Pain erupted across his jaw as Runeak’s fist slammed into it, sending him reeling.He just kept his feet under his frame.
Runeak’s teeth bared, body tensed to strike again.“You chose to unmake her.It’syourfault Neyu is dead!”
The fallacy jolted through Saer.“It was our maker’s fault, our maker’s decree, or It would have killed you all!”
The words might as well have stopped the world, and Saer realized too late he’d said precisely what would turn them—all of them—further away.From him.From the truth.
The first quiet mewl came from Kalia.Wincing, Saer craned his neck to absorb her piteous gaze.Pity for him.
His gaze shifted to the Twins.Arek’s arms were crossed and closed off, a tight set to his lips.The ever laughing Alus’s shoulders slumped with fatigue.
Shoving the revelation down their throats did precisely as he’d feared.All faith in him was lost.They stood under Lucifer’s sway, stronger than ever.
Errshek rose, clearing his throat, and a dismal spark of hope dared to ignite in Saer’s heart.Errshek knew.Errshek was there.Errshek would confirm what he’d said—
“I, uh.I have to go.”The younger demon’s voice wavered.
No.
Stomach plummeting, Saer took a half-step his way.“Errsheken—”
Kalia’s quiet voice broke in.“Can I come with you?”
“Kaliaspher,” Saer whispered, his lungs spasming.
But he wouldn’t—couldn’t—stop them.
Errshek nodded too quickly and motioned her over.Kalia all but stumbled off her seat and went to him.Hands clasping, the two disappeared in a conglomeration of flames, back to the Hells.
Saer could only watch, the heaviness of their absence a brick in his guts.
“Your chosen path will be your undoing.You will leave the rest of us out of it.”Runeak’s stony voice left its charred mark on Saer’s heart before she vanished in a roaring blaze.
A metal tang of blood lit on his tongue.He tried to swallow past it, the movement renewing the ache in his jaw where Runeak had struck.
“Chief…” The familiar nickname from Alus echoed somewhere to his right.Outside himself, Saer turned towards it.
After a hesitation, Alus approached and pulled Saer’s stiff body into an embrace while Arek watched with disapproving eyes.
“I’ll think on your words,” Alus whispered in his ear, though doubt soaked the statement, leaving hope in the dirt at Saer’s feet.
He didn’t return the hold, and Alus patted his shoulder before stepping back and taking his mirror’s hand.
Just before they summoned their own Hellsfire, Saer lifted his scratchy voice to the most skeptical twin, “I aim to protect this family, Areknar.I promise you.”
Arek’s jaw worked, but he nodded.“I know every lie versus truth you’ve ever told.”
Did that mean Arek believed him?Saer’s lips parted.
“But truth,” Arek went on, deadpan, “is subjective to the one telling it.”
Saer licked his lips, words lead on his tongue.
A bright conflagration swallowed Greed and Gluttony, the blast of heat gone as quickly as it appeared.
And the First stood alone.
Until he didn’t.
