd admired from afar. He'd been an illusion, yet this wasn't quite the Adam I'd come to love either—too quiet, too small. I touched his back, and he sent me a tiny smile.

"And you think this Blanchard woman might have told your father how to—what?" Mum frowned. "Boost a mage's power by channelling magic through the ley lines?"

"Something like that, yeah." Adam looked to me for help, and I stepped a little closer to him.

"Adam was the one and only plan his family had—and suddenly they act like they don't need him anymore. To me, that sounds like they found a way to make the others more powerful. Or at least they think they found a way." I gestured at our model with its off-kilter representation of the equilateral triangle. "Our best guess? The Green Horizon Initiative was designed to make it possible."

"We think the energy towers double as…" Adam hesitated. "Conduits, of sorts. That they were built to tap into the ley lines."

"You mean they redirect magic in a way that boosts someone's rank?" Jack asked.

"It's the best explanation we could come up with," I said. "Only it all feels wrong. Like…Do you remember those videos of people adding Mentos to a bottle of Coke, and it turns into a geyser? That's what it feels like. Like something's about to blow."

"They're desperate," Adam said softly. "If there's a chance, they'll take it. And Isabelle Blanchard hardly seems like the kind of person who'd preach caution and restraint."

Brief silence fell as everyone stared at the model on the table, expressions ranging from confusion to disbelief to unease. Then Mum turned to me. "Do you think she realised who you are?"

"Maybe not that." I shrugged, feigning calm I didn't feel. Adam shifted just the faintest bit so our shoulders overlapped. "I mean, it's apparently several families in France that wield four elements, and it could also just be a British oddity. So, yeah, she wanted to know if I had French relatives. Doesn't mean she has any idea just who they might be."

"Oh, dear." Nan Jean shook her head, slightly pale in the glow of the dinner table lamp. Lightning flashed outside, rain throwing itself against the kitchen windows as though seeking entry. Credit to my weather app—its thunderstorm warning had been on point.

That was when the ground rolled under my feet.

I clutched the back of the nearest chair to keep upright. When the world steadied, everyone was staring at me. I glanced at the round of confused faces and cleared my throat. "You didn't feel that, did you?"

"Feel what?" Jack asked.

"Something like an earthquake?" I wasn't sure why I'd turned it into a question, my stomach still quivering with the aftershocks.

"No," Laurie said quietly. "I didn't feel a thing."

Nan Jean inclined her head, tension etched into the wrinkles around her eyes. "I may have felt it—just the faintest echo, mind."

No one spoke for a moment. The raging storm outside filled the gap, nearly drowning out the sudden buzz of Adam's phone. He pulled it out of his pocket, checked the screen, and inhaled sharply.

"Gale." His voice took on an urgent edge. "Sent a tracking link—that's it. Moving towards central London, it seems."

Fuck. So this was happening.

I'd always marvelled at stories of animals that sensed an incoming tsunami, that got agitated hours before a volcano erupted. Now I understood what drove them—a twisting sense of doom that almost brought me to my knees, every nerve ending on high alert. Fragments of nightmares swam in my blood.

"St Paul's." I sensed the next roll of thunder before it hit, and I knew they were heading for the cathedral just like I knew that the magic coursing through the city was stretched to the brink.

"Let's go," Adam said. "My car."

Jack jumped up, thrumming.

"No." I needed to drag the words up from the bottom of my feet. "Just Adam and me. Not sure what's going on, and we can't protect you all."

Jack opened his mouth to protest only for my mum to cut him off. "Liam is right. We can't all go charging in there. It would hinder more than help."

"Take Lila," Dad said, waving a hand in the general direction of the drone outside. "She can track you and get help if needed."

"What about the Aqua Reclaimer?" Jack asked.

I shook my head. This wasn't that kind of fight—it was the very fabric of London's magic that was starting to unravel. I had no idea how to stop it, but we'd figure it out. We had to.

"Laurie." Adam's voice had regained a trace of authority. "Find Archer Summers and tell her everything we know."

"I'll drive you," Jack said quickly, and this time, I didn't stop him. Laurie could use the company.

"Let's go." I nodded at Adam, the floor briefly swaying under my feet. Lightning flashed outside the window and trembled through my mind.

Stop. Breathe. Focus.

Adam's fingers clasped my wrist and provided me with a safe anchor even as we started moving. Rain, so much rain. Whipping around us, drenched in seconds, water in my eyes and rushing in my ears. Adam, a bright spot in my mind.

Passenger seat. Slam of a door, then Adam slid behind the wheel. Lila. I summoned her with a snap of my fingers, felt her swoop into the car and hover above the backseat. Adam started driving.

Blurred city lights streaking behind my lids. Rain coming down even harder now, and I held on to the edge of my seat, mind spiralling out, so much life around us.

"Liam."

Adam. Adam. I turned to him, blinded by his light. Too much. I reached for his elbow and found bare skin, warmth flooding me. I hadn't realised I'd been freezing before, shaking, teeth chattering.

"Focus on me," Adam said and I did—my world suddenly drenched in orange that combined with tendrils of gentle blue that wrapped me up. Breathe.

"I'm okay." I tasted metal on my tongue.

One of Adam's hands clenched around my knee and I drew another breath, exhaled, inhaled. How long had we been driving? Could be five minutes, could be a decade. Everything hurt. Ice in my veins, Adam's touch the only sun in my sky. My centre of gravity lay somewhere ahead, calling to me, and we were getting closer, closer.

The car shuddered to a stop.

It was a jerk behind my navel and I opened my eyes—when had I closed them? St Paul's Cathedral towered against the thunderstorm sky, lightning shining bright on its limestone facade. Beautiful and terrible. Much like Adam when he'd turned those buildings to ashes and dust, so much raw power. I blinked against the strobe lights in my eyes, felt like I was drunk on thin air.

"I lost Gale's signal." Panic coated Adam's voice and I reached for him, found his hand and fitted my fingers into the gaps between his. The rush of blood in my ears drained like the outgoing tide.

"I'll find him."

"How?"

I closed my eyes and listened—not to the storm and the rain, but to the magnetic pull of earth and fire, water and air. A siren's call. Dance with us.

That's why I'm here.

I let go and threw open the door, wind and rain battering at me. Adam came around the car, his shoulder pressing against mine, wet skin of our arms sliding together, water in our eyes. We weren't allowed to park here, were we? They'd tow the car. I almost said it, then realised it didn't matter. My vision went in and out of focus.

"I'll find him," I repeated. "But it's…It's a lot. I'll need…"

Adam's fingers closed around my elbow. "Anything."

"Be my eyes." I barely knew what I was saying, words so far away. Adam seemed to get it though because he nodded once, then pulled me into a harsh kiss that made my mind go silent for a precious moment, all of the noise just fading away.

He let go, and everything rushed back in at once. I snapped my fingers for Lila to follow, closed my eyes, and started moving, Adam's hand light on my elbow.

Come. Come dance with us.

"Stairs," Adam said softly. "Up."

I lifted my feet, then we were back on even ground. The thunderstorm receded and kept raging in my head. On, faster. Incense tickled my nose. I almost stumbled and Adam caught me. Right, then left. A skyscraper splintered like a needle made of glass—only in my head. Down.

Louder, closer, faster. Shadows swirled. Adam's touch was the only light I felt.

Come.

When he drew me to a halt, I opened my eyes and willed the world to stop spinning. Dim brightness spilled onto the floor, a black metal gate partially open in front of us. Gravity pulled me forward.

"I think," Adam whispered, "we're here."

Yes. We were.