Chapter 48 #3
No one argued. Emrin helped me stand. My legs shook violently beneath me.
I refused to look at Kieran. We stepped through the broken wall.
The corridor beyond it looked like war. Bodies in black armor lay across the stone.
Some had been burned. Others crushed against walls by Earth magic.
Several were so wrapped in Shadow I could not tell where darkness ended and flesh began.
The smell reached me. Blood. Smoke. Burned skin.
My stomach clenched. Kieran had not rescued me cleanly.
There was nothing heroic about what he had done to reach this room.
Men had died. A lot of them. We moved through polished black corridors beneath cold silver sconces.
Eiryx took the front beside Kieran. Dax behind them.
Lidia and Emrin stayed close to me while Raiden brought up the rear. No one spoke. There was nothing to say.
At the first intersection, three guards rounded the corner.
Kieran killed the first before I understood what was happening.
Shadow went through the man’s mouth. Not around his throat.
Through it. Blood burst across the wall.
Eiryx drove a blade beneath the second guard’s jaw.
The third raised a sword. Kieran’s Shadow caught both of his arms. A wet crack.
The man screamed. Kieran walked past him without slowing.
Another crack. The scream stopped. I stared at his back.
He had never fought like this at the Sanctum.
Not where people could see. Not where I could see.
This was not the instructor who had corrected my stance or stood behind me while I learned to shape Shadow.
This was the son of the Shadow King. This was the man Kaelros had raised.
The weapon he had made. And the most horrifying part was how effortless it looked.
No frenzy. No loss of control. No righteous rage.
Kieran knew exactly what he was doing. He glanced back once. His eyes found mine. I looked away.
The next corridor opened into a wide chamber ringed with black columns.
Eiryx stopped. Kieran did too. The air tightened.
Shadow gathered at my ankles. Not Kieran’s.
My body locked. A woman stepped from behind one of the columns.
Long black curls. Violet-rimmed eyes. Neseryn.
She wore black armor instead of Sanctum leathers.
No insignia marked the breastplate. She didn’t need one.
This was where she belonged. The realization hurt in a way I had not expected.
My sister. No. Not really. Not in any way that mattered to her.
Neseryn’s gaze went first to Kieran. Then Eiryx.
Then the others. Finally me. Her eyes stopped on my face.
For one second, I saw the child beneath the table.
No more than three years old. Crying. Reaching for our mother. Then the child vanished.
“You saw.”
My throat tightened. Kieran shifted slightly in front of me. I stepped around him. “Move.”
He did.
Neseryn watched the exchange. “He told you.”
“Kaelros showed me.”
A warning flashed behind her eyes. “You let him inside your head.”
“I was chained to a wall.” Her expression shifted, hardly enough to call it concern. “He showed me the palace.”
Neseryn said nothing.
“Our mother.”
Her jaw tightened. “Do not speak of things you know nothing about.”
“I know she went back for you.”
Shadow moved around Neseryn’s boots. “I said do not.”
“She had me in her arms.” Neseryn’s face went white. “She gave me to Vareena’s father. He carried me out because she heard you screaming.”
“Stop talking.”
“She went back for you.”
“Stop it.”
“She died trying to reach you.”
Shadow erupted. Kieran shoved me backward. Darkness collided in the middle of the chamber with enough force to crack one of the columns. Neseryn’s eyes blazed violet.
“You do not know what you saw.”
“I watched it happen.”
“You watched what he chose to show you.”
“I heard her call your name.”
“Enough.”
“She loved you.”
The words broke through her. Neseryn’s Shadow hit the floor so hard stone fractured beneath her feet. For one heartbeat, she looked nothing like the woman who had tormented candidates in the Crucible. She looked terrified. Then it disappeared.
“My mother is dead.”
“Our mother.”
“No.” The word was vicious. “Do not bring blood into this and pretend it makes us family.”
My chest tightened. “You are my sister.”
“I am the Shadow King’s daughter.”
There it was. No hesitation. No spell. No magic forcing the words from her. Choice.
“He murdered her.”
“I know.”
The answer hollowed me out. “He murdered our father.”
“I know that too.”
“He stole you from your home.”
Her chin lifted a fraction, as though the words themselves required defending. “He raised me.”
“He lied to you.”
“So did yours.”
Her gaze flicked toward Kieran. The blade went exactly where she intended it. I went still. Kieran’s Shadow moved.
“Enough.”
