Page 37 of Adonis (Salt and Starlight #1)

When Connor opened his eyes, he had no sense of how much time had passed. Adonis slept deeply next to Connor, and he didn’t stir even when Connor slipped out of bed. Connor ran his fingers through Adonis’s soft hair before he left the room. He felt much better than he had when falling asleep, but the dryness of his throat was not to be ignored.

It was dark out, and he heard voices in the kitchen as he made his way downstairs.

If he’d taken a moment to listen before entering the kitchen, he would have realised it was not a conversation he was walking in on but an argument. As he stepped through the doorway he came up short. Trevor and Edith were facing off, both clearly agitated.

“—is a wonderful young man. He’s smart, introspective, soft—”

“Soft?”

Edith interrupted lip curling in distaste.

Trevor’s jaw tightened. He swallowed before he continued. “He’s gentle, too. Incredibly gentle, especially with Laurence. And you would know this if you’d given him even an ounce of love or attention. He turned out well in spite of you, not because of you. And I care about him far too much to stay with someone who treats him so poorly.”

Connor’s breath caught. What he’d learned flashed through his mind. Confinement. Force. Abandonment. Fear.

“Trevor—”

Connor stepped forward, unable to simply sit back and watch. He had wanted his mom to be held accountable for so long. For someone to step in and say that his parents were terrible, that it wasn’t his fault. But now that he knew, now that he knew—

Trevor jolted, his head whipping around to where Connor stood at the threshold of the kitchen. His angry look eased, but the steel in his eyes remained.

“No, Connor.”

Trevor held up his hand to stop him. “This is between Edith and me.”

Connor didn’t. He couldn’t. Now that he knew.

“Edith, I want you to look at him. Look at this. Despite everything, he’s stepping in now on your behalf. And if you can agree on anything about Connor, you can agree about this: he’s not stupid. He’s not stepping in because he thinks you’ll change your attitude toward him or suddenly start to love him. He’s doing it for you. Because he doesn’t want you to hurt. And you have the nerve to call him a bad child?”

Edith’s gaze slid to him. Connor met her eyes. They were the same grey as his own, and Connor wondered did his expression ever mirror hers? Were his eyes as expressive? Did his bewilderment show in the same way? Was his anger so obvious?

He saw the moment she grappled control over her emotions; where she used to explode, she now simmered. Just like me, Connor thought.

“You should tell him,”

Connor said. Trevor’s soft. He’ll forgive you. If Connor’s anger toward her had been dampened to the point where he was willing to defend her, Trevor would fold. He saw the battle on Edith’s face. A spark in her eyes that said maybe she knew that was true and she could salvage this relationship if she fought for it. But then her chin raised, and pride filled her expression, and Connor knew she wouldn’t tell him.

“No,”

Edith said, voice hard. “This is beyond talking it out. Pack up your things, the both of you. Your boys can stay until you find somewhere suitable, but you must be out.”

She turned from Trevor, her movements sharp. She stopped in front of Connor, and a stormy gaze met his. “The only thing I admire about you is how you killed him—oh, how I’ve wished for him to be gone from this world for years. The irony that his little experiment is what killed him is…”

She almost smiled, though it looked akin to a snarl. “Justice,”

she finished. “The rest of the world thinks you’re a person: his belongings will all go to you. Get out of my house and don’t come back.”

Connor expected her to shoulder-check him on the way out. To crush him into a ball and cut him down in any way she could. But she simply left, the car disappearing down the dirt path leading to the main road. Connor hadn’t turned away from the driveway yet when Trevor hugged him.

Stroked the back of his head and kissed his hair. The kitchen was quiet apart from them until a little bird knocked its beak on the window, startling Connor. Connor stared at the glass, watching the collision, and he let out a shaky breath. Connor’s emotions and thoughts were hard to separate from one another, and the hug wasn’t helping to make that distinction any clearer.

“I didn’t kill him on purpose.”

Connor’s eyes were wide and dry. His face was warm against Trevor’s chest, his cheek squished.

“You’re not responsible,”

Trevor reassured him despite knowing nothing about what actually happened. “Nothing that happened on the ship was your fault.”

Connor didn’t feel guilty. Edith knew that. Trevor called him soft and gentle, but she was the one who knew that truth. That he had blades and poison within him. That he was willing to wield them.

“I’m not sorry for it,”

Connor said into Trevor’s chest, admitting him a glimpse of the truth within. “You should listen to her. She’s known me much longer.”

Trevor’s hug grew tight. “I’ve seen enough, Connor. More than enough.”

Trevor meant that entirely in his favour, and while Connor certainly disagreed with him, he wasn’t going to have a pointless argument about it. His mind returned to Edith and what he’d walked in on. “You should talk to her,”

Connor said. He couldn’t get what Ben had told him out of his head. He probably never would. It was hard to reconcile within his head. The mother that he’d always seen as an adversary, as a victim.

“We have talked before today.”

Trevor heaved a sigh and separated from Connor. “Have a seat. You came looking for food, didn’t you? I have soup to heat for you. I don’t want you eating anything hard to digest until you get looked at by a proper medical professional.”

Connor obediently sat. “You think I’m letting a doctor look at these scales? I’ve had enough poking and prodding.”

Not that I remember it. He wondered how often he’d been drugged and examined in his childhood and couldn’t remember. There were probably reports in the lab about him… Connor was conflicted about whether he wanted to see them if they existed. Connor studied Trevor’s back. “You’ve talked before this? About me, I’m guessing.”

