Page 181 of Fearless

There is something so intoxicating about the way they move. I stand there, stunned at the sight of two people knowing each other so deeply. It is entrancing, like a prophecy foretold finally unfurling before my eyes. Kitt’s hostility toward me means nothing in this moment, because there is nothing but peace here.

Steel flashes; metal sings. Kitt advances; Kai evades. The Enforcer feints; the king anticipates.

It is a beautiful sequence of controlled chaos. When their weapons meet again, and they stand face-to-face, a slight smile is shared between them. This is how they know each other—this is how they remember themselves. Before me are the brothers who taught each other to love with a sword in hand and a muddy ring beneath their feet. They found companionship in what they could control, and in this moment, that is each other.

Panted breaths fill the study, shadows stalled on the wall before the brothers break apart. Still sharing that small smile, they fall back into that familiar flurry of movement.

Kitt lunges. Kai parries.

The Enforcer thrusts that stoker toward the king, his broad back blocking my view.

I wait for the answering sound of steel.

I wait longer.

Time grows sluggish.

Something shifts in the air, like a stuttering of the song they were sparring to. Their feet halt awkwardly between beats of this rehearsed dance. The peace that once filled this room flees from it.

A solid back collides with my chest, making me stagger.

That is when a haunting sound fills the room.

A strangled shout cuts through the silence.

My own shuddering breath fills the tight air as I step around Kai.

There is that slight smile on Kitt’s face—the one he used to give so freely. Charming and warm. Now it’s found his lips again, as if to make up for all the times he had forgotten how to wear happiness.

My eyes drift downward.

The iron stoker protrudes from his chest.

That golden hair lies tousled on his head, glinting like a halo around his pale face.

The king’s blood stains the same as his father’s had.

Kai rushes to his brother, voice choked. “No! You were supposed to dodge, Kitt!”

Dazed, the king looks down at the stoker buried in his chest. Touches shaking fingers to the gushing wound. His palm leans heavy on the desk beside him, leaving a bloody print atop his pile of parchment. My whole body trembles as I watch blood seep from Kitt’s touch, bathing scribbled words in scarlet beneath his fingertips. His wide green eyes lift. “I… forgot.”

Kai catches his brother when he stumbles.

Stained sheets of paper tumble from the desk.

The king watches them flutter delicately toward the ground.

And then he follows.

CHAPTER 68Kai

Kitt’s knees hit the floor right beside my own.

I can’t think. I can’t feel. I can’t hear anything but the sickening sound of my brother’s flesh tearing, over and over again in my mind.

Rage consumes me, swallowing all sanity. I feel myself wavering on the edge of some irreversible darkness, like a gaping hole my soul is slowly slipping into. But I cling to that flickering light within me, that piece of Kitt he’s planted there, and beg it not to burn out.

He sways on trembling knees before beginning an agonizing topple toward the floor. I catch him, my arm curling around his back as I lay him down gently.

---