Page 436 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

Riley Harker is dead.

Kade stares at the space where he was, unmoving.

His brother is gone.

Gone.

Something pulls tight and snaps so hard it reverberates in his bones, blood and cells; his soul is reeling from it.

The Knot… the Death Knot is breaking.

And the snap splits his insides open with the cruel lash of a piano wire pressed too hard, and the split Knot pours something inside him… golden gleaming bubbles that rise to settle in his mind.

Julian.

Little bubbles of Julian Penhalyx.

They bleed together, forming larger ones, brighter ones, taking up space in his mind where there is room to be, and then…

Oh.

He forgot.

What does it mean to forget?

To let go? To lose? To forget yourself is to lose yourself.

But what’s lost can always be found.

Especially if it was never lost to begin with.

Only hidden.

Hidden away.

Hidden somewhere safe.

Jules Penhalyx was hidden.

Riley Harker kept him safe.

He knows because he remembers.

Kade is Jules and Jules is Kade.

No burying. No boxes. No dominance.

Only us.

I.

Me.

Split. Share. Two.

To keep a stone forever.

Sometimes we have to hide the things we love.