A Shade of Kiev 3(8)

“Wait.”

I turned around slowly to face him again.

He narrowed his eyes on me.

“I know you have something to do with this. Why else would she behave the way she did? You did something to her that made her get this insane idea into her head. Maybe she did even murder Celice and let all the humans free. But there had to be some other incentive than taking vengeance on Rhys. An incentive that only came about once she started seeing you…”

I glared back at him.

“Careful, warlock,” I said. “I would think long and hard before making accusations of me.”

He backed down.

But as I left, I felt his eyes follow me.





Chapter 9: Mona





Rhys left early the next morning to look for his sister’s body. He hoped that they would be able to give her a proper funeral. He thought perhaps the corpse might have washed up along the shore of our island. When he returned a few hours later unsuccessful, he concluded that it must have floated too far already, or been eaten by a shark.

All rituals were canceled for three days as the siblings mourned the loss of Celice. The first two days Rhys didn’t exchange a word even with me. He, Julisse and Arielle locked themselves up in the spell room. But by the third night, Rhys returned to our bedroom just before midnight.

I shivered as his body brushed against mine, his arm reaching over my waist as he rested his chin on my bare shoulder.

His breathing became heavier as he fell asleep.

I felt sick beneath his touch. The weight of his strong arm pressing against my stomach made me want to throw up. Adding more pressure than I was already bearing from murdering two young women.

I reached for his hand and slid out from underneath him, walking over to the balcony.

I looked back at Rhys’ face. I did this sometimes when he was sleeping to detect in him any traces of the person he used to be.

He was frowning, his lips tight, as if in pain. It was an expression I seldom saw in him when he was awake. It reminded me of when he was a boy. My best friend. I’d known all his expressions so well then and I still kept them treasured in my memory.

Another pang of guilt hit me.

I remembered the agony of losing my own family. I didn’t wish that pain on Rhys. And yet I had caused it so carelessly.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed.

I walked back over to the bed and brushed away his wavy dark hair from his face, placing a gentle kiss on his forehead. He stirred and opened his eyes. He reached for me and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me beneath the covers. I rested my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. Even though it cut me to think of the suffering he was going through, the fact that he could still experience pain and loss brought me comfort. When he was awake, he concealed his feelings so well that I’d believed he didn’t have them.

“I’m sorry,” I repeated, louder this time.

He grunted and rolled over on his side, his back facing me.

I broke down into tears.

“I’m so sorry you lost your sister.”

Sobs racked my body as all the tension built up over the last few days flooded out. I reached my arm around him and pressed my wet cheek against his back. He tensed beneath my touch. Then he turned back around to face me. He sat up in bed, looking down at me.

“It’s been a heavy loss,” he said, his voice hoarse, as he brushed away my tears with his thumb. “But you ought not to cry over it. I told Julisse and Arielle the same. It may be difficult to bear now, but we must see it as a test to make us all stronger.”

I shouldn’t have expected his response to be any different. Rhys always did see everything that happened in life in light of the Cause. Even the death of his own sister.

Neither of us slept that night. His hands ran through my hair absentmindedly as I lay against him. It was hard to relax beneath his touch after the night’s events. I shivered as I thought about the strength of those hands. How they had ripped Tiarni’s hair from her skull. Those hands that now caressed me so gently would have treated me just as they had Tiarni had he known that I was the cause of his sister’s death.



* * *



Rhys rose early, took a shower and dressed.

“Things will return to normal now that we have caught the traitor,” he said, fastening a cloak around him. “We have wasted too much time already. Isolde was so close to making a breakthrough.”

I didn’t know what this breakthrough was, but I dared not ask. I feared the answer.

“I don’t sense that you’re particularly bothered our rituals have been delayed,” he said, eyeing me as I lay in bed.

I rubbed my head in my hands and sighed. The last thing I wanted right now was one of Rhys’ tirades about how I didn’t share the same passion as him for our ancestors’ cause.