Horror was laced within Vienne’s tone. “He wanted Devina?”
“Lysi. If Jarun would give him Devina—like she was a possession, something to be traded—then Ollisan would pave the road for him to theDothikkar’scouncil, which was the only thing he ever truly wanted. But Ollisan was cruel. Twisted. He was no better than a monster. And so one night, after Jarun agreed to Ollisan’s terms, Jarun led him to our home. I think Jarun believed that if Devina loved him as much as she claimed, she would do this for him. She would make this sacrifice forhisdreams.”
My jaw tightened. My gaze flicked to the shadows behind her but they were still empty.
“Devina was alone that night. My mother was working to provide us with gold, so we could eat. My father was drinking that gold away, unhappy and restless away from the wild lands. And I…” I growled, my hands tightening around her. “I was wandering the city. I had seen more and more shadows since we came toDothik. In my own way, I was trying to escape them.”
“Davik,” Vienne whispered, her eyes glassy with whatever she heard in my tone.
I could almost smell the filth of the capital, the raucous laughter and sharp scent of vomit in the air. I tried to shake it from my mind, focusing on Vienne’s alluring and comforting scent instead. She still smelled ofkuveri, as if the scent was forever in her skin.
“That night, Ollisan and Jarun went to our home,” I said slowly. “It was there that Ollisan raped her…while—while Jarun watched. He told me later that he didn’t know that was what Ollisan intended. That everything that happened that night was unintended, out of control, and a product of fear. He swore it on Kakkari. But his word meant nothing to me.”
The tears began to drip from Vienne’s eyes and she held still, absorbing my words into her, as ugly and horrifying as they were.
“The events that happened next are still unclear to me,” I said, my nostrils flaring. “And I will only ever know a fraction of the fear that Devina felt that night. I felt something was wrong. I felt her inside me, this frantic thing scratching within my heart. We had always been connected. We always will be. So when I felt that…I began to return home. But I was too late.”
“What—what happened?”
“I think...I think that my parents returned home, though I am not sure if they returned together or separately. They saw Devina, Ollisan, and Jarun. My father was drunk. He had long hung up hisdarukkarsword and so he had no weapon. All Jarun would tell me was that he didn’t even realize Ollisan had killed them until it was too late.”
“Oh gods,” Vienne whispered.
“Ollisan told him that if my parents lived after what they had witnessed, then the both of them would be cast out ofDothik,that Jarun would never be allowed within the capital again. They would be as good as dead. So Ollisan killed them both…my mother, my father. Quickly and efficiently. Devina was still alive then. I heard her screams as I ran up the alleyway.”
Her screams that would forever haunt me. I still heard them at night, in my sleep, though I realized those nightmares had been less frequent with Vienne sleeping at my side.
“She was fighting Ollisan when I returned, scratching and clawing at him. Jarun was trying to restrain her. I saw my parents bleeding on the floor, their eyes open but lifeless,” I said, familiar nausea beginning to rise in my belly. “Then I saw Ollisan plunge the dagger inside Devina in his panic.”
I felt Vienne’s hands come to my face and I blinked, pinning my attention on her, feeling the world begin to come into focus again.
“I’m here. Always,” she whispered and it was exactly what I’d needed to hear. Because I could feel myself beginning to drift and I needed her to anchor me tothisplace, tothistime, to her.
“The moment Jarun saw me, he fled,” I told her. “He left her, the female he had promised his life to, lying there in her own blood, her dress ripped, her body battered, her parents dead next to her. And Ollisan…I had never known hatred could run that deep. I had never known hatred could be that overwhelming. Truthfully, after that moment, I—I don’t quite remember what…”
I felt a familiar chill at the back of my neck. My breath hitched and when I looked towards the shadows…Devina was coming into view. She was threading aroundpyrokis, coming towards us.
Had this memory called her to me?
“What do you remember?” Vienne whispered, still crying. For me, for Devina, for the tragic events that had brought the end of her life.
“Ollisan’s blood all over me,” I rasped, my gaze on my sister. When I pressed my fingers against my scar, I found my hands were shaking. I had never spoken of this before. “When…when I think back to that moment, what I regret is knowing that my sister must’ve seen that as she died. I should have been at her side as she left this world, for her wound was mortal, but at least I would have beenthere. Instead, I had butchered Ollisan until his blood coated every inch of my flesh. That was her last image of this world. It was horrifying and monstrous, filled with death and hatred.”
“Oh, Davik,” Vienne murmured, watching me trace the scar on my face. “Did…did he give you the scar?”
“Lysi. With the same dagger that killed my parents and my sister. A reminder of that night. Always.”
Vienne looked anguished at my words, while my sister was watching me carefully from the shadows.
“I am sorry for that. I should have been at your side,” I murmured. “I—I never should have left you in the first place.”
Vienne saw where my gaze was pointed. She knew that Devina had appeared, for the first time all week, and I felt her wrap her arms around me, holding me tight.
Devina was within arm’s reach now. She reached out to touch me, which she had never done before. I didn’t feel it, as I’d expected to. It felt more like the prickling at the back of my neck whenever she appeared, an energy that I sensed.
“After that night, I buried Devina and my parents in the forest outside the city, as close to the wild lands as I could reach. I tossed Ollisan’s body—what remained of it—into the forest next to theDothikkar’sroad. As for Jarun…”
Vienne tensed in my arms.
