Into the Light of Day: The Five Clans Series Book 2, page 1
Into the Light of Day
Karoline Rayne
Copyright © 2023 by Karoline Rayne
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permission requests, contact Karoline Rayne.
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
1st edition 2023
Contents
Author's Note
Dedication
Prologue
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
19. Chapter Nineteen
20. Chapter Twenty
21. Chapter Twenty-One
22. Chapter Twenty-Two
23. Chapter Twenty-Three
24. Chapter Twenty-Four
25. Chapter Twenty-Five
26. Chapter Twenty-Six
27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
30. Chapter Thirty
31. Chapter Thirty-One
32. Chapter Thirty-Two
33. Chapter Thirty-Three
34. Chapter Thirty-Four
35. Chapter Thirty-Five
36. Chapter Thirty-Six
37. Chapter Thirty-Seven
38. Chapter Thirty-Eight
39. Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Also By
Author's Note
This book contains content that may be troubling to some readers. Including and not limited to: Language, graphic sexual content, talk of past child abuse (physical & emotional-MMC), sibling abuse, MMF (with MM content), breath play, unaliving
To all those who think they are unworthy of love…
You are.
Prologue
Twenty years earlier
Tobias tossed his bag up onto the top bunk and climbed in after it. Laying back he stared up at the wooden ceiling, appreciating the silence more than he thought he would. With five sisters at home things were noisy by default, not that he didn’t love them all dearly. However, being the only boy in the family made him feel out of place sometimes.
It had taken months to convince his mother to let him leave home and join the military as soon as he turned fifteen. His father was a little easier to convince since he too had spent some time in service.
“It’ll build character, Clara,” his father had argued.
His mother sighed before finally leaning in to kiss his cheek. “Just be safe, my son.”
Tobias wasn’t going to look for trouble, that wasn’t in his nature but he was happy to be away from home and to have a small place in the barracks to call his own. Though, he wondered where his roommate was having expected him to already be there. Instead, Tobias was left wondering what kind of person he would be. All he could hope for was someone he could get along with and hopefully be friends, since he didn’t have very many of those, generally speaking.
Two consecutive loud bangs almost made Tobias jump out of bed. The door had been thrown open so forcefully he could see the dent in the wall, and then shut with equal force. A deep groan reached his ears and he sat up, his feet dangling over the edge of the bed.
A figure slid down the door, an arm wrapped around his middle, and gritted his teeth in pain. His unruly red curls fell into his face.
“Are you alright?” Tobias quietly asked in an attempt not to startle him. He jumped down from his bed.
The other boy snapped his head up and Tobias was greeted with a pair of soft green eyes.
“I’ll be fine,” he muttered, pushing himself to his feet.
“I took the top if you don’t mind.”
“Bottom is better.” He fell down onto the lower bunk.
Tobias stood awkwardly, shifting his weight between his feet. Eventually he shoved his hand forward. “Tobias Victarian.”
“Antony Devarik.” He chuckled when Tobias’s eyes went wide, his hand dropping. “You no doubt recognize my family name. Yes, my brother is the Chieftain, and no I don’t give a shit. Any other questions?”
Tobias sputtered for a moment. Never in his wildest imagination did he think he’d end up as Antony Devarik’s roommate.
“No,” he muttered.
“Good.” Antony fell back against his pillow with a groan. “I’m going to lie here for a little bit.”
Tobias nodded, climbing back up into his own bed. He laid there for a moment before leaning over the side. “If you happen to fall asleep, would you like me to wake you when they call for dinner?”
Antony nodded with a small smile. There was something about it that made Tobias’s stomach flip.
“I would like that.”
Tobias smiled back before lying back down. He went back to staring at the ceiling, wondering now what a wild turn this was. This chance meeting would change his life forever.
Chapter One
Antony dismissed the necessity of sleep. Twenty-five years of nightmares, which still lingered in his mind, would do that. He thought he would have gone crazy a long time ago. That something he had seen would finally push him over that invisible edge into madness.
But there he sat, perched on the windowsill looking out into the moonlit gardens below. Leaning his face against the cool glass, twisting the eyepatch around his fingers. His blind eye faced outwards since he feared turning that eye to the room at large. It had become a way to protect himself so that no one could seek up on his right side, especially if he couldn’t see them coming.
A notepad rested on his lap with a small piece of charcoal on top. Charcoal was messy, he knew that; his fingers were already stained black. However, there was something about the medium that really allowed him to see and to create. Drawing was his outlet for more than half his life, having kept him sane for so long.
Antony turned his attention to the picture he was working on. His thumb traced along the figure’s jaw to help soften the line.
