Chapter 29 #2
Bekn snorted. “I stopped being your brother a long time ago.”
Theo’s breath caught. “Don’t say things like that.”
“No?” Bekn tilted his head, blue eyes flashing. “Then tell me when I was ever your brother. When I put you in that cage twelve hours a day, digging through the deep web for traces of Imperial blood? Or when I let them bully you, break you, disgrace you?”
“Stop,” Theo choked. His eyes were wet, his lips trembling.
Around them, the entire hall had gone silent.
Theo didn’t lower the gun, his hand shaking as he held it at Bekn’s face. “I loved you. I still do. You’re the only one I have.”
“No. If Cyprian had just killed you that day in the arena, all your problems would’ve been solved. But no, he let you live, because they are monsters. Freaks. And now you’re being owned by one of them.”
Bekn clicked his tongue when Theo’s breath broke and the first tear slipped free.
“Look at you. They turned you into this.”
“I never wanted—” Theo began, but he was shaking too hard to finish.
“Do you think I wanted this?” Bekn raised his hands.
“To stand here in the fucking Breaking Storm while they slaughter what’s left of us?
No. But here we are. Someone had to remember what they did.
Someone had to make them pay.” His mouth twisted.
“And in the end, even Concordant fed us to you. They handed you this place the second we stopped being useful.” His voice dropped to a whisper.
“Do you remember what was left of him? Do you remember how they sent him back?”
Theo swallowed. His eyes had gone puffy. “Yes.”
“Yes.” Bekn nodded. “So I gave Helion what it gave us. Fear. Rot. Bodies. I let their perfect little planet choke on the blood it pretends not to see.”
The words made Ryneth feel sick. So this had never been just about drugs or trafficking. Bekn had made a cause out of grief, and half the people in this factory had followed him because Helion had already taken from them first.
Theo shook his head hard enough to make his jaw clench. “No. You killed innocent people. You drugged others. You gave me away.”
“Innocent?” Bekn glanced at the factory, at the burning lines, the soldiers closing in through the smoke. “There are no innocents on this planet, Theo. Green glass. Pretty towers. Soft music. Gold balconies. But it’s all built on blood.”
Theo stepped closer. “And me? Why did you leave me?”
Bekn’s gaze snapped back to him. “Because you were a lost cause. The day they brought you to their laboratories, I knew I’d lost you forever.”
Theo flinched like the words had struck somewhere old and buried. “But I didn’t choose!” he shouted, voice raw with desperation. “I didn’t choose.”
“Perhaps not. But you cried. You begged. You always needed someone to save you.” Bekn’s mouth curved. “So they gave you to one of them.”
Ryneth frowned, trying to understand what Bekn meant. Had Theo been a victim too? Could he be Dariux?
“That’s enough talk,” Moargan barked. “Arrest all of them. You are officially under arrest by Helion law.”
Loud footsteps echoed through the tunnel. A moment later, Aviel came through the smoke in full combat armor, golden eyes burning hard enough that the line of soldiers shifted out of his path without being told. Blood streaked one gauntlet.
He looked straight at Theo. “You made me come down here myself?”
Ryneth understood right then that anyone who got between them was about to die.
Then he reached inside his belt, drew the jeweled leash in one sharp motion, and clipped it to Theo’s collar with a hard metallic snap before catching him by the back of the neck and hauling him against his side.
Bekn gave a soft, ugly laugh, blood on his teeth as he looked up at Theo. “There you are. Right back on your leash.”
Theo flinched like the words had struck him, a raw sound catching in his throat before he folded into Aviel’s side, turning his face into his shoulder as if hiding there was the only thing keeping him upright. Even from across the tunnel, Ryneth could see the tears on his face.
Aviel never looked at Bekn. His gaze stayed fixed on Theo like his brother had already stopped mattering.
Then Bekn screamed.
The sound tore through the tunnel sharp enough to make everyone flinch. Fire burst over Bekn’s shackled hand in a flare of gold, burning so hot the chains glowed red around his wrist. He jerked against the soldiers with a raw shriek, trying to wrench free as the smell of scorched skin hit the air.
Ryneth stared. For one stunned second, he couldn’t move. Then something hard and cold settled in his chest, and he realized he didn’t feel sorry for Bekn at all. Not after Theo. Not after everything.
Beside him, Daven let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “Fucking psychopath,” he muttered, sounding almost impressed.
“For fuck’s sake,” Moargan snapped. “End it.”
Luminary guards surged forward, forcing the last Attica fighters to the ground, wrenching weapons free and locking chains around their wrists. Bekn writhed on his knees with smoke curling from his burned hand, the pain still tearing ragged sounds out of him.
Daven’s hand tightened on the back of Ryneth’s neck, his thumb pressing once beneath his ear like he was checking that Ryneth was still there, while his other hand stayed locked around Ryneth’s wrist like he had no intention of letting go again.
“Next time,” he said, staring straight into him, “you stay where I can touch you.”
Ryneth held his gaze through the pain, through the storm still humming under his skin. “Next time,” he said, “we go in together.”
For one beat, Daven just looked at him.
Then he caught Ryneth by the jaw and kissed him, hard enough to bruise, like he still hadn’t decided whether he wanted to punish him or drag him closer.
“Fine,” he muttered against Ryneth’s mouth. “Together.”
Thunder rolled above them.
Below the platform, Helion burned through the storm.