Shi’chen shook his head, his forehead not leaving their connection. “You are allowed to be angry at me, i-sha, even if I don’t like it. But that’s my fault, not yours.” He reached up to place his fingers lightly on A’bbni’s cheek. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.” A’bbni let go of Lai’s hand to wrap both arms around his twin and hug him tightly. They stood like that for several long, silent moments, before Shi’chen pulled back, clearing his throat awkwardly.
“I should… let you two…” He waved his hand vaguely.
“We are not going to have an assignation in the hallway, i-sha,” A’bbni said with a laugh.
Lai raised a brow. “We’re not what?”
Shi’chen rolled his eyes. “My brother is being dramatic.”
“Hardly,” A’bbni replied, tossing his ponytail a bit. “No, you and I have things to discuss. You can join us, Lai. We would value your opinion.”
Chapter seventeen
Shi'chen
Theirdiscussionlastedtheentire afternoon, but in the end, they agreed that they had very few options available to them. Their letter of agreement was delivered to the Council the next morning, and within the hour, a note had returned to them informing them that Mii’ra would be coming by the next day.
That morning, the temperature had taken a sharp drop, and heavy, gray clouds hovered low in the sky. After lunch, the twins had been sitting in A’bbni’s room together when Shi’chen glanced out the window to see large, white specks falling from the sky. “Is that… snow?” he asked, getting up and moving over to open the window.
A’bbni followed at his heels, holding his hand out the open window for a couple fat flakes to land on his charcoal gray skin and almost immediately melt into wet drops on his palm. He smiled at Shi’chen, holding out his hand again. “That is amazing!”
“It’s cold,” Shi’chen grumbled, wrapping his arms around himself as a breeze blew in through the window, though watching A’bbni’s eyes sparkle in delight was worth it. “I’ll take sandstorms over cold any day.”
A’bbni rolled his eyes at his brother. “Where is your sense of adventure?”
“Left back in my room at the palace, where it’s warm,” Shi’chen said, moving over to the bed and wrapping A’bbni’s comforter around himself.
A’bbni went quiet, his hand still held out to catch the snowflakes, but Shi’chen could see that his ears had dropped painfully. “Ah, i-sha, I’m sorry,” he said, moving over to give him a hug from behind. A’bbni tensed for a moment under him, and Shi’chen quickly pulled back and moved to sit next to him instead.
“I miss our old life, too,” A’bbni said softly without moving his eyes from the falling snow.
Shi’chen wrapped the comforter around both of them, resting his cheek on A’bbni’s shoulder. “That life does not exist anymore.”
“I know,” A’bbni said softly, his fingers curling in the cool air. “It disappeared when En’shea became the heir.”
He couldn’t argue with that. They had not seen the writing on the wall then, but it had been there. A’bbni suddenly took his hand, and Shi’chen pulled away from him for one of the first times in his life. “Your hands are freezing!”
“Why are you so dramatic about the cold?” A’bbni asked, giving him a playful nudge as Shi’chen wrapped the comforter more firmly around himself.
“Because I can be,” Shi’chen groused. A’bbni went back to staring out the window. “Do you think that Vr Ii-Heshar is still involved in the slave trade?”
“Unfortunately, it would not surprise me if he is,” A’bbni said with a sigh. “Something about him does not sit well with me.”
“You felt that, too?” Shi’chen asked.
A’bbni nodded slowly. “I do not know what it is.”
Shi’chen leaned over and gave his twin’s forehead a soft kiss. “We’re together now, so I will not let anything happen to you.”
A’bbni curled back against him. “I know,” he said softly, and Shi’chen silently prayed that this time he would be able to keep that promise.
The snow began to fall heavier, and by the next day, the entire garden was covered in a layer of shining white. Kella sent the children off with a few of the servants to visit one of their uncles a few streets away, then offered for the twins to have some time outside. A’bbni took full advantage of it, wrapping a warm cloak around himself but otherwise not seeming to care much about the icy wind, more entranced by the falling flakes and the way they packed together. Shi’chen begrudgingly went outside with him, more than a little grateful for Lai’s forethought to have him buy warmer clothing.
Lai had spent much of the last few days away from the house, not telling him where he had been going, and Shi’chen did not pry, but this afternoon Lai stayed with them. Shi’chen noticed his rapier was strapped to his hip under his cloak, even inside the confines of the garden wall. If he had one of the goblin short-swords, he might have asked Lai to spar with him. That was something he was missing terribly right now. He had not been able to do any practicing on the ship with the risk of his training giving him away, and on top of that, he was worried about his Honor Garrison. A’bbni had not been wrong when he had said that Shi’chen’s guards were loyal to him, not to the Emperor, and he was sure that En’shea was vindictive enough to have retaliated against them for no reason other than that Shi’chen had been their Captain, even if they had sworn fealty to the Emperor to protect themselves.
He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he didn’t see the snowball until it caught him in the shoulder. He whirled around to see A’bbni grinning before throwing another one at him, which he managed to duck. “That was cold,” he said with a playful glower.
