Thoughts of his brother’s fate were surely careening around Remo’s mind. Would I have Karsyn condemned to death? After all, the proof of his attack was inscribed on my hand. And on my chest. Even though the cut would heal, a pale scar would remain for a few hours. Possibly, days, depending on the metal he’d attacked me with.
“Amara?” Remo spoke my name so loudly I blinked. “Are you okay?”
I frowned. “Like you actually care.”
“Can you put your loathing for me on hold for a second? I need to understand what happened down here. Why were you and my brother fighting?”
“Fighting?” I gave a bark of laughter. “You mean, why did your brother just try to assassinate me?”
Remo flinched.
“Sh-she said she w-was going to k-kill you.” Karsyn picked up one of the fiery globes that had hit him and flung it back into the air. “I was just pr-protecting you.” He picked up another faelight and squeezed it between his shaky fingers like a stress ball.
I gaped at the boy, at his reddened eyes and tear-slicked cheeks. Was he kidding me? Was he really putting the blame on me? Littlelupaturd. “Why don’t you tell your brother the truth before I call over your fatherand ask him to read my mind? Or yours?”
Karsyn blanched.
“Karsyn.” Remo sounded his brother’s name without shifting his lips. “The truth.”
“You said you hated her.”
So much white appeared around Remo’s irises that I thought he might pull a muscle. “I didn’t ask you whatIsaid; I asked you whatyou did.”
He squeezed the faelight so hard it separated into two smaller gummy orbs that drifted out of his hands and up into the air, highlighting his already fading shiners. “You shouldn’t have to marry her.”
“Did you try killing her? Yes or no?”
“If I say yes, will you gas me, Remo, or will you ask Dad to do it?”
“No one’s gassing anyone right now.”
The brothers looked long and hard at each other before Karsyn finally admitted, “Yeah. I was trying to kill her. And I don’t regret it. I just regret that you came and ruined it all.”
“Tell me how you really feel,” I mumbled.
Remo’s chest rose and fell, rose and fell. And then he clasped his lids shut as though he couldn’t stomach the sight of his brother. “Go home, Karsyn.”
My shoulders jerked back. “Shouldn’t I have a say in where the kid goes?”
Remo snapped his gaze to me, his forehead scrunched in an emotion I had never spotted on him before . . . despair. “Have mercy.”
“Mercy?” I laughed a tad bitterly. “Your brother tried to kill me, Remo.” I gestured to my chest.
Remo winced as though a sword were slicing throughhim. “And he will be dealt with.”
Had it been anyone else, I suspected thelucionagawould’ve let me pick the person’s fate, but this was personal. Still, I didn’t fully trust Remo todealwith it.
“Your brother admitted he’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“I know, Amara. I heard. I saw. But he’s just a kid. Please. I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?”Anythingwas a dangerous word in our world. “Even strike a bargain with me over your brother’s fate?”
His jaw hardened in time with the rest of his body. “Yes.”
“Remo, you don’t want to owe a Wood,” Karsyn said.
“Shut up.Prinsisa, do we have a deal?”
