“I disagree.” The brother’s bristle at my rebuke. “Look at what Kane has accomplished already. I understand your displeasure with our actions, even if Sai is more to blame than I—”
“You big, smarmy fucker, we’re meant to be in this together!” Sai snaps, and I grimace as his tendrils send a crackle through my shoulder. Then he smirks. “More to blame? At least I didn’t do anything where we could’ve been seen.”
“What?” Ezekial’s gaze cuts through the shadows, a beacon of painful light blinding us both.
“No, Sai.”I level him with a warning look, but his smirk only intensifies into a manic smile.
“In your office, Zeek.” Sai shrugs. “Onyourchair, while the two of you interrogated that kid.”
The blinding light lands directly on me and the intensity, that of a thousand suns, burns. It strips back all the darkness that protectively cloaked my form.
“My. Office.”
I stare into the darkness at Kane.“Ezekial is losing his ground—”
“I know.”My gaze sharpens at Kane’s blunt response.
“My friend,” I offer quietly to Ezekial, laying my palms open before me. “You know I—”
“Myoffice. With thatboythere?” He paces forwards, my skin aching from the burn of his light as another shudder rumbles the room. “You dared to touch her withanotherbeing present?”
“Bet you wished you’d fed now, big guy.”
I glower at Sai.
Yes, I am weakened. Starving. The brothers’ blows are landing harder than they ever had. The normal speed in which I move is hindered. But I did not expect Ezekial’s light to strip me quite so bare.
Meaning if either brother struck me now... I am uncertain of the outcome.
But one thing I did not expect, could never have predicted, was for a light, cheerful sound to interrupt this monumental moment.
Ezekial halts.
His blinding light dims into a soft glow around him as we all look to one another, searching for the source, everyone—
Except Kane.
It’s a jingle. The sound is a jingle. A jingle coming from Kane’s phone.
Instantly, we all return from the Dark Realm, and the jingle is cut short.
“Was that… a jingle?” Sai asks, frowning hard. But no one answers. “Since when do we have our phones off silent?”
No response.
Sai glances at all our faces, but Kane’s only focus, the only thing that has halted his wrath—his darkness, is the sender of the message he’s currently reading.
He’s typing, ignoring us all, seeming to forget that only seconds ago, he was a different being entirely.
“Is that…” Sai begins, but his own disbelief cuts him short. He shakes his head clear. “Is thather?And she’s… she’s texting you!”
Kane continues to type. “Yes.”
“And you’ve… you’ve given her a jingle?” Sai’s voice spikes, caught between outrage and shock.
“She can sense us fighting. She’s asked us to stop.” Kane never once looks up as he speaks. “To be specific, she asked me not to hurt you or Julien.”
Be still my immortal heart.