She stared back at him. A stubborn chin, a pert nose, full pouty lips, and the most expressive eyes. Though he drew in black and gray, he knew those eyes to be blue, like the morning sky right before dawn, deep and bright. The soft waves of her hair fell around that unmistakable face.
Whoever she was.
Antony started seeing her in his dreams about a year and a half previous. He didn’t know who she was, where they would meet or when. In the beginning, her face was hazy for the longest time, but it came into increasing focus. When she did, Antony took to drawing everything he could remember about her, until he had pages and pages of this girl he didn’t know.
The creek of the floorboards pulled him out of his drawing fog. A state he often found himself where the rest of the world no longer existed. He snapped the notepad shut as the door connecting the drawing room with his bedchamber opened.
His lover leaned against the doorframe, strong arms crossed over a broad and lean chest. A loose pair of sleep pants hung dangerously low on his hips and a dark curl of hair fell into equally dark eyes.
“I hope I didn’t wake you,” Antony said, setting the notepad on the window seat. He went to the sideboard where there was a pitcher of clean water to rinse the charcoal from his fingers.
“Only when I roll over and you are not there anymore,” the other man replied, pushing away from the doorframe. “Was it the nightmares again?”
“Tobias,” Antony sighed. “I appreciate what you are trying to do, but they cannot be helped.”
“You’ve been telling me that for the first six years and now for the last eight. If I hadn’t lost you for five years in between, you would have kept telling me.” Tobias cocked his head to one side.
“And I’ve had them for twenty-four, so I like to think I know what’s going on inside my own head.” It was a blatant lie and Tobias could always see right through it.
Ever since they were made roommates at fifteen years old, Tobias was one of the few people who ever tried to protect Antony. When Antony would return to their room, battered and bruised, he said nothing and offered whatever comfort he could. Antony was forever grateful for that friendship, a friendship that blossomed into something more as they came of age.
“You can believe whatever you want, Antony. But the denial you live in will only catch up with you,” Tobias said. He wrapped his arms around the taller man from behind, resting his chin on Antony’s shoulder.
The warm press of the body against his back was more comforting than Antony ever wanted to admit, even through the material of his shirt. Antony never allowed anyone as close as Tobias.
“It’s not
“Then why do you torture yourself with that notepad?”
“It helps me process the nightmares.”
Tobias snaked a hand up the back of Antony’s neck, taking a handful of dark red hair and pulling back. Antony groaned; a light kiss pressed to his lips.
“If you let me in,” Tobias whispered. “I could help you.”
“I can’t.” Antony pulled away, separating them.
“Can’t or won’t? There is a difference, Antony.”
“Tobias, we can’t—”
“You saw her again.” It wasn’t even a question.
Antony made an uncomfortable noise, wiping a hand over his face and through his hair. “You say it like I’m doing this on purpose. I have no control over it. Not now, not ever.”
“I know what you keep in that book of yours.” Tobias gestured to the notepad on the windowsill. “It’s full of drawings of her. You can’t get her out of your head. Who is she, Antony?”
“I don’t know,” Antony murmured. It wasn’t a complete lie. He knew what she would mean to him, but not her name.
“Don’t give me that bullshit. I’ve known you too long and better than anyone else, including your sister. So, I will only ask one more time, who is she?”
Tobias deserved the truth, Antony knew that. He only realized for himself what she was going to be and now, being forced to say it out loud was going to hurt Tobias.
Antony sighed, the words coming out so quiet. “She’s my wife.”
Tobias recoiled like he’d been slapped in the face. “Wow.”
Antony stepped closer and grabbed Tobias by the shoulders, his fingers digging into the hard muscle. “Listen to me. I can’t control what I see or how much I see. I only saw tonight what she would mean to me. However, that could be a month from now, a year, five years. But that doesn’t mean you matter any less.”
Before Tobias could argue, Antony crushed his mouth against his. It took a moment for Tobias’ frozen lips to finally move beneath his. Antony licked the seam of his lips, and when they parted, he slipped his tongue inside. The kiss consumed them. Tobias gripped the front of Antony’s shirt, pulling him closer.
Antony walked them back until the shorter man hit the wall. He kissed down his neck and over his shoulder. Licking and nipping his small puckered nipples, down the firm stomach, earning him a deep groan. Sinking down to his knees, he lightly rubbed a hand across the growing bulge in Tobias’s sleep pants.
“Antony,” he whimpered, threading his fingers through the red curls.
