And when we found them, Orion was the only one still alive. Barely.
He was chained to the floor, skin flayed open, and his eyes were gone, removed. Bloody sockets were all that remained.
He didn’t speak. Not when we cut him free, not when I lifted him into my arms, not when Sai pressed their foreheads together and whispered thatUncle S was here.
We fought our way back with Orion’s blood soaking through my clothing, my armour, my skin.
And he died just before we reached the barrier.
Sai dropped to his knees, hands slick with blood, and his entire body trembled. I’ve seen him angry before, I’ve seen him wild, feral.
But this was different.
We’d trained Orion as a young man, shaped him into something strong, something worthy. He was never meant to die in the dirt, hollowed out like a doll in a place like this. He was meant to live.
At first, Sai demanded I turn him. When I refused with the soft shake of my head, he raged, flinging us into the Dark Realm. But when none of it worked, he slumped back onto his knees, and simply looked at me.
With the same eyes I saw the day I found him. Trapped in that cage, surrounded by the dark, by silence and squalor.
I didn’t turn Orion because it was the right thing to do. I turned him because Sai looked exactly like he did the day I chose to save him.
Desperate. Furious. But mostly, afraid.
I turned Orion on that rotten soil as my brothers fought and slayed any being that tried to interfere. Then we left that district in ruins.
And the proclaimed Necromancy war never came. Perhaps the King saw what we were capable of and decided that even he,kingof the dead, wasn’t quite ready to face our wrath.
“Sai,” I say gently, breaking away from the sordid memory as his eyes meet mine, “she will be fine.”
He nods at my words, but I know he doesn’t really hear them.
Sai always needs proof, tangible answers, most likely in the form of Jasmine waking up and telling him herself.
And though the circumstances are far from the same as with Orion, the look in his eyes is familiar. That barely-contained panic beneath all the bravado. That helpless, clawing edge of fear he never lets surface unless he thinks someone he truly cares for is in danger.
I drag my fingers slowly through Jasmine’s hair, the soft strands part like silk, soothing her, but mostly myself. Because I don’t show my emotions as easily as Sai. His fear hides behind a mask of sarcasm and anger, a sharp tongue and sharper eyes.
Mine sits behind a façade of calm. Only I see the tremor in my fingers as they run through her hair.
We’re not ready to say it aloud, but we’re both scared. The rune has changed again, more of it burned away meaning more of her has been let through. We all felt it in that moment, a subtle shift, a spike in the air, a ripple through the bond.
We feel her more now, the hum stronger than ever. But Kane feels so much more. Possibly more than he ever has.
A demon suddenly gaining the ability to feel—some might call that cruel. Sadistic, even. Especially for a man like Kanewhose mind is littered with horrors. Whose heart was trained to never acknowledge them.
I didn’t blame him for leaving, it was a response ingrained in Kane from a young age, but I wish he had stayed.
“You know what I’m like with waiting,” Sai suddenly mutters, biting the side of his thumb. “And who knows what the fuck Kane is doing out there. If Zeek doesn’t find him—”
“He will. He’ll be fine, Sai.”
Despite what was done to Sai, despite the loss he experienced and trauma he has from spending years trapped alone in a cage, Sai knows how to love.
Deeply. Devotedly. And he is so loyal to those he does.
To me, the brothers. Orion. And now Jasmine.
My eyes flicker to the shadow that’s begun to shift beside the window just before Kane emerges. He enters without a word, shadows dripping away from his body like oil as he stares at Jasmine.
