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My sister drew back, wrenching her hands from his. “And why should I have to wait, Father, to take the love that by law I am promised? Are you suggesting that a Sage be denied her rights? Are you implying treason?”
Thesion stilled at the wordtreason. I choked at the wordlove.
“You know that I would never betray my gods,” he replied hastily. “It is just that your sister—”
“My sister wishes to end my life this very moment,” Melany hissed, backing my Father to the edge of the risen stone we stood on. The roses in the aisle below us began to rise on a phantom wind. Black veins swelled in Melany’s arms as the room grew just two shades dimmer. “I may be only privy to one side of the Truth but I do not need her power to see that. Just as I do not need the Light to end your little experiment with immortal life.”
I unleashed the Light, filling the space between the Shadows. Her power did not fade but stalled as it burned against mine. “Melany, if you don’t stop this, I swear…”
“You’ll do what?” she laughed. “Sick your little Guardians on me?” She released the Shadow from her wrists and the flowers settled back on the stone. I relinquished the Light, allowing her to approach me. We were so close I could feel her darkness trying to bind itself to my heart. “You’re not the only one with an army, sister,” she said. “But I don’t need to tell you about a strength you already envy.”
I swallowed. She hadn’t just said that. At least, she hadn’t meant it that way. There was no way she could have known. I’d been so careful. In my dealings with both the Cleaver and Kalen—I’d been so careful.
Discreetly, I reached out with my Light to search her mind, but my powers were met with a fortress of impenetrable Shadow. A curl of smoke caressed my mind, scraping like one long finger against it. The hair on the back of my neck raised.
As I drew back, Melany gave me a once over, shrugging her shoulders apathetically. “To hell with all the frills and fuss,” she said. “Let’s start this show right now. Fader, go fetch my siblings and my groom. I’m ready to be a missus.”
I WAS A SELFISH, selfish girl. And I’d known that even before Kalen entered the throne room, pale, disheveled, and absolutely terrified to be marrying my sister. Even before he’d been released from the binds of Shadow around his wrist, and pushed into her arms. I was selfish. I’d never felt more relieved of anything than to know that he didn’t want this. That he was being forced to Yield. My relief only lasted a second. One blissful, guilt-ridden second before I saw the blood. Kalen’s arms were steeped in it—a bright, red deluge.
“What did you do to him?” I growled, sprinting to the pair and wrenching him from her grasp. “Are you hurt?” I asked, I yelled.
Kalen made no move to answer. He couldn’t even look me in the eyes. I focused, sweeping with the Light in search of whatever shadowy enchantment Melany had procured over him. I turned Kalen by his shoulders, gripped him tightly, and fought off his attempts to shirk me.
“There is no enchantment, sister,” Melany said over my shoulder. “Do you really think I would need the Shadows to compel my future husband?”
“Then what is this? Whose blood is this?”
It was Gabriel who stepped forward, crossing the aisle from where he and my other siblings stood and into the center of the room. Ione and Dario were silent, watching the horror unfold as if it were just a spat between two older sisters.
“Melany,” Gabe said, his voice rife with concern in a way I’d never heard from him before. “You know I am all about theatrics, but truly...this is too much.”
“Is that so?” Shadows rose from Melany’s palm. “Because I’ve only just started.”
Gabriel swallowed visibly, and then everything around us stilled. Time stopped. The King of Cosmos looked at me, ready to open the Astral Plane.
I grabbed Kalen’s wrist, his skin sticking to me as he squirmed under my grasp as he tried to pull away. I looked at him and then Time surged forward again. Gabriel choked as Melany closed a fist of darkness around his throat. Bones began to crunch under the Shadows. She would break him for helping me.
“Try that again, brother,” my twin hissed, “and it will be your lover on this dais beside me. Astralite or not.”
Gabriel’s eyes bulged as she gripped tighter, waiting for him to give. He would not. Eventually, his body went limp in her hands and she threw him to the floor for no apparent reason other than that it was not fun to torture him anymore. Gabriel lay there on the cold stone, writhing in pain. No one moved to help him. I told myself he was alright, that he was a Sage, and that even if he needed me, Kalen needed me more. Melany smirked, dusted her pristine velvet skirts, and looked at me to continue.
“Now go ahead and find the truth,” she said. “But remember to play fair.”
I clenched my jaw and turned to Kalen, taking his face in my hands, and forcing my way into his hollow skull for the first time since we had crossed paths in these very halls. I let the familiarity of his gentle thoughts overwhelm my senses. The sound of his inner voice almost crippled me. It had been too long since we’d parted in the meadow, and I missed him. I willed myself to focus, not to let my love for him engulf the pressing urgency of the moment. Sternly I whispered into his soul,Son of Herja, tell me all.
His glass-eyed gaze finally met me, just as I had willed it. “You let him live,” he said, and I was taken aback. “He beat me, every day, yet you let him live.”
The Cleaver.
I looked to Melany, my breath stolen from me as I searched for answers anywhere upon her satisfied face. Kalen stifled a sob that brought me back to him.
“When you told me in our meadow, how easy it would be for you to poison him, I had thought there was a reason that prevented you from it. That maybe you thought it would hurt me to kill the only father I ever had. That even though he was cruel, some part of you thought I would hate you for ridding the world of the man who raised me. That, I could understand. How you might love me so much that...” His tears fell freely now as he looked back towards the blood crusting in the hairs of his forearms, packed and nearly black underneath his fingernails. “But there was no reason. No person you love more than yourself.” He glowered at me, and the murderous intensity of that look was all I needed.
“No.No, Kalen,” I gasped. It was all I could say. “No.”
I wondered if I looked even half as pathetic as I sounded, but I didn’t care. I was too crushed by the understanding of what he had done.Devastated, to realize that the blood on his arms was his father’s. The Cleaver was dead. Kalen had killed him at the direction of my sister, and now any chance I’d had at eternity with him was gone.
“Oh, yes, sister,” Melany said coolly. “I told Kalen all about your consorts with the enemy. How clever of you to sweet talk both father and son, The Cleaver and his bastard heir, as it were. I imagine if one of them failed whatever little task you had, the other would suffice.”
