“We were kids when our mother placed us in an alley and walked away. It became too much for her, two extra mouths to feed. She left us in the dirt and didn’t look back.” His throat tightened at recounting his mortal youth. “She was whoring herself day and night. We used to sit outside the doors of the brothels, waiting until she was done. Most of the time she didn’t finish her ‘work’ until the sun was rising.”
He wouldn’t make eye contact with her as he spoke. He wasn’t even sure he had told Theo of his past. He had buried it as deep as it would go.
“One night, a few patrons didn’t ask for a woman. Those men had other... proclivities.”
“I don’t understand?” How lucky for her.
“The companionship they were seeking was from Aaron and me. They were willing to pay triple the price. She said we were selfish, making her work every night without contributing something ourselves. She said we needed to be men and start helping our family. Aaron was only five, I was ten.”
He heard the audible swallow of the girl as she brought her uninjured leg to her chest and hugged it. Theo’s eyes remained on Helaina, but he knew his captain was listening.
“I wouldn’t let them touch Aaron, not for all the money and food in the world. They couldn’t have him, he was too innocent. I shoved him in a broom closet and told him not to come out until I came for him.”
“Did you hide too?” Her voice trembled with the question.
“No. I fought. I remember scratching one of their faces up pretty good, but it was three men against a boy. They said if I kept causing trouble they wouldn’t give my mother a single coin. I... just didn’t want Aaron to be hungry anymore.” His nose wrinkled up in a snarl at the memory. “She received her payment... then dumped us on the streets a few mornings later. We never saw her again.”
His chin quivered a bit, but he steadied it. He was shocked by the lack of fear and shame he felt revealing this to her. She was a stranger, a neutral party that knew nothing of him or where he came from. She was safe in a bizarre way.
“Is that why you have no family name? Everyone else seems to. Manos didn’t mention yours.”
He smirked. “Yes, Princess, that’s why. I couldn’t remember it if I tried. I buried any part of my mother and that time of my life. Even Manos can’t reach that pit of my memory.”
He stroked back his brother’s bloodstained hair. “I havealwaysprotected him. I’ve never failed him... until tonight.”
“One failure in centuries?” Helaina asked, twiddling her thumbs in circles around one another. “I’ve failed my family countless times. We were never perfect, but we were good once. Then I broke us all, beyond any chance of repair... I’m the reason my brother and sister are gone.”
Callum noted no tears on her face, only blankness. They were more alike than he had realized. He had misjudged her.
“You’re not alone, you know.”
She looked up.
“In your suffering, I mean. Whatever you’re holding on to. Sometimes when we grieve, we think we are the only ones who could possibly feel the way we do. That no one else could understand our pain—but we’re wrong. There is always another who carries a similar burden. Tragedy unites us all. Mortals, gods, everyone in between... No one escapes loss. It comes for us all in one form or another.” Callum brought his gaze back to his brother’s chest, ensuring it still moved. “What divides us is what we decide to do with that suffering. Do you let it infect you until there is nothing left? Or do you give all that pain a purpose? A reason.”
She clutched her bent leg even tighter, resting her chin atop it, hanging on his every word.
“What’s your purpose, Helaina?” His dark eyes cut through her with the question.
She gave no answer.
Rapid footsteps sounded from down the hall just then. Callum perked up as the steps grew close. Theo’s face mirrored his hopefulness.
The door swung open. That slender, white-haired male entered the room. His coffee-brown skin radiating specks of light as he shimmered in the dimming sconces.
Lionel, thank the gods.
“How long ago?” The healer grappled through the shelves of jars and potions, bundling them in his arms.
Callum didn’t have that answer.
Helaina did. She told Lionel everything.
“Extraordinary,” he said as he continued to arrange his supplies.
Lionel placed his hands on Aaron’s pale chest. His golden eyes began to blaze a glowing white. Even his fingertips possessed the dazzling glow.
“I cannot save the arm; the tissue is dead and gone. There is nothing there to heal.”
