That’s exactly what I did!Saer fought the sudden fluttering of his heart with even breaths.
Silence stretched across the table until Alus broke it with a hand on Arek’s forearm.“We can take care of ourselves, Boss.So can Lady Terror.Our youngest brother may not have your regard, but...would you consider Dollface, every now and again?”
Kalia.
With his truancy and Neyu’s demise, Arek and Alus were next in the hierarchy.Saer saw, in that moment, how very much the Twins valued not only one another, but their whole family.How they yearned to protect the lot.Even from their maker.
Just like he did.
Once again, the confession danced on the tip of his tongue, that Lucifer would have unmade them all if he hadn’t taken Neyu.
None of it would have happened if Errshek hadn’t said anything.The rage boiled back up, and Saer swallowed it down.
After a pause long enough to absorb Arek’s revelation and the cascade of emotions it evoked, Saer nodded.
Alus let out a breath and turned to Arek.“Ask him a real question this time?”
The more cynical of the Twins considered while drumming his fingers on the table, allowing the tension to seep out of the moment, the pendulum to swing in the other direction.“What’s your favorite memory of Neyu?”
Saer had been rolling the dice in the cup again, but came to a stop as he frowned in thought.“Hrm.”To give himself more time, he turned over the cup but left his hand on it, staring at the back of his palm.
At last Pride spoke, the tone in his voice warmer despite himself.“Picking one is a challenge.”A ghost of a smile curved at the edges of his mouth, bittersweet.“She always pushed.Tested boundaries.If I had a certain way of doing things, she’d find something wrong with it, point it out to me, needle at me to the breaking point, until I roared at her.The first time it happened…” Saer huffed under his breath.“Neyu bared her teeth at me, and she screamed, ‘If I weren’t in love with you, I’d be scraping your face out of my fingernails right now.’”Expression softening but tinged with sorrow, he lowered his voice further.“That was how she first revealed the depth of her feelings.In the middle of a pissing contest.”He lifted his gaze back to the brothers.“It ended the fight at any rate.”
Gluttony and Greed each held a mixture of amusement and nostalgia on their faces.“Our Quondam Queen always had a way with you,” Alus said.
Saer nodded.“She had a way with everyone.”Running his tongue over his teeth, he allowed the memory to live for a few beats more, then with the remnants of the smile it left, checked under the cup.“One star.”Holding up a finger before Arek could speak, Saer pointed at Alus.“Youguess.”
Arek simpered.“He’s onto us, Brother.”
“I thought it would take him longer.Dragon.”
“Hah!”Saer exclaimed.“Wrong,” Arek said, at the same time.
More prepared this time around, Saer leaned forward.“What do you know about Errshek’s plans after he found the two of you?”He was making assumptions, but also hoping it would save him another question down the line.
Arek sighed and leveled Saer with his gaze, disappointment swimming in his lavender eyes.Even so, he held to the rules and answered, if reluctantly.“Errshek realized we didn’t want to get in the middle of your conflict with him.He thinks some sort of buffer is needed, and therefore took his leave to seek out—what he lamented as—his final chance at obtaining a reinforcement.”
“Kalia.”
Arek opened his hands in a subtle but telling gesture and allowed the assumption to stand.
Saer drew his fingers through his hair, then rested them on the nape of his neck.“Frenzied Hellsfire, he’s going to make me track down everyone.”
“But if you didn’t, think about all the great times you’d be missing out on,” Alus said, even if it lacked his earlier enthusiasm.
Saer met Gluttony’s winning gaze, then shifted over to Arek.“It is unexpected, how good it is to see the two of you.”
Greed rolled his eyes while Alus replied, “The feeling is mutual, you miserable, complicated bastard.”
31
DragonsandDemonscontinuedfor many more rounds.Arek never predicted wrong as the Guesser.Alus enjoyed himself no matter who held which role or won the play.
“What did Errshek reveal about Neyu’s unmaking?”Saer asked his next question with as much neutrality as he could muster while his heart pummeled against his ribcage.
The Twins had exchanged loaded glances before Arek cleared his throat and answered.“That you willingly carried out the command, and you blamed him.”
Saer’s lower jaw jutted forward, his knuckles cracking when he balled his hands into fists.Errshek hadn’t lied, and so Arek wouldn’t have detected the falsehood.Fury blazed through his nerve endings, carving along every muscle of his body.
