Page 38 of Adonis (Salt and Starlight #1)

“Is this really allowed?”

Nick looked around himself as the elevator doors pinged open. Laurence, for his part, seemed more excited than nervous. Connor felt more of Nick’s apprehension than he did Laurence’s eagerness. He didn’t want to be back in this underground lab. Now that he knew experiments he had no memory of occurred within the labs, the comforting press of the ocean felt sinister. A place he’d once felt safe in was cold and remote. Unknown.

It looked exactly the same as it always did: the long walkway on his right with the ocean rising above him, the rows of deserted desks on his left. His dad’s—Ben, he corrected himself—Ben’s office further down on the left, with Arthur’s directly after it. Connor half expected Ben to walk out of the lab as if he’d been there the whole time. He’d had more time to absorb what he’d learned upon returning to the house. Ben was dead.

A lawyer contacted Connor only last week about transferring Ben’s assets to him. In lieu of a will, apparently his dad—Ben, call him B.E.N.—Ben had never written one, and Connor had been given everything as his only living relative.

Laurence touched Connor’s elbow. Pulled from his thoughts, Connor saw the look of concern Laurence directed at him.

“I’m fine.”

“We can do it if you want to wait up top,”

Nick offered. Despite being the one who had voiced the most complaints, he had been the only one to advance, venturing deeper into the lab. His gaze met Connor’s, and there was no reproach in his expression. “I’ll make sure to find everything,”

Nick promised. “I won’t leave even a word about you behind.”

Connor told them what he’d learned about himself and had been met with sympathy. None of them knew the extent of what Connor was, and Connor didn’t think he ever would. As more and more police officers spoke to him and news outlets covered the sunken ship, he realised that even when his nerves prickled with curiosity, the fear that someone with the same resources and determination as Cessair might learn about him was far greater. He wanted all the evidence gone. And he knew that all the evidence was kept here with no cloud backups.

“I’m fine,”

Connor repeated. He broke away from Laurence and strode forward with fake confidence. As soon as he stepped out of the shadow of the elevator, Adonis was at the glass, swimming beside them. Connor let out a frustrated exhale. “Adonis, I told you not to come.”

Adonis heard him. He gestured to his ears, shrugged, and feigned an overly baffled expression.

Laurence snickered at the display, but Connor was less amused. He sighed. The sight of Adonis soothed him, even if the sight of him so close to the lab was worrying…

“He worries about you, too,”

Nick said, coming up to Connor’s side. “I wouldn’t be too cross with him for this.”

“Nick, you’ve been far too cross since we met to give me any lectures on the subject,”

Connor replied curtly.

Adonis backed Connor up by hissing at Nick. Connor felt it only weakened his argument.

Nick looked contemplatively at Adonis, then leaned close to Connor and spoke in a low voice that Adonis, judging by how he pressed his ear to the glass, struggled to hear. “What would he do if I hit you?”

“He’d smash the glass,”

Connor replied promptly. He looked at the beams and supports that held back the mighty weight of the ocean. “The cage they placed him in was much more secure than this. More support, more glass, and still, he had the bolts bouncing. If he could do that to something built to hold him, he’d make short work of this when all it has to hold back is the ocean.”

Adonis preened at the compliment, brandishing his tail as he swam acrobatic shapes in the water.

Connor looked from the bolts to his tail, and the solution to their issue presented itself in a neat thought. And Connor thought he’d been crude to harass Sam for crowbars that he could use to physically smash the computers that held his secrets.

“Shall we start?”

Nick asked.

“I’ve got a better idea,”

Connor said.

They used the crowbars in the end. Connor was able to figure out the code to Ben’s office—it was, like his house, Connor’s birthday. Significant to Ben because of the success of his experiment, not the birth of his son. But Arthur’s door remained shut despite several attempts at the code, so they turned to force. Connor and Nick strained together to get the door jimmied open while Laurence investigated the outer confines of the lab. Adonis followed him, his face concentrated as he, too, made a thorough examination, having heard Connor tell the others his idea.

The door gave with a loud creak, and Connor fell back into Nick, who groaned when his body cushioned Connor’s from the floor.

“Ugh, ow.”

Connor rolled off him, rubbing his arm.

Nick glared. “Oh, I’m sorry. Did my ribs injure your elbow?”

“Don’t be so cross, Nick,”

Connor taunted.

“Don’t fight!”

Laurence called over his shoulder. “Oh—you opened it.”

He trotted back to them and peeked into the office. “Huh.”

He let out a disappointing sniffle. “There’s nothing in this one either.”

