AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Liammmmmm,” I trilled, holding him in place while my fingers ruthlessly tickled his side. “Waaaake uuuuup.” A squeal escaped his thin lips, his cheeks rosy with laughter.
The delightfully high-pitched sounds only fueled my merciless fingers.
“Ki, stop! I mean it!” Liam laughed so hard a snort slipped out, and my riotous cackles added to his.
“You’re no fun.” I sighed, pulling back to allow him room to breathe. Rocking back on my knees, I surveyed my brother, committing this moment to memory. But when my eyes fell to his chest, I tensed.
“I… I’m sorry, Liam,” I whispered, all the glee sucked from my lungs.
His chest rose and fell in uneven and strained movements, a slight rasp lining each shaking breath.
“It’s fine.” He smiled, but I didn’t miss how his lips twitched at the corners.
“No, it’s not. I shouldn’t have been so careless. Not when you had another attack only two days ago.”
Inhaling and exhaling with practiced care, Liam sought my eyes, his hand wrapping around mine. I hadn’t felt his touch in over a decade, the leather encasing my fingers blocking his warmth. “Seriously. I’m okay. Though, you’re still a pain in my ass.”
“I’ll delight in being a pain as long as you keep breathing.” I scowled, fumbling to remove myself from the bed and smoothing down my simple black shift. I really should have known better.
“You can brew a pot of coffee to make it up to me,” he crooned, the spark back in his eyes.
“Fine. But only because I nearly killed you.” I grinned while Liam shook his head. I wasn’t at all surprised when he threw a pillow at my back on my way out.
Tiptoeing into the kitchen, I went about boiling the water over the hearth, the single sunfire sconce casting a honeyed glow across thin wooden walls. Mined from the Rine Mountains in the north, the rare gems radiated golden yellow light. They cost a handful of silver each, and we were lucky enough to ownonein our humble home.
I peered down at the brewing coffee, knowing it wouldn’t help my nerves…even if it smelled divine.
What Ineededwas to train with Uncle Micah. My mother’s older brother showed up in Cila mere days after the grisly attack that forced me to don the gloves I never removed. At the time, I’d been half alive, half cognizant, and there he was, a stranger that insisted he would train me to defend myself. He’d barely introduced himself before gazing at my hands and shaking his head at what he saw.
“We start tomorrow,” he’d snapped, and it was only because of my grandmother’s pleading that I listened. Supposedly, she’d been the one to implore him to come. With the entire village aware of what occurred, I would’ve become a target to more than ridicule. The attack was no ordinary one, and suspicion would inevitably follow me everywhere.
I hated Micah most days, but months turned into years, and those clandestine lessons became like a salve for the budding anger living just beneath my skin.
Today, on the day of the Calling, I’d never needed Micah more.
But there would be no sparring today, no knives and bloodied fists. No curses and sweat. Swallowing the need to lash out at some poor inanimate object, I curled my fingers around the handles of two steaming mugs as I crept across the groaning planks and back to our room.
Shoving inside, I thrust the cup into Liam’s outstretched hands. “Here, you heathen.”
All I received in thanks was an eye roll, and then he practically inhaled the scalding liquid, his eyes shut in content glee.
“Have I told you lately that you’re a decent sister?” he asked when he came up for air.
A compliment? How unusual.
“You could tell me more often. It wouldn’t hurt.” My shoulders rose in a playful shrug before I indulged from my own cup. The liquid sloshed around the rim, its warm bitterness wetting my lips.
Liam downed an impressive gulp before setting the mug on the bedside table, the wood covered in faint rings from all the other times he’d never used a coaster. I could picture Mother’s narrowed eyes now.
“Kiara,” he began cautiously, and my stomach swelled with ice. “I know what today will bring. There’s no need to avoid it.” I was planning on avoiding it for as long as humanly possible. “I am prepared to leave. I’ve already said my goodbyes.”
To his friends. Our neighbors. His soon-to-be-former life.
“I love you, Liam.”
If my words moved him, he didn’t let on. He merely grunted before retrieving his mug, gripping it until his knuckles shone white. Maybe he did so out of awkwardness. Or shock.I love you. I’d never spoken those words aloud.
He knew full well why I uttered them today.
