8. CHAPTER EIGHT
Protect the family, no matter what.
Her father’s words echoed through Katell’s mind as she faced Scylas. She steeled her nerves, trying to think solely of Alena’s safety.
Scylas marched towards her, his shoulders set and jaw tight. The bronze sword in his hand, a gift from his grandfather, glinted in the sunlight.
“Damn you, Kat! You were going to rescue Alena and leave. I was going to help you both, and now…” he trailed off, his voice tightening. A rough exhale escaped him, and he paced before her like a wild animal.
When his golden-brown eyes met hers once more, they held a newfound hardness. “My father and Demetrius told me you went to confront the elders and a fire broke out moments later. And now they’re dead, Kat. The elders are all dead!”
Despite his outburst, she kept her gaze steady. Remaining calm was the only way to convince him. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t kill them. Your grandfather started the fire, Scylas. He was Marked.”
“Grandfather was Marked?” He scoffed. “Do you even hear yourself?”
“It’s true. He—”
“Stop lying to me!”
Scylas brandished his sword, and she raised her own in answer, the blade trembling in her hand.
In different circumstances, she could have been his wife. He would have confronted his parents and grandfather and married her. Then she could have found a suitable husband for Alena, and their father would never have gone on that cursed hunting trip. He’d still be alive.
Katell gritted her teeth. It was unfair of her to blame Scylas for her troubles, just as it was unfair of him to blame her for the elders’ deaths.
She would make him see reason, even if she had to beat it into him.
He watched her, his eyes narrowed into slits. His rage tainted the air between them. This wasn’t their daily sparring practice. His muscles were tensed for a fight.
“You killed him. You killed all of them, and now you want to taint Grandfather’s memory, too? How could you do that to me? The others were right. You’re a monster.”
He thrust forward in a blinding attack, but after years of training together, Katell could predict his every move. She was quick to block his blade.
“I’m not the one who killed them. Your grandfather did.”
“Lies!”
He lunged again and again, muscles taut and eyes ablaze. His strikes were a force to be reckoned with, and Katell staggered back each time she parried. Scylas’ prowess with a sword was just as formidable as her own.
Her foot slipped on the muddy terrain. Seizing the opportunity, he twisted his blade and sliced the side of her thigh.
A sharp sting spread through her leg, and she retreated with a hiss. His expression remained devoid of emotion, not even a hint of remorse flickered across it. Something surged up within her, a fire flaring in her gut and spreading through her limbs.
She sprang forward, unleashing a barrage of attacks. Each movement was fluid and vicious, but Scylas met them with equal skill. The clash of their blades rang through the morning air.
A fiery essence coursed through Katell”s body, spurring her on. How dare he strike her without hearing her out first? How could he think so little of her, after all their years together?
Where was the man who had vowed to protect her?
Something in her expression made him hesitate, and in that beat, she struck. Knocking his blade aside, she slid closer and kicked him in the chest.
Bones cracked beneath her booted foot. With a strangled cry, Scylas flew through the air and crashed into a wooden pen.
Behind her, Alena gasped loudly.
Katell’s heart rammed against her ribcage. “Scylas!”
Dropping her sword, she rushed forward. He clutched his side with a groan as she crouched beside him. Drawing ragged breaths, he struggled to sit up, his ribs no doubt broken in several places.
When he peered into her face, her chest ached at the sight of his pained expression. Not just from his wounds, but from the weight of the circumstances tearing them apart.
“I could have protected you.” His autumnal gaze gleamed with unshed tears. “I could have protected you both.”
“No, you couldn’t.” She longed to reach out and soothe the hard lines etched on his handsome face but held back. “You saw it with your own eyes. I’m Marked. The elders would never have accepted that. They only wanted me dead.”
He shook his head. “You didn’t have to attack them. You didn’t have to kill them.”
“I didn’t, Scylas—I swear it on my father’s ashes.” A lump caught in her throat. “They were going to kill Alena, and I’ll admit I was angry, but I didn’t kill them. Your grandfather started the fire.”
There was no need to mention how his fire magic had devoured the tent and killed the elders. Scylas wouldn’t believe her no matter what she said. Avoiding her gaze, he shifted his focus to the blood seeping through her riding trousers.
She raised her hand to stroke his cheek, but the stony look on his face stopped her. Her throat burned with the threat of tears. “I’m so sorry.”
It was over. Scylas might have protected them before, but now the elders were dead, and the Council would want revenge. It was time to leave.
Getting to her feet, she did the one thing she thought she would never do: she turned her back on him.
“I loved you,” he rasped as she limped away. “Stars be damned, I asked you to be my wife.”
His words struck her with a sudden stillness, and her vision blurred. In all the years they’d been together, he’d never once voiced his feelings for her.
Her face crumpled, and she afforded herself a moment to grieve for what could have been. Then she reined in her emotions and steeled her heart. Scylas’ words didn’t matter anymore. Alena needed her now, and Katell would always choose her sister.
Always.
Sucking in a steadying breath, she wiped away her tears and glanced back at him. “And I would have said yes. Believe me, Scylas, if things were different…”
She couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence. To think about what they could have been if Alena hadn’t broken the Sacred Law and Katell hadn’t been Marked.
“But they’re not.” A long silence followed his words. At last, he sighed and gripping the wooden fence, he hauled himself up to his feet, one hand pressed against his ribcage.
“Leave. Both of you.” His eyes were flat, his voice strained but firm. “Go now, and don’t ever come back.”
No further words were necessary. Holding his gaze one last time, Katell tried to convey the depth of remorse that she couldn’t put into words, then nodded. Picking up her sword, she rushed back to the horse and climbed up behind Alena once again.
With a final glance at the burning camp, the only home she’d ever known, she turned the stallion towards the open steppe and set off.