Chapter 16 #4
Did Khayrivven like being put on display like that? Not the least bit. Becoming invisible had been his goal when he’d been thrust into the military as a child, and now that his power and build made him stick out, his skills in Veiled were the only thing that helped him blend in.
Unconvinced of Elina’s response, Khayrivven nodded, and as he did, her eyes flicked to her forearm—the one resting on Khayrivven’s bicep, and his stomach did a jolt of ire at the sight of the array of scars.
He knew his composure had slipped the moment Elina’s eyes locked on his, a plea entering her features not to react.
With all the self-control he’d accumulated over the years, Khayrivven forced a bland smile onto his lips, dipping his chin an inch, and Elina’s face relaxed, but inside his chest, a storm was raging, ready to tear down this palace.
From the corner of his eye, Khayrivven noted the guards tightening the half-circle, their spears angled casually in Elina’s direction. No one else would notice because they weren’t looking for it. But he did.
“That must be quite the story to leave such scars.” He used a conversational tone, keeping his smile in place as if he was speaking about the weather, and Elina, Guardians bless her, chuckled as if it were nothing.
“I had an encounter with one of the desert rose bushes in the gardens a few years back.” She tilted her head, leaning an inch closer, and Khayrivven’s breath caught as the scent of flowers and wild forest that he hadn’t smelled since childhood hit his nose.
His instincts screamed ‘family’ so loudly he nearly didn’t hear the other thing she murmured.
“It was the morning the entire court was in uproar because a fire wielder had snuck into the military headquarters and nearly burned down half the camp.”
Khayrivven’s heart stopped right there in his chest.
He remembered the night like it was yesterday. The night his fire magic had burst free and raged in the military camp where he’d been stationed.
The morning after, when he’d been dragged into a stone chamber where he couldn’t set anything on fire and left there for hours as he waited for his fate to be decided.
A missive from Ulder had arrived late that day, with a message as clear as the blue sky usually canopying Sen Dunai’s deserts: Don’t forget who will suffer if you use that power to serve the wrong cause.
Back then, he’d been too busy counting his final heartbeats, convinced Ulder would have him executed, and he hadn’t thought much about why those words had been scripted in crimson ink.
As he peered sideways, down at Elina’s forearm once more, the thin, pale lines made the blood chill in his veins, and a killing calm settled over him that he hadn’t felt since the day he’d seen Elory Vednis kneel before the Triad, covered in grime and seething at the people who would decide her fate.
What had been his first words to his Gutter Gem? Great, you actually want to die.
Because that would have spared her a lifetime of suffering because of the power she carried within her blood. It would have spared pain and hardship after a life already filled with both.
It would have spared her him. Because everyone he allowed himself to love fiercely got hurt, and Elory Vednis deserved better than being collateral in a war Khayrivven had taken on in the shadows of his existence.
She deserved better than what life had served her, and what little he could give her in dark corridors, sneaking around in secret, by far didn’t make up for what he’d taken from her with his selfish need to keep her alive.
“Are you quite all right, Captain?” Elina chirped, her voice too shrill in Khayrivven’s ears, all wrong.
Khayrivven was about to answer, but the music slowed, and the song was over.
He had mere heartbeats to decide what his last words to his sister should be.
Because this might have been, in fact, the last time he’d see her.
Who knew what Ulder planned to do with her if he found out that she’d hinted at her scars—and that Khayrivven had made the connection, what Ulder must have done to write that message in blood.
The guards were already closing in, casually letting Khayrivven know it was time to let go, but he wasn’t ready. He would never be ready.
“The next time I see you, we’ll talk about the desert roses,” he said for lack of anything else to offer that would show her he understood, and the recognition in her eyes almost let him hope she’d figured out who he was.
Then, to the best of his knowledge, Elina Falcrest didn’t know she had a brother.
“I’ll be looking forward to it.” Elina’s throat bobbed as Ulder approached with Lory on his arm, stepping to Elina’s side, his gaze forcing Khayrivven to drop his hands and let Elina go.
“Thanks for the dance, Captain.” She curtsied, and her eyes met his one more time, flashing the blue color of their father’s.
“The pleasure was all mine,” Khayrivven answered with a bow, inhaling deeply one more time to capture the scent of flowers and wild forest that reminded him of his home.