She and her eyes woulddefinitelybe the end of him.
Saer lifted a hand to curl it on the back of hers.“Let’s not risk displeasing our maker further than I already have.”He squeezed Neyu’s palm and lowered it from his face.
The gleam from Neyu’s expression muted, and Pride almost took the words back.She nodded and rolled away to sit before he could.
“I’ll let him know you’re awake.”The demoness stood, all warmth from before gone, and made her way to the archway of the chamber they resided within.It must have been one of the alcoves gutted by the Twins, though he had no way of discerning which it was.
Neyu stopped at the doorway and addressed him over her shoulder.“You are Pride, but don’t let pride overtake you in everything you do.”
The First parted his lips to ask what she meant.
Neyu was already gone.
Saer exited the chamber he’d woken in, testing his joints and craning his neck as he looked around the labyrinthine hallways dotted with pools of Hellsfire.Rooms upon rooms off corridors upon corridors with no discernible purpose leered back at him.
Deep voices echoed from one direction, and his stiff legs limped their way.Cracks of tumbling boulders resonated louder the further Saer went—until he rounded a corner and spotted the Twins carving out their latest passageway.Though identical, Alus carried himself with lightness, a carefree aura which reflected in his ever-present, bestial grin.Arek’s shoulders never loosened, his expression severe in a way Saer appreciated and related to.
Even if Alus’s smile made it difficult not to smile in return.
The Twins hushed when Saer’s hooves crunched behind them, spinning to take him in.Each clutched clawfuls of stones.
Saer stopped dead.Silence pressed in on all sides.
Arek stared, but Alus unleashed a celebratory whoop and dropped the boulders he held.“He’s awake!”
Closing the distance between their bodies, Alus snatched Saer’s clawed hand in his, and pulled him in for an embrace unlike anything Saer had ever experienced.“It’s good to finally meet you, Brother.”
Dizzied, Saer caught the other twin’s gaze.Arek’s mouth held in a grim line, but he didn’t stop them.
Neither pushing away nor returning the hug—for that’s what it was, wasn’t it?—Saer struggled to find words.“Can our maker hear—”
“We’re far from the central chamber.We can speak freely here.”Arek answered this time, his hard-nosed tone everything Alus’s wasn’t, even if they wielded the same voice.It sounded as though the Twins had already discussed this.Were they separated before for speaking their minds?Saer certainly had myriad thoughts he would never voice aloud to Lucifer.Before Saer could ask, Arek continued, “Father’s too busy finishing the next in line.”
Father, again.When had they begun referring to their maker as Father?Should he do the same?
Saer swallowed, and Alus finally released him, slapping his shoulder.“He’ll be glad to see you up and about.”
He couldn’t control the wry huff that escaped, though it did earn him a curious, narrowed glance from Arek.
Something about it rankled him.“Say what you will, Areknar.”
Arek made a show of tipping his head this way and that, like he weighed the wisdom in doing so.
A bark of impatience sat at the edge of Saer’s throat when Alus jabbed his twin in the gut.“You’re his favorite.”
“What?”
Arek glared at Alus, but Alus rewarded Saer with a subtle twist of his lips.“He frets over you, compares the rest of us to you, and commanded us to look in on your recovery when he couldn’t make it down the corridors.”Alus spoke without any tinge of jealousy, but simple statement of fact, punctuated by the glinting happiness in his silver eyes.“You’re First.”
“And favored,” Arek said, repeating Alus’s earlier observation, but with a drier inflection.
Saer frowned, unsure of how to answer.The words didn’t surprise him, though he wondered at the implications.
He should be glad, shouldn’t he?
Why was only half of him glad, the other half strangely cautious?
Arek pointed with his chin at the corridor entrance where Saer came from.“You shouldn’t keep him waiting.”