Connor surveyed the room lined wall to wall with equipment and books until his eyes settled on the desk covered in papers at the far end of the room. Like Ben’s office, there was an abandoned cup of coffee on the table. The papers, so close, called to Connor. The look Laurence and Nick cast his way said they were curious, too.

He squashed that curiosity in resolve: he didn’t want to read about what they’d done to him. No. He would let it rest. Connor took a definite step back from the lab. “Let’s go, then. Water will fry the electrics better than we can smash them.”

Connor paused at the elevator to talk to Adonis. “If it hurts your tail come up to the surface and let me know. We can come back down with the crowbars.”

Adonis snorted.

Connor’s lips twitched upward in amusement. Whether it stung his tail or not, Connor had every confidence that Adonis would destroy the lab. “Remember just to weaken it,”

Connor cautioned. “Keep your distance and let the ocean break it. Even you would be hurt if the current pulled you in when it gives way.”

Adonis nodded.

Connor went up the elevator with Nick and Laurence, and they left the building by the main entrance and walked to the ocean, staying well clear of the building. Connor thought there would be guards assigned to the lab to keep people out, but they hadn’t even needed secrecy to come here. Cessair’s assets were in dispute, his shareholders all in competition as Austin remained gone. Like Connor was to Ben, Austin was the sole beneficiary of Cessair’s assets. If, that was, he ever came out of hiding… Connor suspected Austin would stay missing until Cessair’s body was recovered and his identity confirmed beyond any doubt.

“Look!”

Laurence pointed to the edge of the waterline. Connor watched as the building tipped toward the ocean. There was the sound of creaking metal and shattering glass, and then an almighty wave of water was thrown into the air as the building collapsed into the ocean. Worry pierced Connor’s heart as he watched the rubble fall.

“Adonis?”

Connor called, stepping closer to the water’s edge.

Hardly a second later, Adonis’s face emerged from the water ocean with a proud look.

“Cool!”

Laurence said.

“Come on, let’s get home before Dad does,”

Nick said. “He’ll know it was us if we’re not there.”

Trevor had driven to the next town to pick up planks of wood. They’d started construction on the new dock outside the house they’d found: there wasn’t enough room in the little cottage for all of them, but Trevor had set his mind to expanding it, and Connor knew that it wouldn’t be long before there was room for each of Trevor’s sons. Including Connor.

“He’ll know it was me either way,”

Connor said.

“But he won’t assume our involvement,”

Nick pointed out wryly.

“We can blame Adonis,”

Laurence piped up.

“Laurence, I will make sure Trevor is aware the entire thing was your idea if you even hint at such a thing,”

Connor threatened. Adonis was still picking fights with Trevor regularly. Though they were all used to it by now, he still envisioned a future where he didn’t need to mediate between the two of them… if Adonis would stop thinking that Trevor was trying to steal Connor away from him. If Adonis had been human, Connor would have gotten irritated by such fantasies, but he found the patience to reassure Adonis each time that he would not be stolen. Connor was fairly certain from what he’d gleaned from Adonis that his species’ social structure was causing the tensions, and that, Connor reckoned, could be reasoned out of him by spending more time together. He’d show Adonis there was nothing to fear. Eventually.

“We’ll meet you at the house,”

Connor told Adonis.

He stepped away, but Adonis’s hand shot out and fastened firmly to Connor’s ankle.

“Come,”

Adonis requested.

“He’ll be all wet,”

Nick objected.

“Connor.”

Adonis stared up at Connor.

Connor met those dark blue eyes and saw the want in them. Adonis, quite like Connor, had gotten used to being around each other constantly. Connor saw no reason he couldn’t indulge Adonis’s request. “I’ll meet you guys at the house,”

he said over his shoulder. He dug out his phone and tossed it to Nick, who he trusted more than Laurence not to go through it. He’d only find a series of messages from old classmates that Connor had finally unblocked and reached out to. Tabs open of the media coverage concerning his case: his set up had been on the front page of every newspaper since the truth had been leaked.

Connor jumped into the water fully clothed and resurfaced, with Adonis’s hands latched tightly to his sides.

“We swim,”

Adonis said.

“Okay.”

“To boat.”

Connor had inherited Ben’s boat, too. The one that he’d never been allowed anywhere near before, and he’d found that in the locked door beneath was a living space big enough for him and Adonis to stay in. Connor had no interest in the house he’d inherited and, after going through the books last week, had contacted an agent to put the place up for sale. He’d offered it to Trevor first, who had stoutly refused.

“Let’s go then.”