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“Can’t sleep, but that’s not new,” Renton said, folding over to brace his elbows on his knees. His laugh was strained, the truth feeling like ghostly hands dragging his insides out for examination. “I’m not sure what the next move is. Mire trained me to lead, but I can’t even make a decision on how to protect everyone. Back then it was easy. Step between the kid and the monster.”
Cold magic touched the edges of Renton’s mind.
“You think leaving again will fix this?” Aeyis asked. “That you can take on Boedworth, his hunters, and the Chaos lord Kherathi alone?”
“Boedworth will be hell-bent on finding us. Me, in particular. I could buy you some time to find a place to settle down off the isles. Then I can carry out what I was born to do.”
Ashen dust churned into small tornadoes along the railing.Fidgeter, their mother had called the youngest Murfell boy. At least that much hadn’t changed. Still, Renton couldn’t help but feel like his brother was a stranger.
“I never wanted to run,” Aeyis said. “I didn’t in Mire. I don’t now. Hunters can come to us. We’re in the domain of the Embassy.”
“Izral won’t let us hide out here forever. Especially when Bogland hunters come knocking at his gates. We’ll be tossed out.”
Aeyis’s swirl of magic collapsed in a sudden heap on the tiled floor. The silver rings around his white irises shone in the ambient light when he turned them on Renton. “I go where you go. Whether that’s after Boedworth or to Aranma or with Tenah to Vozar.”
A muscle in Renton’s jaw flexed. He peered through the railing at shadows parading through the streets. Some of them carried sticks of sparkling fire, their childish laughter almost infectious.
“If it’s any consolation, you should know I was never suffering in Mire,” Aeyis said. “A smidge from boredom, I’ll admit. But I was free to do as I pleased as long as I remained in the village. Boedworth never actually cared about me, and Mias stopped checking in when I didn’t play into his attempts to get under my skin. They just wanted something to lord over you in exile to assure your obedience.”
Renton sucked in a long breath. All those years he’d imagined his brother tortured or imprisoned. How many bodies had he hauled back to Cragnore in hopes of one day clearing Aeyis’s charges? The reek of their tainted blood would never leave him.
He looked over at his brother and asked, breathless, “Why did you stay?”
Aeyis rubbed at the back of his neck, flushing with pink color. “I thought you’d come back for me. You know, if you really cared.”
“Aeyis,” Renton said carefully, “I was exiled.”
“You didn’t care about breaking the laws when it came to her.”
The shock of Aeyis’s words was just as powerful as if his brother had struck him with a fist. Heshouldhave gone home sooner. Stolen Aeyis away. Fled the isles. Abandoned his duties.
Why hadn’t he?
Renton dug his fingers into his temples. “Shit. Aeyis, I’m sorry. I thought I was doing what was best for both of us for once. Working within the laws to clear whatever bullshit record Boedworth had on you so you could move to Hathrowyn with me.”
He’d kept the second bedroom at the top of his tree home empty for when he obtained proper documentation to move his brother there. It had a view of the forest and let in delicious scents from the grill house next door.
Now, Hathrowyn and Mire would never be a home for them.
“I never wanted to live in Hathrowyn,” Aeyis admitted.
Renton shook his head. “Then why didn’t you write me back?”
His brother dragged a finger through his resting magical dust. “Mias found out about our letters. He threatened anyone who might help me communicate with you. Some time after, he told me he’d found your corpse in the Boglands. He’s such a skilled liar and his thoughts are so slippery, I started to wonder if he was telling the truth. Why else wouldn’t you come back?”
Renton’s chest was rapidly caving in. “I assumed you blamed me for father’s death.”
“I know your heart, brother. We were all manipulated in our own ways. Mias convinced Gireth that you’d wound up on Dreaddix. The oaf stole away on the next flight.”
Shaking his head, Renton muttered, “That idiot.” The horrors his friend must have endured. “How did he escape?”
Aeyis smiled. “You should ask him. As usual, it’s an entertaining story.”
Renton snorted. “Not surprising.”
“When Gireth came home and Mias started spouting lies about your death, he wasn’t…suited for normal life. Dreaddix changed him, no matter how much he clings to his humor. He took up a post in the prisons, and I figured I’d stay a bit longer in case you showed up or Gireth decided he deserved better than the path he’d accepted. I guess we were all just biding time, waiting for the perfect piece to shift into place.”
Instead, Renton had allowed Boedworth to break him. Exile him. Torture him. Shattered bone after bone. Carve scar after scar. He’d been worse than defeated. And all those years of suffering abuse within the High Court, Aeyis had been sitting at home waiting for him. Gireth had needed him.
