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“You should have never fucked him. You should have never fucked my little brother. You chose him when you don’t even know him.” His words are an agonizing sort of anger, and I relent. He climbs upward, laying his body on top of mine—his chest to my back.
Brother? What lie is he concocting now?
“Do you know why Christian’s father ended our friendship?” His breath tickles the shell of my ear.
“I don’t trust a word you say.” I say, kicking a leg backward into him. He doesn’t move, just begins to speak.
“You want to know our complicated family history? My father—” His voice crescendos, carrying around the room. Wherever the demons are, they haven’t made it here yet. “My father, Victor Lazarus went around town and fucked a bunch of women behind my mother’s back, and you know which woman he happened to impregnate? The Sheriff’s now deceased wife. You think the former Sheriff Valen knew his son wasn’t his? Of course. Just look at us, we’re exact copies. With only eight months of an age gap. Disgusting right?”
He leans closer, cold, minty breath against my ear.
I will not feel bad for him. I will not feel bad for him. I will not feel bad for him.
My mind travels to the many moments we spent running around this estate, the fleeting talks in the forest, the quiet study times. All of it, worthless. I used to feel sorrow for the lonely boy atop the cliff. Chasing him like a lovelorn puppy. But he pushed me away at every moment.
A droplet lands on my cheek as he leans fully onto me, his cheek against mine. Strong arms reach around me and he embraces me in a hug.
Even now when confronted with his sins he chooses not to look me in the eye. Why was he holding onto darkness and isolation?
“Kieran…” I sigh.
“Yes, Marisa?”
“What is it that you want?”
“You.”
“You’ve tried and lost multiple times and I was a fool.”
“Do you know when you love something so much, so irrevocably? Beyond time and space. Beyond what knowledge and law is created by humankind. Beyond the word love itself. The ugly, disgusting word that traps itself into the hollow column of your throat and stays there for an eternity because there’s no way there’s one simple word to encompass this singular emotion.”
“You’re mad.” My own tears well up. He used me. He married another woman for her finances and used me.
Kieran presses a kiss to the back of my head.
“Why did you choose him?” he asks more forcefully this time.
“Why not Kieran? Why not choose someone who continually and irrevocably chooses me?”
He plants another kiss on the back of my head. “I’m happy you used the key.”
“Why did you lock me away? Why even bother?”
“You were never intended to be the target of this…I wanted to keep you safe and away from what the group wanted to do with you. It just so happens that both you and Christian were able to transcend the Limina. Your souls traveling to find one another is not a variable I expected. In a way, I’m happy that it made us lose our memories in the below, it saved you. But you have to go before he wakes up.”
“What are you doing to him?” I ask, choosing not to believe his lies over the memories which now depict my truths.
His grip softens. “He’s dying anyways, and the Limina requires payment. My father’s payment was his soul. Christian wants his immortality…and he’s still my brother after all.”
“You will never be the one I choose again, you know that right?” Through gritted teeth, I resume my fight.
“I was the first one you chose. I will be the last. Everything I’ve done in life is for you, for the people who have used me, and that I have cared for in return. So, Marisa Wren, you need to leave here and never return.” He climbs off of me and pulls me up with my hands behind my back. I send a foot flying into his knee but he is suddenly pulled off of me. It takes me a breath to realize the emptiness behind me.
Pivoting, I see Christian standing there with his hands gripped around Kieran’s throat.
“Hello big brother.” Black ichor seeps from Christian’s wounds. A villainous smirk flourishes across his face; his body is translucent, glitching like an old television with faulty wiring.
“What the hell…”
