We all are.
What if he meant what he said? What if he told Jasmine his suggestion? What if he’s actually… gone?
“Right, well, it’s been long enough; we should go find him.” Sai clicks his neck, cracks his fingers, readying himself to flit. “Fucker’s either in the Council building, the Pit or the realm. Who’s gonna check where—”
He appears—stumbles—into the room.
And a deep, immediate terror rushes through me. “Brother, what is it? What’s wrong?”
Kane is the strong one, the immovable one, the one person I can always rely upon to be stable, and he’s just fuckingstumbledinto the room. Spat out from the shadows like they’ve disowned him.
Kane doesn’t respond, but he remains standing, panting from exertion. Julien stares at me, his worry clear and intense—and Julien being worried is also nevera good sign.
It’s Sai who moves first, cautiously making his way towards Kane.
“Hey, mate. We were just talking about you.” Sai lowers himself in an attempt to catch Kane’s gaze.
Head dropped, Kane ignores him. His shoulders are hunched, his stance tense, as he stares hard at the ground.
“We were worried about you.” No response. Sai looks warily at us, then tries again. “Where were you, mate?”
“The realm,” Kane rasps, voice hoarse, thick with remnants of the dark.
Sai slowly nods, letting him know we heard. “Yeah? How long for?”
Kane doesn’t answer, he just stands there, breathing, facing the floor, and the three of us share a terrified glance.
“She wouldn’t look at me,” Kane suddenly blurts, voice ending in a whisper. Then he raises his head and looks at us.
We all step back from what we see.
His skin is veined with darkness, the inky tendrils spreading like a living infection. Thick, jagged lines twist and weave, forming a chaotic spiderweb that sprawls across every inch of visible skin, as if the shadows have taken root inside him.
“He must have been there all day and night.”Julien studies Kane’s face as he speaks internally to Sai and me.
“Brother, is it speaking to you now?” I move closer, watching the lines of moving black tracing over his cheeks.
He nods, black eyes wide. “I couldn’t leave. She told me to go. It made me. But then I couldn’t leave.”
His head drops again.
“Hey, you’re out now, man. You’re here, with us.” Sai crouches again, but Kane won’t look at him. He turns to me.“What the fuck is this, Zeek? I’ve never seen him like this.”
“I have. Once before,”I assure him, still staring at my brother because I can’t look away.
It was terrifying the first time it happened—albeit, I was only a boy then, barely an adolescent. It’s still terrifying now.
I step a little closer. “I’m going to silence it, brother. Just for now. But you’ll have to let me in.”
Kane nods, no hesitation, and that alone makes my chest tighten. He hates when I go into his mind, hates letting me in. I can count on one hand the times he’s allowed it, and never like this.
The fact he’s just agreed so easily, so quietly… that terrifies me.
“Let me help.” Julien is already behind Kane, but as soon as his fingers touch my brother’s shoulders, the darkness latches onto him.
Julien doesn’t retreat; he clenches his teeth and pushes through, guiding Kane to the nearest chair crafted from our powers to ground him further. Even when the darkness creeps from Kane’s skin and up, sinking into Julien, crawling along his throat, grasping the edge of his jaw, he doesn’t let go.
Julien, besides my brother, is the most adept for this. He knows how to survive the dark because he’s done it longer than any of us. Julien was the first to enter the dark.
