67. CHAPTER 67
Zayne
The Capital
Kallum, Ciondo
Zayne's brother waited until he could no longer move to show himself.
How cruel.
Was it because he didn't want to fight him? Or did the Phaedra want Luke to taunt him?
Kira stood between the brothers. “You're not doing this to him.”
While he didn't know what to call the emotion weighing on his brother's features, he knew it was something like sorrow. “I'll give you time together, after I collect his weapons.”
“Don't come anywhere near him.”
Luke shifted the gun from Zayne's face down to his shoulder. “Do you want to test whether I'll hurt him? Take three steps backward and do not move from that spot.”
The Phaedra really was sadistic, choosing his brother to do this. Unable to move, Zayne watched Kira step back while Luke approached.
What about Brock? He should have found them by now. Did he get his best friend killed too? The only real brother he had?
Kneeling beside him, Luke looked down at the bloody hole in Zayne's uniform and up to the red smearing his lips. “You're dying.”
“Spare… her…” Zayne struggled with each word, but he begged his brother with everything inside him.
Quiet, Luke took Zayne's gun and knives, confiscating his weapons, searching for anything hidden. Then, he took off his uniform jacket and settled it over Zayne. “You're freezing.” His brother looked at Kira, jaw knotting. “Come back.”
She ran back to Zayne's side, but Luke stopped her and nodded at her pockets, hand extended. After she gave up her knife, he quickly patted her down, and Zayne wanted to burn the flesh off his hands. At least he didn't find the uranium.
As soon as she was released, she fell over Zayne to block his head. “Get away from him.”
Luke's eyes flickered to her and then to the ground. He nodded, giving them their space. Though he still held his gun, he aimed it at the ground.
“I'm sorry,” Luke said.
“You don't have to do this.” Kira held Zayne's head. “It's not too late.”
“No one is making me do this.” Tears coated his eyes like glass. “The Phaedra doesn't know.”
His words tore through Zayne's chest like another bullet. He didn't think they could hurt each other anymore, but if there was no limit to love, then there wasn't to hate either.
“Why are you doing this?” Kira's cry cut through the air, a condemnation and plea in one.
“I don't want to.” Luke was still looking into his eyes. “I never wanted this, brother. You left me no choice.”
Dying hurt in a way the worst injuries never did, but it brought more than pain. The dead no longer whispered, satisfied with Zayne's suffering, content to watch and wait. Just like his brother.
The old anger and wounds he thought impossible to forget about felt meaningless now. Zayne saw beyond his resentment. All this looked so much like hate, but there were tears in his brother's eyes.
Grief.
Forever, Luke claimed to be helping Zayne. His brother believed that, didn't he? He didn't relish killing him, but thought he had to. Could Zayne do this to him? If he had to choose between Kira and his brother, what would he do?
Anger and terror had gotten the best of Kira, but her voice sounded more sober now. She couldn't dim the fire in her eyes, never had been able to, but Zayne knew she was controlling herself. “You are making a choice. You can kill your own flesh and blood, or you can save him.”
She was right. This wasn't the same as Luke holding a gun to Kira's head. Zayne wasn't trying to kill his girls or anyone he cared about. He was just trying to save Kira.
Luke set a trap for him, lay in wait while Zayne slowly died, and came to finish the job.
That was unforgivable.
“I know you think even I can't do this to my own brother, so you'll try to get to me. Don't waste what time you have left with him. I've made up my mind.”
Luke walked closer, and Kira clasped Zayne's head, shifting to cover him again. But he knelt down, just out of reach. “I told you I was always watching, even when you think I'm not. Why did you have to do it? I warned you.”
It was never the Phaedra waiting for him at the end of all this, but his scorned brother. He knew not to underestimate Luke, but Zayne didn't think he'd go this far.
“Make him comfortable,” Luke said. “Go on.”
Weeping quietly, Kira shifted and drew Zayne's head onto her lap, her soft hands warming his face.
His heavy eyes slid shut, and he sank into her peace.
He wanted to thank his brother for letting him die like this, with her, but then he didn't want Kira to watch, and he realized what a twisted thought that was. To thank the brother who killed him.
Luke took Zayne's bag from the ground and lifted him to slide it under his back. The next breath came easier.
Nothing really mattered except one thing right now, and he'd spend his only breath on it. “Spare… her…”
Hand on Zayne's arm, Luke squeezed him once before withdrawing. “I can't let her go. She's important to the operation.”
With breathing easier, Zayne managed to speak. “So what? It's one… of many…” He held Luke's gaze, looking beyond all that had happened and to the boy who taught Zayne how to climb to the tallest branch of their favorite tree. “She's the only one… She's all… I'm asking for.”
Grief tightened his brother's body.
Darkness tugged on Zayne, but he couldn't give in yet.
He refused to look away from Luke. Refused to forget that they'd once loved each other.
That Luke once protected him and helped him when he skinned his knees.
Stood up for him at the academy his first year when older kids taunted the new ones like him. “You're… my… brother…”
A tear broke free and traveled down Luke's hard face. “I'm your brother. I'm responsible for you.”
Kira clutched Zayne close. “Let him go. Take me and let him go.”
Luke and Zayne were still looking at one another, Kira's pleas fading into the background.
Zayne nodded once, not caring about changing Luke's mind, just wanting to reach through the broken logic to make him see he didn't need to kill Kira.
