5. Rahzlyn #2
“I must have cut it on something outside.” I tucked my hand under the table.
“On your knife, perhaps?” Mel wondered curiously. “I noticed it sticking out of your boot.”
I groaned internally. Must the Dolus siblings always be so stars-damned perceptive?
“Attempting Blood Sight, were you?” Ross joked.
When neither Basil nor I chuckled along with him, Mel’s suspicion seeped into the air around us.
“Shitting stars.” She leaned forward. “You were?”
I shrank into the booth. I was already a shit liar, and alcohol only worsened my pretenses.
“No,” Basil insisted.
“Why would you try that unless…?” Mel’s attention darted to me, then back to my brother. “You think you have the Sight?”
The silence that befell our table was so loud it drowned out the boisterous cheers and musical ruckus. “Damn it, Mel,” I hissed.
“Shit, are you talking about Blood Sight?” Ross bellowed.
I waved my hand. “Keep your voice down.”
“I knew it.” Ross smacked the table, rattling the tankards. “You always were too good at cards.”
“Your gambling misfortunes have nothing to do with my gifts,” Basil remarked. He froze, our eyes locking.
Well, shit.
“So you are gifted.” Kole’s pale eyes narrowed on Basil in accusation. “And you tried Blood Sight during Tempus, no less?”
Mel wrapped the ends of her fair hair around her fingers. “The Astrals could see this as an insult.”
“Trust me, I know,” Basil grumbled into his hands. “Any way you could all forget about this?”
“No way,” Ross said. “Besides, we’re all thinking it. Did you see something?”
Basil’s face remained unreadable. I’d never seen him so at a loss for words.
Our grandparents had sworn us to secrecy as children, and yet because of me, that would no longer be the case.
As the alcohol-induced haze cleared from my mind, regret settled in its place.
I’d acted on impulse, leveraging my brother’s desire for my happiness against him.
“None of you speak a word of this. To anyone,” I warned, my eyes darting around the table. If anything happened to Basil because of me, I couldn’t live with myself. To my brother, I whispered, “You don’t have to say a word, Baze. You didn’t even see anything. Right?”
“A bit late for that now, isn’t it?” he whispered back.
“Come on, what did you see?” Ross pushed.
Kole nudged his shoulder. “Tell us.”
To the group, Basil cleared his throat. “Alright, alright. I did see… something. Someone.” He ran a shaky hand through his fine hair.
“But it wasn’t Rahz. It felt like I’d fallen asleep and was dreaming.
I was surrounded by stars, floating endlessly.
A figure hovered in the distance, dripping in black liquid.
It didn’t see me at first. But then it heard your voice when you called out for me.
” Basil stared at me, and I’d never seen him so shaken.
“It didn’t have a face, but it looked right through me.
As if it saw you, too. And then I was back in the alley. ”
I shivered from the scene he detailed.
“What does it mean?” Kole strummed his fingers along the table, peering at me curiously.
“It means you two fucked with something you shouldn’t have,” Mel cursed.
“I don’t think it was the future.” Basil took a swig of Kole’s ale. “It was a warning. And I could have sworn it had a tail. Like a—”
“Scorpion?” Kole surmised. “Considering Scorpio’s color is black.”
“Just what we need, an omen from the cursed queendom.” Basil rubbed at his temples.
Ross whistled low. “I still can’t believe you never told us you’re gifted. I’m disappointed in you, Ariti.” He whispered something to Kole before rising. “If you’ll excuse us, we need to step outside for a quick piss.”
Basil stood to let them out of the booth. When only Mel remained with us, she cast an apologetic look my way. “I shouldn’t have pressed you.”
“You couldn’t have known.”
“If you wanted it kept secret, why would you risk Blood Sight so out in the open like this?”
Basil said nothing, his eyes sliding to mine in irritation.
“It was stupid, I know. Baze, I didn’t mean—”
“You never mean anything,” he snapped, startling me. “Everything I do, I do for you and our family. And you somehow always find a way to make even that difficult.” He bolted after the others, leaving me bristling in disbelief.
Mel stared after him. “I don’t know if I’ve ever seen him so worked up.”
“Yes, well, I have that effect on people, if you haven’t noticed. Particularly my family.”
She rubbed my shoulder. “You worry too much. I swear you have a water sign in your natal chart somewhere with all that anxiety.”
I shrugged. “Not a drop of water to be found.”
According to my chart, I should have been far more level-headed and wiser.
A scholar like my grandfather or Basil. Gemini, like its fellow air-ruled territories Libra and Aquarius, favored knowledge and intellect above all other qualities.
Our Academies were said to be the best in Gaianos, containing the grandest libraries and brilliant minds.
“This evening has become far more dismal than it ought to be,” Mel pronounced. “Gemini is no doubt watching, scorning us for our blasphemous lack of dancing.”
“We’re at a tavern on the final eve of Tempus, Mel. Hardly anyone here actually cares about giving credence to our Astral. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in yellow.”
“Well, since we’re so far past getting in Gemini’s good graces this year, enough talking and more dancing.”
Jumping to the music, our booted heels tapped against the other dancers near us. Strangers became friends during Tempus. Everyone in the kingdom shared the same natal month, uniting all the different personality types that made up Gemini.
Only once the sweat pooled at my brows and beneath my arms did the music finally slow. Mel and I laughed, tangling together from the exertion. The drunken flutist in the far corner played a tune I wasn’t familiar with, but my body was quick to find the rhythm.
We caught our breaths, our hearts slowing. The lightness filling my chest temporarily eased my guilt about Basil and fear of Jere.
“So, about Basil’s gift,” Mel said as we withdrew from the circle. She leaned against a wooden pillar. “I won’t tell a soul about it,” she promised. “But I can’t say the same for Kole and Ross.”
“Kole? Really?”
“My brother, trustworthy and reliable?” She released me to fluff her fine hair and shot me a pitying look.
“You’re biased,” I said. I worried she was right. “What about Ross?”
She smiled coyly. “I think I can work on him.”
“You can do better.”
“So can you.” She shoved her elbow into my hip. “Oh, come on. I’m not the only one to have utilized the broom closets here. You’ve had fun with others besides my brother, and I’m certain you will again.”
“I know, but…” I wanted to belong to someone. I wanted someone to belong to me. I wanted someone to know me irrevocably beyond the planes of my body.
When I didn’t budge or crack a smile, Mel softened her approach. “Basil will come around. He always does. You two are thicker than your hair, for stars’ sake.” She smoothed my curls back under the scarf keeping most of my updo intact. “What were you hoping Basil would see?”
A soft melody that filled the cramped tavern. Couples drifted closer, hands wrapping around waists and fingers caressing skin. I longed for that tender familiarity. Emboldened from exertion and the ale, I said, “I’m tired of it.”
“Of what?”
For as close as we were, our friendship relied on good times and cheap wine.
But I was too exhausted to pretend with her.
“This is fun and all, but… I don’t know, sometimes I want more, you know?
I feel like a shadow, always following but never leading.
I wanted Basil to see if I ever would lead a different life. ” From Jere, from my family.