Chapter 8 Kane #3
“I took them both. And The Divide—without beings to power it—collapsed into itself. But when we arrived at the Pit, it was too late.” My voice drops as I remember.
“After all those years in The Divide, my father’s cruelty, it was too much for Ezekial’s sister.
” I clench my teeth, remembering. “He held her as she died.”
Jasmine’s breath catches, but her tears never stop.
“And the sounds he made… I don’t think I’ll ever forget.” I squeeze my hands together, his guttural screams, deep and aching, pulsing in my mind.
“That was the day everything broke,” I say. “For him. For me. That was the day we fell. When we sealed our fate. Because we could have left. The Earth Realm was open to us, hospitable to us both, it was right there. We could have left and never returned.”
She leans over the table, just so, just enough for her warmth to seep into me.
“But you didn’t,” she whispers, silent tears slipping over her cheeks. “Why, Kane? Why didn’t you just leave?”
“Tragedy changes people.” This time, I hold her gaze, because I need her to hear it. I need her to understand. See what it did. What it made. “And it turned us into something vengeful.”
She never looks away.
“It was a massacre. Those who didn’t manage to flee, we killed.
Ripped apart. The realm was littered with limbs and blood and we didn’t stop.
We lost ourselves to the dark, and we allowed it.
I allowed.” Even then, even at that age, I could control the dark somewhat.
I could have pushed it back, but I let it consume us.
“Then we found my father. And although he was immortal, powerful beyond imagination, he was not indestructible.” I clench my jaw, fragments of the memory trying to pierce through.
“He couldn’t compete with us. Not together.
Ezekial and I, we are two halves of a coin.
Both sides of the moon. Light and dark, and fuelled with so much darkness, so much vengeance.
” My hands curl into fists. “He was nothing but a torso and head when we finished.”
A bloody lump of flesh and broken bones. A man who I once revered. A man I feared. My father. Nothing but carrion.
“We wanted him to suffer, so we left him, abandoned him to die in his fallen realm, to watch it crumble, to rot away with it.”
Why that makes my chest ache, out of everything that happened, I still do not know.
“What happened then, Kane?” Her voice is so soft, soothing me out of the depravity. “To you and Ezekial?”
I take a moment, just a moment, to cherish the sound of her voice when she says our names.
“We went back to the Pit, and we stepped out of the dark, together. That’s how we ended up here. The Earth Realm. The Council District.”
Jasmine exhales slowly, like she’s been holding that breath for too long. But she doesn’t speak, just waits for me to go on.
“Only then did I—did we—realise what we’d done.
Realised the amount of darkness we’d consumed.
We were still so young, our bodies could barely contain it, we could barely control ourselves.
And I’d spent too long in the Dark, Ezekial trapped in The Divide, being in some in-between realm with nothing to anchor us was…
hard. We lost ourselves, again and again.
We weren’t immortal yet, still just boys, boys with too much power, and no one to teach us what to do with it. ”
And those years, although challenging, filled with pain and struggle—with Ezekial, they were still better than any second I’d ever spent in the Dark.
I’d do it all again, as long as I had him.
“But we had each other,” I say quietly. “Ezekial’s remnants of light were just enough to calm the dark, and eventually my ability to control it developed.
” I pause, tapping the table, grounding the thought.
We realised quickly that forming physical objects of the dark helped.
“Then one day, when we were still stumbling through it, enforcers found us.” I huff out a laugh, remembering our opposite responses.
“Ezekial says one of them saw something worth saving. But I believe they saw two things too dangerous to be left unchecked.”
I wait for the question. Who? Why? What did they do—
“And was life better, after that? After they found you?”
Not what I expected. Not even close.
I slowly nod. “We trained to become enforcers, and as this realm grew, we grew into men, our darkness grew with us, and everything settled. Life became… easier.”
I feel her trying to soothe me again and, intentionally or not, I revel in the heat. Of the feel of our powers combining.
Even if I don’t deserve a crumb of it.
“I’m… I’m so glad you had him,” she murmurs, eyes flickering over the table before meeting mine again. “That you had each other.”
Of all the things she could have said, could have asked, she chooses kindness. Again.
Even knowing what I’ve done. Who I am. What happened to me.
I was forged for vengeance, and she is pure mercy.
“And when did you become immortal?” she asks, voice soft and gentle.
“It took centuries.” Her eyes widen a little.
