Page 21 of Property of Mako (Kings of Anarchy MC: Louisiana #1)

The Veil

Lyra

I was in the barn, brushing down Copper after his evening run, when my phone rang. Abby’s name flashed on the screen. Calix, knowing how stressed I was, had agreed to take me home to ground myself with my horses.

“Hey—” I started, but her voice cut me off, sharp and urgent.

“You need to get back to the house. Now.”

I didn’t waste time asking questions. I threw the brush down, told Copper I’d be back, and ran for the house. Calix was outside the barn door, leaning against his bike, watching me with that patient-but-not look that meant he was two seconds from demanding I tell him what was wrong.

“I don’t know,” I blurted out as I passed. He hurried after me, but I imagined he was actually holding himself back to stay by me.

Inside, Abby was pacing my kitchen, clutching a folded scrap of paper like it might bite her.

“This was just delivered,” she said, thrusting it into my hands. “A young guy brought it—couldn’t have been more than twenty. Said it was from your sister. Then ran before I could ask questions or call for you.”

My pulse spiked. I tore it open.

Four words, written in Lily’s handwriting—small, hurried, the graphite smudged like she’d tried to hide it.

The veil hides everything .

I stared at it, my throat closing. “She’s alive.” My voice cracked, and I had to take a breath to steady it. “And she’s trying to tell us something. But I don’t understand what.”

Calix took the paper from me, his brow furrowing as he read it. “The veil… glamour,” he said after a beat. “She’s warning us about a concealment ward. Something about the plantation’s hidden.”

“That means she’s there.” My chest was tight, but under it, a fire started to burn. “We know where she is.”

* * *

Crypt Keeper, Dexter, and Spook were already inside when we got back. The clubhouse smelled like leather, motor oil, and the faint copper tang of blood—probably from where Dexter had been working on Bugsy earlier.

Calix motioned with his head, and one by one they followed us to his room.

“We can’t wait for the council, nor do I believe we can trust them,” Calix said once everyone was gathered. His voice was hard enough to crack glass. “We’ve got two days until the auction. That’s not enough time for their politics, and I’m not convinced they’re not compromised.”

Crypt Keeper leaned forward, eyes pale and wolf-bright. “We ride now?”

“Tonight,” Calix corrected. “We’ll need full dark; we’ll already be battling the moonlight. We break the glamour, get in, and get the girls out.”

“How are we going to break the glamour?” Spook asked.

“I’m going to the source. I know a demon that knows a witch. Glamour of that magnitude is only created by fae, which I don’t know any unless one of you do,” he replied, glancing at each of them as they shook their heads. “Or a very powerful witch.”

“You know a demon that knows a witch?” Crypt snorted. “Witches hate demons. No way one would be connected with a demon.”

“Yeah, well, I know one,” Calix confidently insisted. He pulled out his phone and made a call. “Haidyn? I need a favor.” Pause. “Yeah, I know I’ll owe you. Okay, I’ll see you there.”

He ended the call.

“I have to go to this meeting alone. I need you to trust me on this,” he said to me. “Please.”

“Okay,” I reluctantly agreed. I didn’t care about strategy meetings or supernatural politics. All I could see was Lily, terrified and alone, scribbling a message on a stolen scrap of paper and trusting it would somehow find me.

Calix must’ve seen it in my face because a few minutes later, when the others cleared out, he stepped close. “We’ll get her, Lyra,” he murmured.

I nodded, swallowing the lump in my throat. “We have to.”

His hand slid to my jaw, warm and grounding, and for a moment, the world narrowed to the smell of leather and the faint trace of his cologne. Trouble was coming, and we both knew it—but for that one heartbeat, I didn’t care.

He was beginning to be that for me, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

This might be nothing more than sex for him. If not, we had to face the fact that our relationship had a very short window.

Because one day, I would get old and he wouldn’t.

Then I would die.