“Speak, Prince,” Bala said without so much as a look at him.
“If anything should happen to my sister, it won’t be Man burning this forest to the ground,” he swore.
“If anything should happen to her, I’ll help you destroy the reef myself,” she replied. “Your sister will be fine. Nadir will let her become who she needs to be. He'll trust her. Draven trusted Nadir with his life, so I trust Nadir. Nyssari means a great deal to me, as do you. I wouldn’t know where to begin without either of you.”
“Is that the only reason we mean anything?” he asked.
A quirk of a smile rose on her lips. “No,” she said. “I’m quite fond of you both, and as much as it pains me to admit it… I find you both adorable as well as great company.”
Her arms continued to stay crossed over her chest as they began walking back to her kingdom. Dorian couldn't stop thinking about the look on Nyssa’s face when she'd left—almost as though she were telling him a final goodbye. But he couldn’t dwell on it, and he forced himself to acknowledge that this was the right thing to do.
"How will I know if what I'm doing is the right thing?"
"You won't."
“I admire the way you protect her,” Bala said after a few moments, making Dorian blink back his tears.
Dorian broke off a small twig from a bush and began to toy with it. “Is there any other way to protect my sister?”
“No, I mean… I know the way previous Kings treated their sisters.”
“How do you know about that?”
“I overheard Aydra telling Draven about it when we traveled back home after Rhaif killed her raven,” she told him. “I’m glad to know that will die with him.”
“I will protect my sister at any cost,” he promised. “I will not allow what happened to Drae to happen to Nyssa.”
“Your sister knew what she was doing.”
Dorian shook his head as his own guilt poured through him. He started snapping the twig into small pieces. “I should have helped Draven burn it to the ground,” he said. “I should have sliced my brother’s throat before leaving.”
“What and left your ignorant Council in charge?”
“Pretty sure they’re plotting some sort of takeover anyway,” Dorian argued. He ran a hand through his hair, fluffing it up nervously. “Unfortunately, all I can hear is Drae’s last words. Promising him to be tortured the rest of his days.” The memory of the day he'd come back from the mountains and found Rhaif had hurt Nyssa filled him with a rage so intense, the twig turned to ash in his hand.
Bala's brows raised as she stepped back, but Dorian shook his head as though it were an everyday thing.
“When I do finally take his life, I will make him repeat every poor word he ever said to her,” he promised. “Watch him die slowly and deliberately, blood pooling in the back of his throat as though he is a deer strung up for slaughter. Mercilessly as he did her.”
“Dark words for a Fire Prince.”
“Promises from a brother who never knew what it was like to feel any sort of brotherly bond with someone that should have been a mentor and a best friend.” He kicked the dirt, hands stuffing in his pockets. “He was never anything more than a King to me.”
“What, you never shared any secrets? Inside jokes or laughter?”
“No…” Dorian sighed, recalling their past. “Nyssa and I were marked a full Dead Moons cycle before him when we were eight. It wasn't our fault our mother chose to mark us first, but somehow he always took that fact out on me. He never liked me, never allowed me to even share the same room with him on his own.” He paused in his speech as they stepped over a fallen tree. “I don’t remember ever hearing him laugh.”
“You and Nyssa were marked together? Before Rhaif?”
“We were.”
“She marked you at the same time? Like… gave you your fire at the same moment she marked Nyssa?”
"She did… Why do you ask?”
"No reason," Bala replied quickly.
A little too quickly.
