Chapter Sixty: Kai
Istumblebackwards,andanother hit pummels my face, making my ears ring. The crowd becomes a buzzing sound, but I blink away the sting of sweat—or is it blood?—dripping into my eyes just in time to see the next swing of Manu’s fist.
I duck, finding my bearings and sending a punch directly into his side. Just below his ribs. He bellows out in pain, eyes fully golden now as he growls. I don’t hesitate, still fired up from Kane’s words. Picturing his hands onmyBahira. Bringing her pleasure that was only mine to give, even if she wants nothing to do with me now. I kick at his chest, but it doesn’t send him flying back nearly far enough.Worthless,he had said. Just likeIcalled her.
She had given me all of herself. I had seen her unguarded and bare. Her armor laid down only for me to raise my own and send a spear of bitterness through her.
I charge after Manu, only a breath away from shifting. My magic tugs within me, sending a shiver of energy down my spine. Manu smirks, raising his guard and blocking the barrageof punches I send. He attempts to speak—or maybe he actually does—but I can’t hear it above the voice that screams at me to fix everything that I’ve fucked up. My kingdom and my relationships. Myself andher. I want to be worthy of everything I have, even knowing that none of it should have been mine to begin with.
Manu’s leg sweeps mine, striking right at the knee and dropping me onto it. But before he can capitalize on it, I spin and balance on one arm as I send a kick to his jaw.Thatbrings him down, blood already blooming where the skin is thinnest against bone. Pushing him onto his back, I bracket his hips with my knees and punch at his head. Over and over again, until the pain in my knuckles turns numb and the features of his face morph into a mash of blood and bone.
It takes me longer than it should to realize he isn’t fighting back. Too long to notice that the crowd has simmered down its raucous cheering to simple murmurs. By the time my magic fades and there is onlymeat the forefront, Manu is dead. I push myself up, using my forearm to wipe the blood off my face before turning to where Kane is still out. Squatting, I hoist him up and over my shoulder in the near silence of the fighting pit, wishing with every part of myself that I could disappear. A rope ladder is thrown down, and I take its aid, climbing to the top. The shifters ahead of me part, their wide eyes scanning over my body as I pass, but it’s the condemnation I see in their eyes that makes mine lower.
The beat of my heart sets a punishing rhythm as I begin the journey back to the palace, the taunting disappointment of my people chasing my shadow the entire way. Kane stirs as I walk up the long driveway to the front entrance, and only when he complains about being carried do I set him down.
“Did you win?” he asks through swollen lips.
I don’t bother giving him a response, but based on the rules of the pits, he makes his own conclusion.
“Good.”
Anger still simmers beneath my skin at what he said, but the walk here has calmed me enough to not act on it. Together, we enter the palace, though I slow my pace to keep at Kane’s side. Assuming he’ll head towards the healer’s office, I question him when he goes in the opposite direction. “Where are you going?”
“None of your business.”
“Kane!” He stops his retreat, taking his time to turn around. I take in the state of his face, how he favors one side and cradles his arm in the other. “Why were you there tonight?”
His gaze drops to my feet, shame briefly tugging his shoulders down as he frowns. Silence stretches taut between us. “Are you asking as my cousin or as my king?”
I blink, pressing my lips together before releasing them. “Whichever one will give me the truth.”
He cackles and draws a hand through his gnarled hair. “Do you ever hear their disappointed voices?” he asks, moving his stare towards a far window overlooking the jungle.
“Whose?”
“Our fathers. I hear them sometimes, even when I know I’m alone and it’s merely a trick of my mind. But it doesn’t soften the blow of their words or the cadence of their discontent. It doesn’t matter that the voices filtering in are sometimes theirs and sometimes my own played through their mouths.” He goes quiet for a few moments before clearing his throat and looking to me. “My father was leading an entire movement to kill you and take your throne, and I had nofuckingidea. I hope you believe me when I say that.”
“I do. You’d be dead already if I didn’t.” Bahira had told me what Tua said to Kane, and the story of how he had tried to getKane to kill me when I was a child. He may be a pain more often than not, but I believe her story. I believehim.
“All this time, I thought my arrogance would bring me to people who accepted me. Regardless of the fact that the throne you sit on was promised to me. Regardless of the fact that my father couldn’t look me in the eye without relaying the magnitude of his hatred towards me. In the end, all I did was blind myself—blindyouthrough my own anger and jealousy—to what was really going on. People died. You almostdied.Shealmost died.” Kane drags a breath in and holds it before slowly letting it out. “If you’re asking as my king why your advisor was there, then I don’t have a good enough reason for you not to remove me from my position immediately. And I do not blame you for doing so if that’s what you choose.”
“And if I’m asking as your cousin?”
His glassy eyes hold mine. “I’d tell you, it’s the only way to make their voices stop.”
“Your Majesty!” Footsteps pound on the stone behind me, and I glance away from my cousin to look over my shoulder, finding Inessa running towards me with wide eyes.
“Yes?”
“It’s the Mirror. You’ve been summoned through the Mirror.”Bahira. Hope bursts in my chest, and when I turn to tell Kane we’ll continue this later, I find that he’s already retreating down the hall.
“Your face,” Inessa whispers at my side. Her fingers lay over my arm gently. “Are you alright?”
“Fine,” I murmur, releasing a breath.
She nods before retreating a few steps. “We should hurry, Your Majesty. They’ve been trying to call you for a little while now.”
“You can just call me Kai,” I tell her as I follow her around a corner and into the main foyer on our way to the throne room.
