Page 121 of Bound
“I fear this,” Bran says as we walk. “More than anything else.”
I peer sidelong at him. “What?”
“The choice I must make,” he tells me, his face lined despite his youthful facade. “On one hand, I have justice. And on the other, a man’s fate.”
“You will be fair, brother. I know you will.”
His bright irises track to me. “Tell me, Amoret, how would you vote?”
I stumble and only his strength keeps me moving. “Me, brother?”
“Yes. I told you I would need your consul.”
Mind racing, I try to sum up what I believe to be right. “Ruin is not a bad man,” I begin. “When I first met him, I feared him. He exudes a malice that our kind do not. But he is kind to his men. Loving to Lilah. Honor bound and loyal to his King.”
Bran remains silent.
“Do I believe killing the drug dealer to be right? No,” I admit. “But I do not know that I would not be as angry as he had been if someone took you from me like that.”
“But I am your brother, Amoret. You love me as I love you.” His vibrant gaze tracks over the bushes. “The love the Captain and his maiden spoke of is a different kind of love. It is deeper. More passionate. It is the kind of love that is not always rational.”
We fall quiet, both of us lost in the world around us and our own thoughts.
“Have you ever been in love like that, brother?” My voice is soft, barely more than a whisper in the twilight.
“I thought so once,” he admits, causing me to look at him. His smile is sad. “Alas, it was not to be.”
I lean my head on his shoulder. “Well, you still have me, brother.”
His chuckle is soft. “Aye, sister. And I will love you until my last.” He gives my hand a small squeeze where it rests in the crook of his elbow.
I smile and we continue through the hedgerows.
“I had hoped Whitehorn would not make himself so scarce,” Bran says after a time. My heart gallops in my chest. “His was the testimony I most wanted to hear.”
“Why is that?”
Bran’s head cocks. “He is Fae. He does not view the world as the others do, I don’t think, and Renvi agrees.” I force myself to breathe. “When he awoke him in that gods awful room, Renvi glimpsed a sharp wit and a focus that many among the humans do not have. I imagine Whitehorn saw more than the others without feeling as they did.”
He sighs. “It would have been nice to get a more in depth look at the situation while everything was fresh.”
“Oh.”
It’s all I can say. All I can think.
If Bran notices my tension, he doesn’t remark.
“But, that also brings me back to you, Amoret.” He stops walking and turns to face me beside a gurgling fountain.
“Me, brother?”
His bright eyes lock in mine. There is no smile this time. No trace of humor and little warmth. I shiver. “I want the truth, Amoret,” he tells me, tone like iron. I go still as my heart tries to climb into my throat. “What happened between yourself and Gage Whitehorn?”