Connor could imagine it. Trevor, who adored his children, unhappy with Edith and Connor’s relationship, and trying to encourage her to try better it. He winced. That would not have gone well.

Trevor turned to see the face he had made.

He went to Connor’s side and placed a glass of water in front of him. “Yes, it’s what you’re thinking.”

He pulled up a chair and sat with Connor. The microwave hummed in the background. “I don’t want you to feel in any way responsible for this—I…”

He sighed, his expression heavy. “Things have been heading this way for a while now. I understood from the start that you and Edith didn’t have a good relationship, and I was led to believe that you were a very troubled young man.”

“The hate crime didn’t help with that.”

“Indeed not. I know better now, of course. And it didn’t take long at all, Connor.”

Trevor’s eyes were wide and expressive. “Never once did you respond to Laurence or me reaching out to get to know you badly—it was only Nick and Edith’s sharp comments you would lash out against. I spoke to both of them about it. It was talking to Edith about you that made me realise…”

Trevor trailed off, his expression worried.

“I know how she feels about me, Trevor. You don’t need to try to spare my feelings.”

“I love my children,”

Trevor said. “And I love you, too. But I cannot bring myself to love a woman I know treated you like this for your entire childhood. And I won’t have you around her, letting her treat you like that, now that I know about it, either. Technically, after we finalise the divorce, I won’t be your stepdad, and you’re also eighteen, but I hope you’ll stay with us. I’m still looking now, but I’ll get a place next to the sea. And if there isn’t a dock, we’ll build one for you so you can come and go with Adonis…”

Trevor trailed off. “You don’t have to answer now, of course. But think about it.”

Connor didn’t have to think about it. “As long as I’m not imposing…”

“You’re not an imposition at all,”

Trevor said so fiercely that Connor had to blink back tears.

Slowly, he smiled. “Alright then.”

The microwave beeped. Trevor retrieved the soup for Connor and served him soft brown bread on the side. Connor ate slowly but with little pain; the second round of healing from Adonis had affected him greatly and in a good way.

Connor thought once more of Edith’s situation and of his birth, but when he considered what Trevor had told him, he decided against telling the details. If Edith had wanted to explain her actions, she would have brought them up. And Connor didn’t think that telling Trevor would change his approach. No, Connor decided. He would let Edith decide who to tell if she ever wished to tell anyone at all. He had caused them to split up, but when Connor thought about how from now, he would still have Trevor in his life, he couldn’t bring himself to feel guilty about the outcome. It may be selfish, but he wanted that soft attention that Trevor showed his children to extend to himself as well. He wanted Laurence to remain his brother, and for Nick… well, Connor would get to know him from now on and figure out was there someone worth liking now that Nick wasn’t set on hating him.

A sharp cry sounded from above.

Trevor jumped, but Connor waved him off as he stood. “It’s just Adonis. I snuck off while he was sleeping. I’ll just—”

Connor didn’t get the chance to. A large body came flying down the stairs. Trevor, with a yelp, yanked Connor back from the doorway. And just as well that he did.

Adonis fell. Connor was sure he had heard footsteps, so it had been with human legs that Adonis began his fall. It was a tail that weighed more than a ton that crashed into the bottom steps, struck the doorway that Connor had been standing in, and reduced a large part of the door-frame to splinters.

Trevor cursed as the house shook.

Connor’s heart seized in surprise, and he fell back into Trevor’s protective arms as the shock waves of Adonis’s fall settled. As soon as they did, Adonis flopped around, swivelling his head and crying out for Connor.

“Adonis, I’m here.”

Connor’s gaze darted over the destruction he’d caused. It was significant. He stepped over Adonis’s tail to kneel at his torso. Adonis reached to cup Connor’s cheek, and his eyes flashed as he surveyed him for injury. It took a few minutes of calming words, in which Laurence and Nick came from their bedroom to see the destruction, for Adonis to be calm enough to speak again.

“You were gone,”

Adonis said in an accusing tone.

“I was hungry.”

Adonis stiffened. His glare cut to Trevor. “You let him feed you?”

Oh boy… Connor wasn’t sure he wanted to spend forever trying to dissuade Adonis from picking fights with Trevor. It wouldn’t help in getting Trevor to like Adonis at all. “I was hungry,”

Connor repeated. “Can you transform back?”

Adonis sneered at Trevor. “Massive.”

He flopped his tail. “Much bigger than yours.”

“Adonis,”

Connor chided. “Enough. Keep this up, and you can stay in the ocean alone, and I won’t visit.”

Adonis fumed in Trevor’s direction, clearly holding him responsible for the threat. After a few moments, he calmed and pressed his cheek gently to Connor’s. “Adonis Connor’s…”

he said very, very softly.

Connor’s heart instantly melted. He pet Adonis’s hair to reassure him but heard a snort from behind him. He turned to see it was Trevor that looked amused.

Trevor raised his eyebrows at Connor, a grin curving his lips. “He can play you as easy as Laurence does.”

“Play me? He’s not…”

Connor narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Adonis. Who, when Connor looked back at, was casting an unmistakably smug look in Trevor’s direction. “Adonis…”

Connor trailed off, exasperated by his antics.

Adonis turned his energy back to lavishing affection on Connor. Despite knowing it was being done to manipulate him, Connor still folded to it.