David glanced up, catching on that familiar deep blue. “Huh?”
“Your emotions were like bait. We could use that.”
Blinking a few times, David tried to discern his rationale. “No. They almost killed us.”
“Right,” Sean said, his voice dead while his emotional core churned with broken glass. “But if we control the situation, bait could lure them right into a trap.”
He wasn’t wrong, but that was a dangerous game to play. “You should take a break from thinking about this. Decompress, Sean.”
His soulmate nodded slowly, expression blank, posture stillhunched. He opened his mouth once, twice, then shook himself. His voice, when he finally spoke, grated from his throat, raw and uneven. “I killed people today.”
The shattered glass of his emotions clogged in their connection, cutting, shredding, making them both bleed.
“Sean.” David scooted to the edge of his seat. “When it’skill or be killed, the right choice is not laying down your weapons. If you hadn’t fought today, we’d probably all be dead.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Sean said, “How am I supposed to save this whole realm when I couldn’t even save my own father?”
David shook his head. “That isn’t how it works.”
“I’m not who they want me to be. I cannot win this war for them.”
“You don’t have to. The war of our fathers isn’t ours to bear.”
Sean let out a single humorless laugh. “Yeah? Then why do they call meAshanta? Why are they constantly reminding me where I came from and who I am?”
“Only you can decide who you are,” David said, quiet but firm.
Sean’s cobalt gaze found him once more, still compressed, breaking under the weight of obligation. “I’m a murderer.”
“So am I.” The words came easy even though he hated the truth of them. But this was Sean, his counterpart. Sean could withstand the harsher truths.
“It—it felt different than I thought it would.”
He tilted his head. “How?”
“I don’t know.” Sean dropped his gaze to his clasped hands. “Easier?”
David swallowed down the taste of acid. “It gets hard when you realize a part of you dies with them each time.”
Sean released a stuttered breath. “There’s going to be so many more lives lost.”
Nodding, David said, “You finally understand it, don’t you?”
“Understand what?” Sean asked, though his tone suggested he already knew.
“They will fight a holy war for you. For everything you represent. They will die for you.”
Sean braced his forehead, like an ache had bloomed there. “How much blood will be spilled in my name before it’s all over?”
“That isn’t what’s important.”
“Then what is, David?” he asked, a shade of irritation blossoming in his tone.
“We need to accept who you are, Sean. War is coming, whether it’s with Indigo or not, and when it does, they’ll look toyou. Countless lives will suffer if you’re not ready, and you’ll blame yourself for all of it.”
Sean froze. “That can’t be true.”
“It is. When the time comes, you will raise your blade, and they’ll follow.”