His own dick twitched as Antony eased the waistband down. Tobias always had an impressively thick cock, standing at full attention. Antony wrapped a hand around the base and leaned in. His tongue teased the slit and the underside of the head. Tobias moaned, his fingers tightening in Antony’s hair, something Antony enjoyed. It urged Antony forward, licking up the leaking precum before sucking the whole thing into his mouth.
“Fuck,” Tobias cursed, his hips jutting forward.
Antony made quick work of sucking in his cheeks and enthusiastically bobbing his head. He worked his way down until he felt it in the back of his throat. This was when he turned his eyes open to see the look of pure pleasure on Tobias’s face and it was all his doing. Antony enjoyed this too much to ever give it up. While he never wanted to admit it, he needed this, he needed Tobias, who was the only stable thing in his life.
“I’m going to come,” Tobias panted out with little warning.
His cock twitched in Antony’s mouth, who pulled back to suck harder on the tip, drinking down every drop.
Antony hummed deep in his throat and licked his lips, tucking Tobias back in his pants.
Tobias tugged him to his feet, his fingers still in the taller man’s hair. Leaning their foreheads together, Tobias sighed.
“You will always mean something to me,” Antony murmured.
“I have been by your side for the last eight years and sometimes, it feels like you are pushing me away.”
Antony brushed some of the hair from Tobias’s face. “No matter what happens, you will always have a place with me. Let’s go back to bed.”
Tobias just nodded. Their fingers intertwined as Antony led them back to the bedroom. Settling back under the blankets, Tobias nuzzled up against Antony’s back again.
Antony closed his eyes and tried to make himself sleep, even if he knew the effort was fruitless. Not having to be alone, helped to settle him more than he expected it to. He felt Tobias’s hot breath on the back of his neck.
“I know you will have to marry one day,” Tobias murmured. “It just doesn’t make it any easier to have to let you go.”
Antony didn’t respond and continued to pretend to be asleep, fairly certain that he wasn’t supposed to hear Tobias’s whispers. His heart ached and Antony was going to have to find the courage to tell Tobias that it might be sooner than either of them wanted.
Chapter Two
Eight years, five months, twelve days.
That’s how long it has been since the fire that took her father’s life.
That’s how long she had to navigate life without him. Without his smile, without his encouragement, without those all-consuming hugs that could make any pain go away.
Eight years, five months, nine days.
That’s how long it was since she learned the truth of her parentage.
That the father she knew and loved was not really her father after all.
Isobel stood among the stone monuments, her fingers brushing off the foliage debris. She knelt down in front of one as she worked to pick the growing moss from the name which adorned it.
Rudolf Hartmann
Son. Brother. Husband. Father.
The tears grew thick in her throat.
“Papa.” Her whispered word was lost to the wind. “Why did you have to leave me?”
A light breeze fluttered by caressing her cheek. It was like she could feel him, that he heard her plea. There was nothing Isobel wouldn’t do to have her father back, to have just one more day with him. Because the day he died, her world started to unravel.
Standing up she moved over to the next headstone, giving it the same treatment as her father’s. Cleaning away the loose leaves, she rested her hand on the cold marble.
Six years, four months, nineteenth days
That would be the last time she saw her mother’s smile. Though the expression was lost on Johanna a long time before that. Johanna never recovered from her husband's death and Isobel watched her mother slowly slip further and further away from her.
There had been a time where Isobel wondered why she couldn’t be enough to help her mother. However, there was no helping Johanna until one day she was simply gone. Isobel was told that her mother’s heart was simply too broken and finally gave out. She didn’t want to believe it at first. Maybe because Isobel didn’t know what it was like to love that hard.
Isobel loved her family, but even she knew that wasn’t quite the same as a deep seeded emotional love. But how much more of her family could she lose before there was nothing left?
She kissed her fingers, pressing them to her mother’s stone.
The one on the other side of Rudolf’s was new. So new that it hadn’t gathered any leaves yet.
One week, three days
That’s when she said goodbye to her beloved grandmother for the last time. Amalie had been sick for well over a year and Isobel hardly ever left her side. A second mother to her, Amalie filled the void left by Rudolf and Johanna’s deaths. Her wickedly clever grandma who always said what was on her mind, much to the chagrin of those around her.
Isobel felt a small smile thinking of Amalie and the last thing she had said to her:
“Don’t be afraid to love. Embrace every opportunity and find yourself a husband who will keep you satisfied.”
Shaking her head with a small chuckle, Isobel turned to head back. She barely made it back into the courtyard, when a loud giggle reached her ears and a head of bright red curls ran into her knees.
“Isbel!” The little girl yelled, squeezing Isobel’s legs.
Isobel bent down and scooped her up, resting her on her hip. “Where is your mama, Emrys?”