“No.” Neseryn’s eyes remained on mine. “You wanted the truth. Take it.” She looked at Kieran. “He stood beside me for years knowing exactly whose blood I carried. When he found you, he knew before I did.”
The wooden bird. My stomach twisted.
“He never told either of us.”
“Neseryn.”
“You chose her.” The words turned personal. Old pain. Old loyalty. “You stood beside me my entire life, and the moment she appeared, you decided her secrets mattered more than mine.”
“She was marked for death.”
“So was I.”
Kieran said nothing.
Neseryn laughed once. There was no humor in it. “That is what I thought.” She looked at me again. “You think being sisters means I was waiting for you.”
“No.”
“You think knowing Aurenya came back changes what happened afterward.”
“No, I don’t.”
“You think blood gives you some claim on me.”
The word claim turned my stomach. “I have no claim to you.”
“Good. Because I do not know you.”
My eyes burned.
“And I do not love you.”
I nodded. “I know.”
That seemed to catch her off guard. Perhaps she expected me to fight for it. I didn’t. I was too tired to beg another person to choose me. “But he killed them.”
Her face hardened. “And one day you may understand that loving someone does not mean believing every choice they made was good.”
I stared at her. The words could have belonged to me. To Kieran. To anyone standing in that room. Neseryn raised one hand. Shadow answered. Kieran stepped fully between us.
“Get out of my way.”
“No.”
“He is expecting you.”
Kieran’s face went cold. “Then he can keep waiting.”
“You know what happens if you take her.”
“I know.”
“You will never come back from this.”
“I never planned on it.”
Neseryn’s mouth trembled once before she caught it. “You were my brother.”
My heart stopped. Kieran’s Shadow stilled. The wooden bird flashed through my mind again. She broke my nose twice. I think I would like her. Gods. It had been her.
Kieran looked at Neseryn. “And you were my sister.”
Were.
Neseryn flinched.
Kieran’s voice lowered. “Move.”
Her chin lifted. “No.”
Everything happened at once. Neseryn attacked.
Kieran met her. Shadow collided across the chamber.
The force blew my hair backward and sent pain through my shoulder.
Emrin pulled me behind one of the columns while Dax raised a wall of Earth between us and the fighting.
Eiryx joined Kieran. Neseryn’s Shadow struck him across the chest and threw him into stone. Dax moved.
“No!” Kieran shouted.
Too late. Earth cracked beneath Neseryn. She leapt. Shadow caught Dax by the throat and lifted him.
“Dax!” Emrin screamed.
I reached for Light. Nothing. Whatever the cuffs had done remained like ash inside me. I reached again. A spark. Then nothing. Neseryn tightened her Shadow around Dax’s neck. His face darkened. “Neseryn!”
She looked at me. Recognition. That was all.
Not sisterhood. Not love. Recognition. But it was enough.
Her Shadow loosened. Dax dropped. Kieran hit her.
Hard. Shadow wrapped around her body and slammed her into the floor.
Stone shattered beneath her. Neseryn coughed blood as Kieran stood over her.
Darkness sharpened in his hand. A blade.
He could kill her. Everyone knew it. Neseryn stared up at him.
For one second, neither moved. The boy she had called brother.
The girl whose wooden bird he had kept. Whatever they had once been to each other stood between them like another corpse.
Then Kieran closed his fist. The blade disappeared.
“You should have killed me,” Neseryn whispered.
Kieran looked down at her. “I know.”
He turned away. We ran. Behind us, Neseryn did not call the guards. She did not help us either. I did not know which truth hurt more. The fortress shook. A deep impact rolled through the floor.
“He knows,” Eiryx said.
“He knew the moment I entered.”
My blood ran cold. “Kaelros knew you were here?”
Kieran did not look back. “Yes.”
“Then why hasn’t he come?”
Kieran’s silence was answer enough to frighten me. “Kieran.”
“He wants to see what I do.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means this is bigger than getting you out of a room.”
“I thought you weren’t lying anymore.”
“I’m not.”
“Then answer me.”
He stopped. Everyone stopped with him. Blood covered half his face. “This is what he wanted.”
My stomach dropped. “What?”
“Not the rescue. The choice.”
Cold crept beneath my skin. “He wanted to know whether you would come for me.”
“You think he let you in?”
“No.” His mouth flattened. “I killed everyone between the outer ward and that room. He did not let me do anything.”
“Then what?”
“My father has spent twenty years wondering which of Aurenya’s daughters mattered more to the prophecy.” He looked at me. “Tonight he learned.”
My blood went cold. “Because of me?”