Chapter 11
Chapter
Eleven
Selene
Sable storms into my chambers, her face a mask of fury I’ve known since childhood. Dark, precise, and unforgiving.
Her long black hair-identical to mine-is braided so tightly that it yanks her eyebrows into a scowl.
Her dress whooshes like torrents of foreboding wind.
I wouldn’t put it past her to wear a gown into battle.
The number of jewels adorning her neck might confuse some into thinking she’s the queen. She loves that.
Sable is a star that outshines every dying one around her. Little does she know that the stars that shine the faintest often hold the greatest potential, for when they finally burn out, their death sparks a power beyond measure.
All my light dimmed the day Everett died. I’m clinging to life like a tiny star. Surely my end will unleash a beast into this world so great it will force Sable to her knees.
Sable lowers her chin as if she were leveling a blade.
That’s when I see it. Under all her finery is sweat stained with dirt.
Wow, Galen really did imprison her. She was so eager to seek her revenge that she’d forgone a bath.
I’m honored.
Sable’s lips curl, as does her hand holding the arrow. She has no bow; she doesn’t need one. Her words are a weapon more destructive.
Suddenly, the air in the room hisses, particles drift and tingle over my skin, causing the hair on my arms to rise.
Pop!
I recoil, my toes snagging on the sheets.
“Fuck! Shit!” Titus grunts. He steps towards Sable. That’s when I notice her hand, how slowly it moves, like a single droplet of water clinging to a leaf. It’s so close to falling off, moving, but it doesn’t. “She didn’t come in the bubble,” Titus exhales in relief.
He reaches up and holds his neck, his worry evident.
This feeling… I know exactly what it is. How many times had Everett trapped me in his cage of unmoving time?
But my brother is dead.
My wide eyes target Titus.
No! No. No?
“You… you… you!” No, it could not be! I shove away. My back slams against the headboard of my bed. “You!”
“Yes,” Titus says, as if reading my mind.
“How?” A vampire with fae magic? Impossible.
His hand drifts from his neck to his hair, fingers digging into the roots as he tries to remove the weeds from his mind. “I need you to tell me why Everett gave me his magic, because the few words he spoke to me make no sense.”
Words he spoke? What words?
The shock causes my body to shake. I feel weightless. I grab my sheets, needing to hold something. Anything.
This makes no sense.
“Fae can’t give their magic away.”
“Yes, they can.”
My throat thickens as I stare down at the sheets.
Titus steps to the invisible wall that blocks Sable. “I don’t know how to pull her in?” he mutters. “I’d choose her instead of you, considering you want me dead.”
He starts to reach out to Sable.
Oh…. now it makes sense. A final request Everett asked of me before he left. One I did not listen to, but now I realize I should have.
The past.
“I need you to promise me something, Selene. Promise me you will not kill the man who kills me.” My older brother looks down his perfect nose at me; his face stern, yet his eyes are loving.
“Man? Do you assume a human can kill a fae?” I joke as I tug on the leather straps that hold his rerebraces in place.
I frown. These straps are old. The smith made him new armor, but he offered it to a soldier.
“Human, fae, no matter the magic, we are all the same. Forgetting that fact is what has caused these wars. Greed and self-proclamation, it all spiraled when the runes were stripped from these lands.”
My sigh is heavier than the armor covering his body. “Not the runes again, Everett. The gods banished them for a reason.” He’s always so focused on these runes.
Focus on the war and staying alive!
“Selene, the gods did not remove them. We did, and one day, we shall help return them.”
“I don’t care if the runes return; I just want you to.” Reaching up, I playfully pinch the tip of his pointy ears.
“Make me a promise: you won’t try to kill whoever ends my life.”
My hand drops as my forearms stiffen. “Absolutely not. I will hunt them down.”
“Don’t be a huntress,” he scorns, as if that title carries a bad omen.
“You were the one who taught me how to hold a bow.”
“I was teaching you how to survive, not kill. Do not forget that.”
“The two share the same meaning during times of war. Killing is surviving, and surviving is killing, Everett,” I retort. “You’d better survive, and yes, that means kill. I need you. I can’t suffer this world alone.”
His throat bobs, and his eyes cloud over. “Our suffering will end in a dark symmetry, my dearest sister.”
