Page 147 of Gift from the Stone

“Be safe.”

Without thinking, I lean forward and seal my lips to his.

The second his cool touch meets my skin, I freeze, realizing what I’ve just done. I try to pull back, an apology ready on my tongue, but he silences me by groaning, dragging my body even closer to his. Firmly returning my kiss.

I fall headfirst into the deep end of him. Completely submerging myself in his kiss. When he slowly pulls back, I gaze up at him in awe and apprehension.

“I didn’t mean to—”

“Don’t apologize, Primary,” he commands, running his thumb across my bottom lip. With one more peck to the corner of my lips, he sets me back in Draken’s lap and disappears.

By the feelings thrumming through my bond, he’s not mad, not in the least bit.

We’re so close…

“I’m going to join you, boys. I need to look in the archives at the palace and try my luck again in the south wing,” Gaster says, patting Corentin on the shoulder.

With one more kiss from Corentin and instructions for me to stay with Draken and Tillman at all times, he leaves.

I’m left missing them already with my mind whirling around everything that just happened and everything we found out.

And wondering, what’s in the south wing?

Twenty-Four

Corentin

A castle full of dead shifters, a Central full of traitors, my Primary is now seeing the past as well as the future. Fuck me, what’s next?

There’s no point trying to will the thoughts to silence. I have a list of shit I need to tell my parents and a million other things I have to figure out as well. So I just let them continue to plague my mind. The answers always come, one way or another.

When all the shifters’ hearts started falling out of their chests, I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how the fuck it was possible, then Willow told us what she saw in the kid’s head and I knew.

The few days since we moved them from Terravile to the Castle was the time it took for one of the traitors to report what happened back to the Summum-Master. Now we just have to figure out which two are trying to fuck us.

Transporting in front of the gates that lead to the palace, I feel like I’m looking at it for the first time. It’s so different, yet exactly the same.

Familiar. Routine. Stale.

The colossal structure is easily a couple million square feet and its landscape matches that of Elementra’s. Consisting of four wings, north, south, east, and west. Each branch off from the central quarters like the spokes of a majestic wheel. Each the size of their own mansion.

The central quarter consists of a huge open foyer, the kitchens, the ballroom, multiple rooms for multiple purposes, and farther down the labyrinth halls, my parents’ living space. That’s where we lived growing up as well, until my gift emerged. Then we moved into the west wing.

A change I was royally fucking pissed about for around a week, then realized I really loved the space and never intended to live in the same quarters with my parents again.

Every stage of change I’ve had to go through, I’ve struggled. I like things the way I like them.

For fourteen straight years, this was the only place I called home, other than the mansion we live in now. We spent so much time there growing up, I grew used to it enough I was okay staying there. But the palace…

The palace was the only place that brought me comfort, despite the never-ending building pressure and responsibility that came with it.

Now…

This doesn’t feel like home anymore.

Now as me, Caspian, and Gaster walk through the familiar entryway, I don’t find the comfort I used to when I returned home from wherever else I had to be. Instead of taking a deep breath, filling my lungs with the familiar scent that reminded me of where I belong, I just want to go back to her.

Willow’s my home. She’s where I belong.

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