“Can you hear me?”
Ronin’s sister’s voice was faint and muffled, and he could barely hear her through the commstone. He’d shipped the device to her, thought it would be an easier way for them to communicate versus writing letters, but he didn’t anticipate how much trouble his tech-averse twin would have operating it.
“I don’t think he can hear me,” Selene mumbled to herself. “Stupid stone. How does this work?”
“You’ve got to?—”
“Hello? Ronin?”
“Put the damn stone under your ear, Leenie!”
Selene released an exasperated huff. “Sheesh, Ro, you don’t have to shout at me.” There was muffled jostling, followed by a few taps and scrapes.
“Hello?” His wolf whimpered at the crystal-clear voice of his twin. Something within Ronin settled, all his restless energy given temporary pause. Selene was the only individual in the world who could soothe him so effectively. Make him feel like he didn’t need the fighting or the fucking or the Delirium.
“It’s really not that hard to operate,” Ronin said. “You’re usually so good with new things. I can’t believe you’re struggling with this.”
Selene laughed. She wasnotgood with new things. Never had been. It was one of the reasons she’d never left Denevrae, the small village they’d grown up in on the outskirts of Aethalia. She’d stayed behind to keep the cottage after their parents had succumbed to True Death and the Empire had come sniffing around, lured by rumors of the largest white wolf bi-form Ethyrios had ever seen. And to persuade him to become a weapon in their war.
Though they were twins, they were polar opposites—Selene shy and reserved, content to live her cozy, provincial life filled with her painting and her gardening and her healing. Whereas Ronin had been ready to escape the moment he’d learned to shift. He’d wanted a life of grand adventure and daring exploits. Had wanted to becomesomeone.
And hehad.
Just not the kind of someone he’d imagined.
“How are you? Really?” Concern tinged Selene’s voice. She’d begged him to come home after his caging, but he’d refused. That would’ve been even more pathetic than his current existence. “You staying off the Delirium?”
Selene had a moral opposition to the substance. Had never quite given up her worship of Adelphinae and the Creator Goddess’s tenets of faith espousing equality between Fae and humans. Selene abhorred that Delirium bastardized the true purpose of emotion feedings, an act of worship and communion between the two species. Plus, Selene was of the opinion that banishing the humans to the colonies and forcing them to sell memories was barbaric. Though, she was careful about who she shared those beliefs with these days.
Ronin could still remember the fights they’d had after he’d agreed to join the war. Selene had been horrified to learn that her twin was going to be used to slaughter as many humans as possible. Had begged him not to go. But he was young and hungry and stupid. And craving the acclaim the Empire had promised him. Besides, he didn’t believe in Adelphinae. Didn’t believe in the Fae’s High Gods either.
Ronin didn’t believe inanythingother than his wolf and his immortality. Everything else was a myth.
Funny that he, too, turned out to be a myth.
Selene and Ronin didn’t communicate at all during his years as the Empire’s greatest weapon. It was only afterward, when he’d been discarded like a rusted tool, that she’d begun answering his letters again.
Selene’s tender heart couldn’t abandon Ronin in his time of need, no matter how much he’d defied her principles.
“Well?” she said. “Are you?”
“You know better than to ask me that.”
Selene’s heavy sigh weighed on his useless conscience. She’d never stopped trying to get him to be better. Whatever the fuck that meant anymore.
“Just be careful, okay? You know how addictive it is.”
“I can quit any time I want to.”
“I can hear you smirking through this ridiculous stone, and I know you’re lying. You’re drinking one now, aren’t you?”
“Of course not.” He placed his half-consumed bottle of Delirium onto the table as quietly as possible. Right next to the chessboard that sat in stasis, awaiting his sister’s move.
Another reason he’d purchased the commstones—playing chess via letters resulted in the slowest games ever.
“I heard that,” Selene said at the light chink. “Bishop to d7. Check.”
Ronin groaned, moving Selene’s bishop across the board and removing his rook. He pinched the bridge of his nose, not in the mood for another of his sister’s lectures. But he tolerated them. The High Gods knew no one else cared enough to check up on him.