“At first, your darkness stops you ageing, and eventually, it decides your fate—either it remakes you, or it destroys you.” I hold her gaze, knowing what I’ll need to say next.
“It’s rare to survive turning immortal, because few beings can contain that much darkness inside their bodies, and it’s… ” I falter.
She isn’t immortal. She’ll have all this to come. And just the thought of watching her endure what Ezekial and I suffered twists in my chest…
She leans in a little, her voice even softer. “It’s okay. I want to know. Even the difficult parts.” She attempts a smile. “Tell me, Kane.”
“It’s painful.”
She nods, like she’d already figured that much out.
I swallow. “I became immortal first. Somehow, I endured, and with it came greater control of the dark. But when Ezekial turned…” I pause.
“It was harder for him. He was a being of light, immortality was never meant for them. The dark nearly tore him apart, and even now, he struggles to contain it, but he—”
“He has you,” she whispers, ending my words with more tears, placing her hands upon the table.
I nod. “Yes.”
My fingers twitch, gaze darting to her pale fingers.
“You control his darkness, when it gets too much,” she whispers, trying to keep her voice level though I catch the slightest quiver. “And you help the others.”
“Yes, the dark listens to me but...” I peer away, stare into a shadow that has begun to grow around us.
“Tell me,” she says, and my gaze latches onto hers. The burning, fiery rage subdued slightly.
“I hate it,” I admit, and the darkness shakes. “Every time I go to the realm. Every time I use the dark. It reminds me… It reminds me that I’m just like—”
My hands are encapsulated by fire, the heat so intense it burns.
But it’s her.
She’s touching me.
Not because I made her, not because she has to, but because she’s chosen to. She wants to touch me.
And I want her to.
Burn me, burn me for eternity, as long as she is the fire.
“No.” Her gaze slices into me, ablaze with fury. “Don’t you dare compare yourself to him.”
She’s so fucking beautiful when she burns.
She breathes, ragged and trembling. “I never thought—I never expected to feel so—”
Disgusted.
Repulsed.
“Enraged,” she hisses, eyes fixed on our joined hands. “Your father… those women… Ezekial...” Tendrils of her darkness curl around us, binding our hands.
She’s fire incarnate, and I’ll kneel in the ash.
“It was a long time ago—”
“It doesn’t matter!” she snaps, before softening her gaze again. “It still happened. It shouldn’t have, but it did.”
We sit in more silence, but she doesn’t remove her hands, her heat now a pulsing warmth. I can’t help it if my fingers uncoil from their tight grasp. If just one brushes her palm in the briefest touch.
“The Dark War,” she begins, her voice a quiet query, “that was...”
“My father, yes.”
“And you ended it. You and Ezekial ended the war.”
I lower my voice. “Not all creatures of the dark deserved my wrath that day. I slaughtered everyone in that realm. Everyone. Innocents… children—”
“You were a child.” She slices through my words with another hiss and a scowl, firing that gaze directly at me.
“A child who was manipulated and assaulted. You were hurting. You weren’t in control.
You may have killed innocent beings, but by doing so, you also ended a war.
A war that’d already killed millions of innocent creatures.
You stopped even more genocides by killing him and his army. ”
“Not all.” I brush her palm again. I’ve never felt anything so soft. “Some fled. But I’m still hunting them. I’ll find them.”
“Why?” Her voice is almost a whine, so small, but filled with disbelief.
When she shakes her head, another tear escapes, strands of red curls sway with the motion. I wonder how soft they would be—
“Why are you still punishing yourself?” It’s not anger in her voice, it’s something softer. And it stings. “Why waste any more of your life chasing shadows?”
She sounds so much like Ezekial that I almost smile. Almost. But the ache in her voice, her tears, they sink straight into my chest
“My darkness has a sense of justice. It doesn’t let me forget. It seeks vengeance. Retribution.” I lower my voice. “Redemption.”
This is all about redemption, and my immortal life is my punishment.
Making me someone’s bond was another.
Because seeing her, being near her, touching her, and knowing I can never allow myself such a thing—that I will never be worthy of it. Of her.
That is the cruellest punishment of all.
I will never sully her with my darkness. Not like my father did.
“What do the others think?” she asks, voice tighter now. “Ezekial, Julien, Sai? Do they think you still need to atone too?”
I don’t answer, but silence speaks louder than confession. A silence that’s interrupted by a soft, insistent vibration. One I try desperately to smother in my pocket.