Page 66 of The Song of the Void

“Miss what?”

“You’ll see. I think you’ll like it.”

Well, he must want this to be a surprise of some kind. I allowed him to drag me along, unable to stifle a smile at his excitement, even with the jungle foliage that whacked me in the face in his wake. Soon, we arrived at the western beach, with its sharp black rocks rather than golden sand. He pulled me further down the beach, towards the cliff that protruded over the water.

By the time we walked at the base, the sun had dropped to sink beneath the ocean in the distance, leaving the sky alight with flames as it departed. The sunset washed over the black stone and the springy mosses beneath our feet as we made our way to the edge of the cliff, soaking in the watercolor of peach and vermilion painted across the blue of the ocean. The entire world appeared to be on fire, and it couldn’t have been more perfect.

“It reminded me of us. This place,” Reiven murmured.

The black rocks and the blue of the ocean must have been what he was talking about. So close together, different worlds that inexplicably reached for each other. I couldn’t believe he thought of us when he looked at this lovely scene. A gentle wind carried the fragrance of the grass and blossoming honeysuckle and jasmine, tousling our hair as the music of the waves lapping against the cliff lulled me into a hypnotic state.

“It’s beautiful, Reiven,” I breathed.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, but he couldn’t hide the grimace that shifted across his face. I touched his cheek and drew the pain out of him before he could protest.

He had cracked a smile, but it faded into grim relief when I finished. A shaky exhale escaped his lips as he pulled my hands away to intertwine his fingers with mine. “You really don’t have to do that, Zephra. It’s probably best if you don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because…I don’t deserve the respite you give me. Not at all.” The sunset bled around him, leaving him a black gash against the canvas of the sky. Birds and insects quietly chirped and hummed in the jungle behind us, but the noise fell away the moment Rei’s coal-black eyes locked with mine. The pain and sadness there made my eyes prickle with an uncomfortable warmth.

I clenched his fingers tightly. “Why? No one deserves to suffer all the time like you do. Isn’t there…some way to dispel the curse? Dark magic usually comes with conditions to do so, don’t they? I-I don’t have to go home right away after we return the Voidtome to my people. I can help you find a way to end it⁠—”

He shook his head. “No. Don’t say that.”

“Who cursed you? And why?”

Reiven stilled, then released my hands, dropping his at his sides. He went silent for such a long time, I thought he wasn’t going to answer. But I waited, and eventually, he began to tell me in a quiet, mournful voice.

“My aunt. She had dabbled in dark magic since I was little, but I never expected to have it used against me.”

His own family cursed him?

“I told you before that I was reckless and destructive, and it was only a matter of time until I did something truly unforgivable that my family would refuse to protect me from. I was just a kid, barely older than Ash is now when I made the biggest mistake of my life.” He looked me square in the eyes. “I killed my younger brother.”

A chill descended upon me, sweeping the warmth of the sunset away.

“It was an accident, just another life snuffed out by me and my carelessness. I loved him—I would have never tried to hurt him, but I didn’t know he was there that night.” His voice cracked. Rei swallowed thickly and took a deep breath to steady himself before he spoke again. “As you can imagine, my family didn't want to keep covering for a boy who would kill his own brother, accident or not. My father banished me, and my aunt placed the curse that would torment me for what I had done.” He moved slowly, like in a dream, to pull his gloves off. He dropped them and held up his hands to reveal what he kept hidden beneath them.

Etched into the back of both his hands, angry, glowing lines of some kind of magic formed a single character that must have been an ancient, dark language. I focused on the markings, and Reiven went uncomfortably silent, like he was waiting for me to finish my staring before he continued. The symbols weren't pretty glyphs like what Ash carved into his rings; they were branded into his skin.

“After being banished, I joined a pirate crew and kept living by screwed up codes of life. It didn't matter who I hurt as long as I had fun. Anger festered inside me, first at my father, then at myself after I thought about it and realized exactly what I was.” He covered his face with his hands. “Not a man. A monster.”

My heart shattered, but he tried to give me another fake smile. “My aunt sent me a letter shortly after my banishment to notify me that my parents had passed away, but I wasn’t even allowed to come home for the funeral. I really considered ending it all, to get away from the agony and the shame. But then, I ran into Ashkade around a year ago. He reminded me so much of my brother. Jin was smart like him—and he'd be the same age as Ash if he were still alive. So I couldn't help it. I left pirating to work for him, to protect him.”

To protect him like he failed to protect his brother.

My heart heard those words he didn't actually say and broke all over again. It made sense now why he was so protective of Ash.

“Anyway, this is a punishment for my actions,” he said, lowering his hands. “The curse, the banishment, the pain—I deserve every bit. And as much as I love when you take it away for a while…I don't want to escape a deserved punishment like that.”

There was no rebuttal to what he said, so I just felt…powerless. Even if he deserved the curse laid upon him, I didn’t want him to keep hurting. Besides, wasn’t losing his brother and being banished from his home punishment enough?

My lips trembled as I reached for his hands, and the moment I touched them, I felt it. The source of his pain, or at least a great deal of it, was right there in front of me, burning like a wildfire through his body, stemming from the symbols on his hands. I ran my thumbs gently over the markings. Rei didn’t flinch, so touching them didn’t appear to hurt him, thank the Spirits.

“What does it mean, the symbol?”

“It means…unworthy.”