With a nod, Peri released a resigned breath. “You know I will. Just stay safe, Chrome.”
I barked a laugh. “Me? Safe?” I tilted my head to the side. “You know that’s impossible.”
Peri clenched her jaw and narrowed her eyes, blowing a fallen tendril of periwinkle hair from her face. “You know what I mean, asshole. Don’t be a fucking dumbass and piss off Mom or Dad.” She crossed her arms again, jingling the bracelets that sat draped on her wrist. “Or, gods forbid, the king. Can’t be attending your funeral in the Land of the Lost.”
Land of the Lost was the Kinetic stone building that every domain possessed to see off their dead. In true Kinetic fashion, we celebrated their lives and sacrifices with a revel after the formal ceremony.
“He can’treallyhurt me. I’m too valuable, remember?” I asked, sarcasm lacing my acidic tone.
Peri flipped the middle finger. “Not until you win the Kinetic Tournament for the third time in a row,” she reminded me. “Don’t fuck it up. Not even for Slate.”
“He’s got my back.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah.” She shook her head. “I know. Brothers…but not. Right?”
“Right. We’re family, Peri.”
“Family…”
“Yes. Family.”
“Does that mean my dad is your family, too?” Peri quirked an eyebrow, her victory displayed in the smug grin.
My stomach roiled, and my lip curled as I stepped closer to her. “Don’t fucking…”
“Exactly.”
“Fuck off, Peri.”
“Family doesn’t mean a damn thing. It’s loyalty, Brother. I know Slate’s loyal to you. But…just be careful, okay?”
“Aren’t I always?”
“Not when it comes to the princess…”
“What doesshehave to do with anything?”
“You almost always do dumb shit when it comes to her. Like trying to find ways to talk to her.”
I shook my head in denial. “You don’t know shit,” I muttered, thinking of all the times I almost broke the most cardinal of rules: Don’t talk to the princess. But I couldn’t help myself, it was like I had been drawn to her. Thankfully, Peri had always been nearby to stop me before I doomed both the princess and me to a shitty fate.
“Chrome,” my baby sister demanded with her hands on her hips. “You always have. Stop pretending with me. I’ve watched it happen.”
I glanced down at my arms, allowing the silver currents racing up and down them to put me in a minor trance. “It’s different…”
“I know,” she said, her voice softening. “You feel her.”
I nodded, forcing my gaze away from my arms to the floor, refusing to meet Peri’s eyes. She saw through me too easily. “Yeah. I know you don’t believe me.”
“I never said I didn’t believe you, but I—”
“But you don’t.”
She sighed, pushing her periwinkle tresses from her eyes and tucking them behind her ears. “I do, but—”
“But you think it’s—”
“Ugh, you assface. Let me finish a sentence,” she snapped before composing herself with a deep breath. “Because you latched on to the sweet and helpless girl on the playground,” Peri finished, cutting me off this time. “At a time when things were very—”
