Page 459 of Eight of Swords, Part Two

And Jules adapted.

He asked what his name was.

Riley didn’t know what to say.

‘Kes…trel. Cas…cade,’ Jules had whispered, a line between his eyes. Words were hard for him back then, mostly because they hurt. ‘Kes…cade.’

‘Kade, yeah,’ Riley had said, wanting him to stop searching because the truth would hurt them both. ‘Your name is Kade.’

He’d smiled then and slept for another ten hours.

And Riley had done what he could.

He doesn’t know if he can do it again.

Because his brother won’t wake.

He won’t come around.

Riley swallows the worst of it and sits on the bed beside Lachlan. He has no clue what to say, and he’s terrified of touching Kade, of learning how cold he is now.

The absence of his heartsong is damning.

The smell of death has not yet crept in, but it will.

They’ll have to burn him soon.

‘What do you want to do?’ he asks Lachlan after a while.

‘Hm?’

‘About… his body.’

Lachlan’s thumb makes small, endless circles over Kade’s index knuckle. ‘I don’t know,’ he says, sounding almost lucid, though the disconnect remains. ‘I can’t think.’

‘It’s OK,’ Riley tells him, looking at the windowsill where he and Kade sat together, knees touching. ‘I’ll take care of him.’

‘I’ll stay with you,’ Lachlan says.

‘Good. That’s good.’

Riley looks at him.

Outside, the sun is finally rising.

Lachlan’s bare, bloody chest is free of the tattoo that bound him to the ritual, but his heartsong is a slow, strange thing. Oddly segmented, it starts with a furtive flex before two deeper contractions roll through separate chambers and then nothing. A beat of unnatural silence holds too long before the sequence begins again, blood moving with a thick, subterranean force. Lachlan’s teeth, eyes and fingertips are all visibly inhuman, but aside from that, he’s not that different to look at. There are no new appendages that Riley can see, but he’s miles from human, and his heart tells the tale loudest. The immortal fluidity of his blood is gone, but the same hunger remains.

Riley wonders what will sate it.

‘Do you remember what happened with your ritual?’

‘Yes.’

If he wanted to tell Riley, he would have.

Therefore, Riley decides it can wait.

He still can’t bring himself to look at Kade’s face.