Page 183 of Fearless

I hang my head in hands slicked with my brother’s blood. “This is all my fault. It should have been me!” I choke on the emotion clogging my throat. “This is my fate. I’m supposed to protect you.”

Kitt sucks in a rattling breath. “I think…” His eyes flutter shut. “My fate was to save you from me.”

“Don’t say that,” I choke. “You are the king. You are mybrother.” A sob weaves between each word to follow. “And we promised to always stay together. Grow old enough that the only thing we remember is each other, and that would be okay, because you are worth every one of my memories. You promised me that, Kitt.” I pull at my hair with a bloody hand. “Dammit, you promised!”

Kitt lifts his head from the ground, golden hair matted with blood. My knees soak in the pool of it as I reach to cradle his neck. He looks up at me, eyes warm when they land on mine—just as they have always been. “I don’t want… to be a monster,” he whispers. “I—I just wanted to be great.”

Tears stream down my face. “You don’t need to be great, Kitt. You aregood. You’ve always been good.”

He shakes his head, and the movement has a rasping cough falling from bloodied lips. “I don’t want to be alone.”

“You won’t be,” I say roughly. “Because you’re going to be fine. Me and you, Kitt. Always. You… you promised me that.” I lift my head to let another futile cry rip from my throat. “Help! I need a Healer!”

“Kai.”

It’s weak, my name from his lips. But the quiet contentment in which he says it is enough to make me weep.

He has accepted this fate. Broken a promise. Doomed me to a life without him.

“Bury me…” Kitt takes several shallow breaths. Then he smiles. “Under the willow tree. I… I won’t be lonely there.”

My very soul feels as though it is splitting in two. “I can’t do this without you, Kitt. Please.Please.”

He says nothing. His eyes drift shut.

“Stay with me, Kitt!” I pat his cheek, though I can hardly see him through my steady stream of tears. “I need you to stay awake.”

His bleary gaze finds mine again. Then he’s lifting shaking hands to fumble with the wedding ring on his finger. My voice quivers. “What are you—?”

Kitt slips that steel band free. And with the last of his dwindling strength, whispers, “Love each other for me.”

Then the ring is pressed into my palm.

“No.” The word is defiant. “No!” This one drips with anguish. “I need you with me, Kitt!”

His gaze trails upward. Rests on the silver shadows that cling to the ceiling, staring down on us. “I wrote you l-letters.” The words are nearly lost on Death’s chill. “So you can see why I’m… a monster.”

There is a sudden widening of the green eyes that so easily crinkled with laughter. They grow distant, pinned on a phantom beside me. Breath rattles in his chest. “I’m scared, Kai.”

I squeeze his hand, pressing it to my forehead with a whimper. “I’m right here.” I think I might be dying right beside him. “You’re okay.”

A ripple of relief washes over him. His mind seems clear for the first time in weeks, but his words fade away. “I just want to be great.”

“You are,” I breathe. The tears are falling faster now. “You will be remembered as Ilya’s greatest king. I promise you that, Brother.”

Blood blossoms from beneath his body, like a peaceful pool surrounding a gruesome scene. It stains his hair, turning the tips of eachblond strand into a delicate crown, as though Death himself has placed it upon his brow.

“Forgive me, Kitt,” I beg.

The quiet words he aims over my shoulder aren’t meant for me. “I’ll go gently. For you.”

Then his gaze is fixed on the world beyond.

Mine goes quiet without him in it.

“You and me,” I whisper against his bloody chest.

Peace is forever pressed into his features.

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