“I'll let her live.” Luke's stare remained hard even with his eyes glassy. “But the rest ends here. It's gone on too long, and you're too dangerous now. You're not a boy anymore. I've given you too many chances.”
“It's okay…” Zayne would take Luke's guilt from him if he spared Kira. He didn't care. He'd bury it with him.
“It is not okay.” Kira shook. “You're murdering your own brother. This would ruin your mother. She'd never—”
“Do not speak about my mother.” Luke's eyes shifted to Kira. “You know nothing. She was ours, and these vain pursuits killed her. It doesn't matter what Mom wanted because she's dead. Nothing can hurt her anymore. We already did all the damage there was to do.”
“You're going to regret this for the rest of your life,” Kira said.
“You think I don't know that?” Luke's nostrils flared.
“I watched my children weep over their Grammy's body.
I hold them when they cry in their sleep.
I may be his brother, but I'm their father. And I will not—I will fucking not—scatter their ashes to the wind.” Eyes back on Zayne, the raw pain shone in his eyes.
“You're too dangerous to leave alive. My girls need peace and stability. You'll ensure this war never ends.”
“You selfish bastard,” Kira said. “Your daughters will find out what you did, and they'll never speak to you again.”
“But they'll be able to speak because they'll be alive.” His voice rose to a shout, something Zayne had never heard.
“Zayne has gotten enough people killed. I'm the only one who sees him.
I'm the only one who ever sees him. Father and the Phaedra don't understand.
They're blinded. I'm responsible for my brother. I'm ending this.”
“Enough…” Zayne tried with all his strength to reach for Kira, but his hand only twitched. She saw it and reached down to lace her fingers with his. “It's over…”
“I never hated you,” Luke said. “Not for a day. Not once. And I shouldn't have been with Nadia. I'm sorry. I'm… I'm really, truly sorry.”
Finally, Zayne believed him.
“I forgive you...” Zayne struggled to keep his eyes open, refusing to leave Kira alone with Luke. “Just keep… your word…”
Luke nodded. “I'll spare her for you. For my atonement.
I saw you walking this path so long ago, and I tried desperately to stop it.
I failed you, and I'll live with that forever.” Tears coated his eyes.
“Even tonight, I hoped you'd turn back when you saw Graves.
You just wouldn't stop. Why wouldn't you stop, brother?”
HE LIES
SEIZE YOUR LIFE
FIGHT
It wasn't worth the effort to make his brother understand, but Kira's words burned in the darkness encroaching upon him.
“And you.” Luke snarled at Kira. “I told you this would happen. I gave you the PXI and told you that if you didn't stop, he'd suffer like that. You didn't listen.”
Her hands tightened against him, and he knew she took the blame Luke heaped on her. But it wasn't hers to take. Zayne was never going to let her die here. He tried to say it, but he couldn't draw enough breath again. A massive weight bore down on his lungs.
Luke watched him, expression a mess of conflicting emotions.
“Call for help,” Kira said. “There's no more time.”
Luke shook his head and added his own pack beneath Zayne to lift him higher. Breathing was still hard, but that helped.
“I don't want to see what the Phaedra will do to him.” Wild terror danced in Luke's eyes. “I won't let him. Zayne would rather die. This is the only way.”
Zayne understood. He understood, and that might have been the saddest part. “If I see Mom…” He fought for a full breath, wheezing between words. “I'll tell her… you love her…”
Luke looked away, gripping his pant leg. “Don't tell her what I've done. I don't want her to suffer.”
“I won't...”
“Stop it.” Kira bowed forward. “Both of you stop.”
“Kira. This isn't your fault… I'd have done it… even if you said no…” Zayne turned his face against her hand, body relaxing. “Stay alive… Don't… break…”
She dipped until the bloodied tips of her hair tickled the side of his face. “I'm not letting you die. I won't say goodbye.”
“You… mean…” His teeth chattered so badly he worried she couldn't understand him. “Everything…”
The pain in her voice crushed him. “I want to see you free. I want to see you alive for the first time in your life. You can't die.”
“I… am… free…” He wasn't sure if he'd actually said it, but he tried.
“You're a good man, Zayne. You deserve happiness.” She kissed his face. “Meeting you is the best thing that has ever happened to me.”
How? Look at all the horrors they'd faced.
She said more to him, but his mind was drifting. Her mouth moved while the words were lost to a void. Zayne looked at her as long as he could before darkness ate every bit of her, and he could only cling to her nearness.
There wasn't anything left to give, but he let her have it, parting his lips to utter all that filled him. But he couldn't even speak. Didn't even know the words for this. Just opened himself up to her and let her have it all.
And then he wasn’t cold anymore.
He didn’t hurt anymore.
This day, the past, his hopes—they wound together.
Warmth enveloped him, thick warmth like fresh blood. Zayne sank into it, and it carried him away from everything he’d tried so hard to cling to. It carried him, and to where he couldn’t know.
It eased all the pain.
The noises tried to follow him. The crying, the shouting, the pleading. The wrestling and the wind in the leaves. He couldn’t hold onto it anymore. But even when he let go, he felt Kira with him. Felt her until he felt nothing at all.
No more running.
Warmth and Kira.
Warmth he wanted so badly to give in to.
Kissing his skin.
Flooding him.
Deeper and deeper toward the center of his being.
Kira. Burning at his core.
Joy.