Chapter 10 Broken Promise #2
“And you know what?” Katarina huffed an unamused laugh. “Maybe it’s the best thing I could have done, because now you’re free of me and my mistakes.”
Shame clogged her throat, burning so hot that all she managed was a broken rasp around Katarina’s name as her sister turned and stormed down the path.
It could have been minutes or hours as she stared after her sister, the accusation filling up the emptiness within her. She scoured the words for a lie. Shredded them to pieces looking for something to hate, something to cling to…
And all she found was her own reflection.
The hand at her shoulder barely registered. “We should go.”
Kalypso was standing, walking, but it wasn’t her. Just a shell of her body as Ozirax guided her… wherever they were going. It didn’t matter. He could shove her off the carved ways or into that scar they worshipped in the middle of town, and she still probably wouldn’t feel anything.
Maybe it was worse that he was silent. Or better.
She didn’t know anymore. His gentleness, the lack of a response, it was all proof he’d heard everything.
How could he not? And yet, he kept pace with her dragging feet, didn’t try to force her to talk or get her ass in gear because she was a pathetic piece of shit who had just pushed away the only thing she cared about in life.
He was just… there.
Even if she’d just proven exactly why emotional attachments were a weakness, he remained silent while she tried and failed to grapple with the truth.
Because as infuriating as he was, as much of a dick as he was, he had to also be good.
“I will never become her.”
Ozirax still didn’t speak, but he tilted his head to acknowledge her.
“The promise I made to Kat when…” Kalypso swallowed the burn and shame.
He didn’t ask for an explanation, but maybe speaking it aloud would help her.
“Emotional attachments are a weakness. Our father loved us so much, loved my mother so much… but it blinded him to what was happening. Raised voices were to keep us safe. Rules were to protect us. There was only anger because we made a mistake.”
Kaly shook her head. “I protected Kat, shielded her. Until the day I wasn’t there.”
Salty wetness pooled in the corners of her lips, but she didn’t bother wiping away the tears.
“I came back that night to the blood, to my sister crying, and my father trying desperately to quiet her before someone came looking. He kept whispering that none of this would have happened if Kat had only stayed in her room like she was told.”
“He hit her?” Ozirax growled.
“My mother’s ring gouged a line across her face.” The demon stuttered a step. “She hit him, too, where no one could see, but never my sister. I’d always taken those punishments, but I wasn’t there, and now she has that scar because of my absence.”
Kalypso sniffed, swallowing the lump in her throat.
“My father had never done anything before then, so I don’t know why I thought that would change.
I begged him to report her, but he only swore that it would never happen again.
That all we had to do was lie, cover it up, follow her rules—the same speech he gave every time.
She was the master manipulator, and love blinded him, so I made the decision for us.
“I took Kat and never looked back. I was nine at the time. We scraped and scrapped for food and shelter. Found jobs and consistent enough work to survive. But as we grew, as I saw my reflection… it’s hers.
Kat takes after our father, but I’m the spitting image of our mother.
Size, hair, right down to the anger. I don’t know how Kat can look at me. ”
Ozirax cleared his throat, watching her tap off on the rune tree at the edge of the barracks. “You… mentioned a fight. Before the slavers.”
“Katarina got word of a warehouse job, stealing something big that would set us up for a lifetime. A source that had been known to give bad information for their own gain. I didn’t trust it, but Kat was adamant…
so we fought. Said horrible things to each other, and in the heat of the moment…
I gave in. I saw her slipping away and… I was so scared I was going to lose her.
So I went with the plan, and that mistake led us to a trap. You obviously know the rest.”
Ozirax remained silent, not that she was left in much a state to engage with anything more than her own self-loathing. Vaguely she recognized where he was guiding her, not toward their quarters, but toward the shrines where the warriors gave their offerings before heading into the Dreadmoor.
Kaly found herself drawn to the altar for Frank, perhaps lured in the hopes of knowledge or advice. But she knew the truth, deep down.
“None of what she said was wrong,” she muttered—to Frank or Ozirax, she didn’t know.
“I’ve tried to control everything, including my sister, because I thought that was safer.
She is my weakness, because I would risk everything for her, but…
she’s also been my only strength. My only reason.
And in clinging too tightly, I didn’t see it was my own spikes piercing her.
Hurting her when I promised… when I promised I wouldn’t become our mother. ”
The first sob slipped from her throat, shameful and embarrassing, but then warmth wrapped around her, and she found herself buried in Ozirax’s arms.
The demon lined with sharp spikes and adorned with runes to kill was holding her. Softly, gently, in a way she knew she didn’t deserve, yet couldn’t pull away from.
But she could shove it all down. The feelings, the emptiness in having no direction with her life beyond her sole purpose of protecting Kat, the lost plans to somehow escape this place. She could fill it instead with that always-present anger, let it burn inside her until she was a being of hurt.
That was safety and comfort wasn’t it—the ability to still feel pain?
Kalypso tipped her head back to rest on the demon who had given her those words when she was so blinded she couldn’t really hear them.
Ozirax didn’t speak, only stared down at her with those depthless eyes, his arms still banded around her. The demon who had met her spikes with his own, but now kept them flat against his skin. Dangerous and deadly, but protecting her.
Her, of all humans.
Her, so filled with rage.
Her, the real monster.
Still, he only looked down with patience. Not with pity or disgust, but with understanding.
Before she could explore that oddity further, a throat cleared. Kaly jerked away from Ozirax with almost the same force that he pushed away from her. Turning to face the interruption, Kalypso’s heart nearly stopped.
Because standing in front of her was the most terrifying red demon she’d ever laid eyes on.