Page 19 of One Merciful Moment

"I figured this might happen." Copper sighed. "Everstill suppresses emotion. It keeps people level. But when something breaks through that suppression..." He gestured vaguely toward the sky. "The veil reacts."

Boone frowned. "React how?"

"Lights came on." Copper pointed toward Boone's house. "Electricity doesn't just come back on its own. Not here. Not after all these years. Something triggered it."

It almost sounded like Copper blamed him.

"Boone..." Copper watched him carefully. "Everstill responds to strong emotion. It always has. It reacts to fear, to desperation, to grief." He paused. "And to love."

Boone exhaled harshly. "Copper—"

"I'm not saying it's good or bad," Copper said quickly. "I'm saying it's powerful. And if you're feeling something for Ashley, Everstill will feel it too. Just like it did when Finn and Kallie got together, and when Moe and Jillian came back."

Boone stepped away. The world felt different. More alive. More awake. But what did that have to do with him?

Copper stepped beside him. "This isn't a warning. It's just the truth. The veil is changing. And you're part of that change... because of Ashley."

"I don't know what I'm feeling," Boone whispered.

Copper cocked his brow. "That's how you know it's real."

Boone shook his head. Nothing made sense anymore. Ashley gave him a taste of normalcy that didn't feel familiar. It was exciting having her here. Thinking about not having her here made him afraid. He had no way to understand his feelings or act on them.

Ashley wanted out. She wanted to go home.

If there was a chance to get away from Everstill, he'd go. But he wasn't going to let Ashley get away from him.

His feelings were coming back. Everything felt better when it revolved around him and Ashley. Only the veil threatened to break them apart.

Copper jerked his chin toward the road. "Let's walk."

Boone followed. The others stayed behind near the store, still hoping food would magically appear on the shelves.

Copper led him past the courthouse, past the garden, and toward the quiet stretch of woods where the deer had appeared. Boone looked over his shoulder at the others. No one seemed concerned about the heavy load Copper had dropped on him.

Everstill was changing. He had someone he needed to protect. And he was scared shitless of losing Ashley.

Copper stopped near the tree line, hands in his pockets, shoulders slightly hunched. The posture surprised Boone. Copper usually had everything under control.

"I'm concerned. I've seen men change in Everstill. Fear changes them. But you..." Copper shook his head. "This is something else."

"What are you saying?"

"I've been here longer than anyone. I was part of the team that discovered the veil." Copper rubbed his forehead. "There was a team. An engineer. A geologist. A botanist. And I was the... I am an atmospheric scientist. The veil's stability depends on living systems." He looked Boone in the eyes. "Ashley is stabilizing the ecosystem, which is exactly what Everstill wants. I think she was brought here to complete the work my team started."

Boone walked a few feet away, needing space to process what Copper was telling him. None of the men, including him, were educated or book-smart. The idea that a veil kept them from the real world was a fact of life they'd accepted without question.

Until now.

He returned to Copper. "What the fuck is this place?"

"It's an anomaly." Copper shook his head. "I was part of a small, underfunded atmospheric research program, studying pressure inversions, magnetic field disturbances, and lightning-induced plasma formations."

Boone lifted a hand. "Slow down. I don't understand."

"During a series of storms in the mountains, our instruments picked up a repeated spatial distortion. Same coordinates. Same shape. Same duration. It wasn't a storm pattern. It was a tear." Copper paused. "A place where the atmosphere folded inward."

Boone stared. None of that made sense.