Julien, Sai and I all close in on him before he can run. He needs to know he has us, that if he tries to leave, we will follow. To the end of this earth, to any realm, for all time.
Always.
“Kane.” His breath hitches like I’ve hit him when I barely whispered his name.
His pupils wide as they snap onto me. “You saved me.”
“Yes, brother.”
“Why?” His voice is bitter, sharp with burning hatred. “Why would you do that? It should’ve been her. I shouldn’t even be here. You should have left me to die with my father.”
Jasmine’s soft gasp distracts us all. She didn’t know that part of our tale, not through omission, but because neither of us could bear to relive it. Until now.
I step closer. “Kane.”
He rips himself away from me, turning to face us all.“Jasmine could have died because of me. If I never existed, if I wasn’t there when you found her… I should have died three hundred years ago, that should have been my end!” he yells, and Kane neveryells. “You would never have erased her memories, never inflicted the rune, never risked her life. The four of you would have bonded without me. I am an unnecessary piece in this bond. I am a mistake. I bring destruction wherever I go—”
I grip his arm, drag him to me. “You’re my brother, Kane. I would never have left you. I’ll never leave you.”
“Brother?” A sound tears from his throat, like a snarl and a laugh, so sour and vile it makes me step back. “We are nothing alike, Ezekial.Nothing.”
“You’re right,” I admit instantly, and he flinches. “You lived a life of depravity and horror, where the people who should have shown you love and protection failed you, and yet you saved me. You took me out of The Divide, out of the Dark Realm, you gave me a purpose, kept me in control. I would never have survived this world without you. If you had died that day, I would have followed you.” His eyes widen. “I’ll follow you anywhere, Kane.” I step closer. “You’re more than my brother, you’re my hero. So no, we’re not alike. Because I’ll never be able to save you the way you saved me. But I’ll always try.”
Kane is silent, but he never looks away.
I reach for him again, fingers curling around his shoulder. “I only ever survived because of you.”
Jasmine’s right, he was the right choice, the only choice at that moment, and he has to know it.
“I will never—never—regret choosing you, Kane. Because I wouldn’t be here without you.”
A soft breath breaks through his lips, like some part of this is getting through to him. But then I see it in him, feel it through our shared blood, our bond.
He still doesn’t believe me.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he whispers. “I don’t deserve this.” His eyes shift to Jasmine’s. “I don’t deserve—”
She moves before I can, stepping into the space Kane is trying to create.
“We decide that you do.” Her voice is quiet, but it pierces the realm. “You can claim to be unworthy, say you’re a monsterthrough and through, but that’s not what I see, Kane. It’s not what any of us see.”
She steps even closer, but slowly, like she’s approaching something wounded, and then places her palm to his chest.
“You’re mine,” she declares, solid and so sure. “You’reours.”
Kane’s expression crumples as her claim sinks into him, as it presses against every fractured part of him, filling in the cracks, forcing all the broken pieces to heal, to feel.
And, finally, he lets them.
His hand lifts, gripping hers against him, shadows curling around their joined skin. “What if we never found you again?”
“But you did.” Jasmine smiles, it’s small but sodevastatingly beautiful.
“And if you hadn’t…” Her eyes soften, the blazing inferno dimming to a glowing ember as she looks at us all. “In any district, in any realm, in any universe…Iwould have foundyou.Every. Single. One. Of you.”
We all stare at our bond, and in the quiet of the realm, a calm descends upon us I’ve never experienced, because now—for once—Kane is no longer fighting.
Even if a piece of him still wants to run, still struggles to believe in her, or me, or us… he stays.
