17. Eshe #3
His dark brown eyes scanned my face and my body, ensuring I wasn’t a ghost. That I was real.
“My God, Eshe. I can’t believe my own eyes.
You’re alive…” He shook his head and pulled me back into the warmth of his arms. I wasn’t used to receiving so many embraces from men, but here I was, one after the other.
I was grateful that this one was my brother.
I allowed myself to fully embrace him, holding nothing back.
“Wait, how are you here now? Why are you… here?” he asked, brows furrowing.
My gaze turned behind me to Ezra. He was leaning lazily on the wall, his expression stone-cold.
Our eyes locked. A chill traced down my spine.
“Ezra, do you mind giving my sister and me a moment?” Kavid grunted.
“Actually, I do.”
Both our heads snapped toward Ezra. My back stiffened.
“And why is that?” Kavid gritted out. “She’s my sister.”
“Eshe tried to kill me.” Ezra’s eyes held mine, not budging. I could almost feel him testing me, challenging me to push him more. “In my own home.”
Kavid slowly turned his gaze back to me. I nearly trembled at my brother. He was disappointed.
“Why would she do that?” he drawled.
“Revenge,” Ezra answered.
An unsettling moment passed. I was suddenly brought back to when I was a young child being rebuked by my father and mother.
I began to explain myself, “Kavid, he—”
“My sweet sister,” Kavid spoke softly. His voice had turned from that of a young man to a Qahl over eight years.
He was not only my brother, but my Qahl.
My eyes fell. Kavid leaned down and whispered so that only I heard, “Be careful with revenge. It will consume you. And there won’t be anything left of you when you find out.
Trust me, my sister. I don’t want to lose you again. ”
Heat rushed from my neck to my face. I let my brother down. I tried to swallow the pain that stuck in the back of my throat.
“Kavid.” There was pain in my voice, and I hated it. I almost didn’t recognize myself. “How could you just let go of what happened?”
He brought his arms around me and spoke over his shoulder. “Ezra, you can pretend all you want that she’s here under your power, but she’s the Princess of Zyriah. And I’ll be spending this moment with her. Alone.”
To my surprise, Ezra didn’t protest as Kavid brought me into the room he was just in.
There was a middle-aged man in the room, one of his advisers, no doubt, who bowed to Kavid before he left the room.
As soon as he had closed the door, I rushed back into Kavid’s arms and squeezed him so tight I was surprised I didn’t break a rib or two.
“Eshe.” Kavid placed a hand behind my head, cradling me. “I… I can’t believe this.”
“Me neither. I heard you were alive only recently, but I…” How do I explain why I didn’t run to him when I first found out?
We held each other tightly, not wanting to let each other go and dive into a conversation that would only cause more pain. The moment didn’t last nearly long enough.
“Eshe, what are you doing here?” He pulled back to take a good look at me, the crease between his brows more apparent than ever.
He was in pain—worrying, wondering, confused.
I was speechless before I croaked out, “Our family was murdered, Kavid.”
Kavid shook his head absently.
“This… this is not…” He gave me a hard look that caused me to question everything I had done to get here. “You will not be continuing this search anymore. You’ll only find pain, Eshe.”
My head jerked back. “Did you even try to find out?”
Kavid scoffed, not meeting my eyes briefly.
“Of course I did! Some things are better left in the past! I can’t believe you tried to kill Ezra.
” He turned to face me, his jaw hard. “It’s reckless—you could have caused a war, Eshe.
Don’t you realize that? You could have been the reason why tens of thousands of our people have died in the war against Ezra.
Even if we won, we would have lost a great deal of our people.
Thank God that he hasn’t initiated anything since I’ve been here.
Thank God your head wasn’t sent to my chambers in a golden chest as a declaration of war! ”
I straightened my spine.
“This is not how countries handle matters like this,” he continued, pinching the bridge of his nose.
How could he say that?
“He killed our family! That’s how this country handled ours!”
“Calm down, Eshe. This is ludicrous.” He waved a hand. “Why would he, when the countries were about to be united, hmm?”
“You know, don’t you?” I could barely breathe. “You know who killed our family, then? You must!” I stared at him. “Who was it, Kavid?”
Kavid met my eyes, and I swore they turned even darker.
“It’s not who you think,” Kavid whispered, but it still echoed across the chamber.
“Who. Is. It.” My fists curled into a ball.
“I… The only people I could think of were…” He looked away for a moment. “They are dangerous and ruthless.”
“Who?!”
“They are never to be trusted to do anything but bring death and harm. I don’t doubt they were behind our family’s deaths.”
He glanced back at me with a hand brushing his dark hair.
Before he answered me, I knew what he was going to say. The most dangerous militia with elite warriors, and it wasn’t a far guess if Ezra truly had nothing to do with our family’s deaths.
“The Atrove.”