Page 122 of Found in Obscurity

Kit shrugged. “It’s not really my story to tell.”

“Of course it is,” Lorin said as he walked over, clearly having overheard their conversation. “Everything that happened to us is part of our story, so you can tell it if you want. I don’t mind.”

“You sure?” Kit asked.

Lorin nodded, looking at Kit’s mom. “I had some…reservations about being a witch.”

“Oh?” She looked surprised to hear it. “I wasn’t aware…”

“Yeah, I don’t think there’s a lot of us who’d agree with me,” he said. “Magic is a blessing for most people. I see it as such now too. But I didn’t always.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Kit’s mom said.

“My parents were soulbonded,” Lorin said. “My mom was a witch and my dad was a shifter. I watched them cherish that bond beyond everything else, and admired it until…”

Kit’s mom grasped his bicep gently, offering some comfort as if she expected the next words.

“She got sick and died. My dad followed. And I grew up resentful. They never had a say. They had no choice. They embraced the magic and their bond, and in the end, it cost them their lives. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want my life to be predetermined for me, or taken away because of someone else. Or even worse…for someone else to die because of me. It all felt like too much.”

“And now?” she asked.

Lorin turned to look at Kit, laser-focused on him like he always was. Like Kit was his entire universe condensed into one person.

“And now I know that it’s not about having your choices taken away,” Lorin said. “Because even if I had one, I’d make the exact same one.”

“Lorin…” Kit whispered, and Lorin bent down to brush their noses together.

“I’d give my life for you without a second thought,” he said. “I guess magic really does know better than we do.”

“Sap,” Kit teased, but he felt himself glow from the inside out at the words. Because he felt them too. He agreed.

He’d do anything and everything for Lorin. There was nobody who meant more. He leaned into Lorin, nuzzling his neck and hiding his face in the source of the most delicious scent of their soulbond.

A sudden insistent knocking on the front door broke them apart, and Kit’s mom frowned. “I don’t think we were expecting anyone.”

They meandered toward the doorway as a unit and Kit was surprised to see Stella standing there in front of Mara. She spotted Lorin over her shoulder and her eyes lit up.

“Oh, there you are! Thank the stars!” she said, bypassing the rest of them and reaching inside the house to grab his hand and give it a tug. “I’ve spent the entire morning looking around for you.”

“Is everything okay?” he asked, resisting her pull. Kit felt Lorin’s grandma and his brothers join them at the door, standing behind them, protective despite there being no sign of a threat anywhere. Kit figured it would take some time for the walls to come down and the tension to lessen.

“I hope it will be once we get there,” Stella said, glasses askew and hair flyaway. “But we have to go, now.”

She pulled on his hand again and Lorin tugged back, a frown forming on his forehead. “Go where?”

Kit’s thoughts exactly.

“The library,” she said, as if it was obvious. “Word got out about you, pathfinder. We have a line formed in front of your room waiting for you to show up.”

Kit saw Lorin’s shoulders tense, then he took a step back.

“Line?” he asked.

“Yup! And the more we wait the longer it gets. So chop, chop!”

Lorin turned to face them all, his expression bewildered and confused. Kit shrugged at him, making Lorin look at his grandma.

“She’s right,” his grandma said, nodding to Stella. “The more you put it off, the more people will pile up.”