Page 140 of A Song of Air
He felt his brother step out from the shadows behind him. “Did you expect anything else?”
Weylyn sighed and stood before turning around. Owyn stood across the clearing from him, arrow pointed at Weylyn’s chest.
“You are very predictable.” Weylyn appeared unbothered. His heart did not beat faster, his pulse did not jump. But his body did tense, readying for what he knew was to come. “I heard you breathing from miles away as you followed after me like a dog.”
Owyn let out a warning growl. From the distance, Weylyn could make out the tears in his brother’s eyes. Maybe before, his chest would have felt an ache for he knew that the grief he’d harbored was shared within his family. Yet what they blamed him for was a greater suffering indeed, and he no longer felt for the plights of others when his were far worse.
He’d grown cold over the years. Vengeance had a way of freezing one from the inside out. And it was in the promise of violence in which he would thaw.
“Well?” Weylyn adjusted his grip on his spear. “The morning grows brighter, and The Hunt will soon end. We haven’t all day, brother.”
“Youhaven’t all day,” he corrected. “Becauseyouwill not live to see the rest of it.”
He let an arrow fly. It sped between them at a near blinding pace. Weylyn lifted his spear, parting the arrow in half before it could strike. The wood didn’t even hit the ground before his brother was in front of him. A knife swung towards his face and Weylyn ducked low, sweeping his legs out. Owyn fell back, grunting as he lashed out.
They became a blur of violence and tangled limbs. Of slashing blades and flying fists. Weylyn pushed himself far away from his brother when he untangled himself from the fight, picking up his fallen spear as he went.
“You’re a coward,” Owyn spat. Blood stained his sharp teeth. “You run away instead of facing the fate you deserve.”
“I have never deserved your ire.”
“You killed her.”
Weylyn closed his eyes against those words, as if blocking out the sight of Owyn could make the words hurt any less. He hardened himself against them, opened his eyes, and threw his spear.
Owyn’s eyes widened in surprise as the weapon barreled towards him. He ducked at the last moment, rolling along the ground. When he straightened on his knee, an arrow was notched on his bow. It went flying, but Weylyn was already moving. He tackled his brother to the ground, yanking the weapons from his body and tossing them.
But his brother had an advantage that came in the form of Unseelie claws. They shredded through Welyn’s skin and he growled, snapping his teeth near his brother’s face, even as he sunk his claws deeper into him.
“Your life is mine,” Owyn spat. His claws pierced muscle and bone. Weylyn refused to cry out in pain, but it was a near-blinding sensation, spitting over him.
“What are the two of you up tonow?”
Weylyn and Owyn parted in surprise. They scrambled to a stand, Weylyn breathing heavy, the warmth of his blood staining his entire front. His life force spilled out of him and his trembling hand clutched to his wounds as though he could push the blood back inside his body.
Cassimir stepped into the clearing astride one of his beast’s. He stared at the two of them with the exasperation only an older brother could wear.
“Cassimir, he—”
“I think I have heard quite enough out of you, little brother.”
One moment, Owyn was blinking, breathing.
Then, he was on his knees, an arrow lodged deep into his throat.
Weylyn’s eyes widened as Owyn fell face first onto the ground, his own blood pooling beneath him. As that blood touched the grass, flowers sprouted from the ground.
Weylyn turned back to Cass in time to see his brother slide down from his beast, a new arrow notched and pointed in his direction.
He knew he would let it loose. He knew his brother would kill him. He’d known all along. But seeing Owyn dead on the ground came as a surprise.
“What did you do?” Weylyn’s heart beat faster and faster. Seeing the way Owyn’s blood pooled beneath him awoke something inside his mind. Memories he’d wanted buried but were always at the forefront. The reason for his being, the cold glimmer of revenge that fueled his every waking moment.
He would have killed him himself, but seeing the ground part and swallow his brother into the depths, was shocking.
“I expected your thanks. Seeing a dead sibling isn’t new to you, is it?” His eyes flicked to where the earth had taken their brother. A price for his life spilled. He would feed the world they lived on. Create a forest, a fruit tree, a field of flowers. Something to make Unseelie thrive. “He was a nuisance. Detrimental to this family. As are you.”
“They’ll know what you’ve done,” Weylyn warned. “The queen will know what you’ve done.”