I know that tone. He saw a vision of the future.
What weight must his shoulders bear, knowing the steps I will take before I have found the path to venture down?
“You saw my end,” I admit in a hushed whisper.
He grabs my hands, trying to calm me. Everett could always tame wild animals. He failed only once, with our sister, Sable. No one could tame her.
“Selene,” His grip tightens, hard enough to bruise.
My heart skips a beat. “What did you see?” Just tell me!
“I see many things. Outcomes always shift.” A distant horn shatters our moment. It's the call to formation. “Wars are won by those who listen before they react, Selene. Listen first. Promise me you will not harm the one who slays me.” He reaches up, grabs my chin, and forces my head to nod.
His eyes linger longer than his boots do.
I still feel Everett’s eyes watching me. Judging me when I carved the arrow meant for Titus.
Everett saw the night I tried to kill Titus. He saw the moment when Titus wanted to choose Sable over me. All because I didn’t follow Everett’s order. I turned Titus against me.
Why is it so important that Titus trusts me?
“Wait!” I shriek. I leap off the bed, stumbling on the broken vines. I rush to Titus. He turns in time to catch me.
Wham!
Our chests collide, my thin dress presses into the warmth of his leather. Hard meets soft. Fury clashes with confusion.
Forgiveness smothers vengeance.
His rough hands grip me protectively before he gently lowers me to the dirty floor.
I grab his face, my fingers pressing into his beard; the coarse hair is rough beneath my fingertips. “Under no condition should you reveal your time-weaving ability to Sable.”
His jaw clenches; the movement has the tips of my fingers pressing into his jaw, trying to grab hold of his bones to keep him safe.
Safe.
Here I am, trying to keep my brother’s killer safe.
My eyes stretch into chasms of dread and fear. Titus looks deep into them, seeing every nightmare inside my mind.
So many questions need to be answered. So, so many.
His throat rolls. A chill slides over his skin like bladed shoes gliding over ice. It’s graceful, cold, alluring, and a little scary. His time-weaving magic is about to break.
I look at Sable, who now has the arrow raised toward the bed. The bed I should be in! I step back. “I need you to trust me, Titus.” I take another step.
“You tried to kill me last night.”
I step back again until my thighs hit my mattress. I need to be in the same position when the bubble pops, or Sable will suspect time was frozen. She can not know Titus has Everett’s magic!
“I did.”
He studies at Sable. “Something tells me I should trust her instead.”
“You know what is worse than death, Titus?” The mattress dips as I sink. “Being used,” I answer.
His pupils dilate, right as a bead of sweat falls off his brow.
“Sable will use you. She will take and take until you’re just bones.
Even then, she will crack them open and take what’s hidden inside.
She will drain you dry, leaving nothing behind.
That’s what she does. Think and be fast. Once she knows you can time-weave, everything, and I mean everything you hold dear will be her leverage. ”
“And it’s not already yours?”
“I wanted an eye for an eye, Titus. You killed Everett; tell me, do you have any siblings you love? You would do the same.”
“Is Sable not your sibling?”
“Not one I love. There is a difference.”
“How can I trust you? You wanted my life. Fury like that does not fade. It’s resilient and full of tricks.”
“A piece of my brother is inside you. I’d give my life to protect him… that includes you now.”
Titus looks at his hand. “I can’t control it.”
“That makes your circumstance as fragile as glass; press too hard and it shatters; expose it to heat and it melts; thrust it in ice and it cracks. You need to choose wisely what you will do, Titus.”
Pop!
The time bubble bursts open. I keep my eyes on Titus, but from the corner of my eye, I watch Sable. She charges toward me, arrow in hand. She leaps into my bed like the beast she is, landing on top of me, swinging her hand back and thrusting the arrow down toward my heart.
Right before the tip can pierce my skin, she is lifted off of me. Titus’s body blurs my view. His mighty hand plucks the arrow from hers.
Snap! He tosses it down.
“She’s the queen,” he roars. He positions himself between Sable and me.
A dangerous place to be.
His brown eyes bounce between us. His thoughts show confusion. I watch with bated breath as he weighs his options.
Then, oh no, Titus’s eyes harden. His jaw clenches with a decision.
His swallow shows his worry as he begins to turn and look at Sable.