Page 75 of A Silence So Divine

I stare at Veda, dumbfounded. How could that be? The day at the Sanctuary, she knocked all of us unconscious. If Eden suddenly learned how to control her ability, wouldn’t we have noticed? Doing a self-check, I zero in on my hearing. Perfectlyintact. My vision, fuzzy, but I think the excess of knuckles colliding with my skull has something to do with that.

I don’t even rememberhearinganything. Maybe I was passed out the whole time and that spared me?

A month ago, I didn’t believe in any of this stuff. Not in evil, or darkness, or supernatural beings. Now, I’mlivingwith one. Not only that, but her life is quite literally in the palm of my hand. I’m meant to protect this girl who could kill me within seconds. The irony is not lost on me.

“I underestimated her,” Veda admits, breaking me from my thoughts.

A sound somewhere between a scoff and a laugh bursts out of me, and I shake my head incredulously.

“You have no idea,” I mumble, closing my eyes. Relaxing into the cot, I cross my legs at the ankle.

“She’s killed before, then?” Her tone is casual, as if we’re discussing the weather. I hum noncommittally. It feels too much like a betrayal to Eden for me to open my mouth and let her deepest shame spill out.

She doesn’t press for details. That’s one of my favorite things about her.

“We must do something,” Veda says, her tone bordering on pity. God, haven’t I had enough of that?

When I don’t respond, Veda leans until her face is in my field of vision.

“She cannot go on like this. She’s hanging on by athread, Cecil.”

The words stoke the flame of my ire.

“Yes, you’ve said this before,” I remind her.

Veda stands, propping her hands on her hips. Her eyes are piercing, so I avoid them, my own bouncing around the room. Old wallpaper peels along the seams of the wall, dingy and smoke stained. Charlie should just tear it all down.

“You have to protect her.”

A bomb goes off inside me, and I don’t have it within myself to try and contain it. Dizziness be damned, I push to my feet, shouting all the while.

“What the fuck do you think I’ve been trying to do!?” The volume is enough for Veda’s eye to twitch in the whisper of a flinch, but she sets her jaw and doesn’t back down. She never does.

Her lips part, but I slash my arm through the air to cut her off.

“I could have kicked her out, but I let her stay. I fed her, I bought her clothes, I got her a goddamned sketchpad because she likes to draw!” A finger pops out with each addition to my list.

“I’ve bathed her. I’ve saved her from psychotic murderers. I’ve risked MY LIFE to keep her alive! I brought herherefor fuck’s sake! What else would you have me do, Veda, huh?” The vein in my neck is ready to burst, and my hands shake with the adrenaline coursing through me. It’s not often that I lose control, but I’d be lying if I said it didn’t feel good to voice months worth of frustration. I don’t expect a thank you, and I probably don’t deserve it, but sometimes it feels like I’m viewed as the villain regardless of my efforts.

Veda exhales, nodding her head absently as if I didn’t scream expletives in her face. The way she looks at me borders on placating as she takes a step forward, lips lifting into a sad smile.

“I know you care for her-”

“I care for mybrother.”

The smile vanishes, and she speaks through bared teeth. “I. Wasn’t. Finished.” Each word is punctuated with a poke to my chest.

Grumbling, I close my mouth and drop my hands to my sides. My molars gnash together in an effort to stop an influx of choice words from escaping.

“I know you care for her, because you make it painfully obvious. Whether or not you feel like admitting that right now is not a concern of mine. My concern is the wellbeing of those around me.

She is powerful in ways that could be wildly useful to us, yes. But it comes with a cost.” Her words are sharp, lancing into me.

Suddenly, she gives a far away look, as if deep in a memory.

“If she’s able to control it, which it seems she is, then we have a bigger advantage than I could have imagined. But if it takes controlof her? You cannot imagine the suffering that she will endure.”

Eyeing her speculatively, I clench and unclench my fists. “And you can?”