Page 35 of When Kings Fall

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I get it. Like I just said, I should’ve retreated. But I just… I couldn’t. I knew if I’d walked away with it unfinished after they’d managed to do damage to me, I’d regret it. More than just regret, I knew I wouldn’t be able to live with it. With it happening again.”

“Hold up. With what happening again?”

“The shame of being overpowered. Of being a victim. Of being helpless.”

“You were far from helpless that night, Levi.”

“And yet it would’ve felt that way if I hadn’t followed through all the way. But… you taking that hit, getting shot… that’s what’s haunted me all these years. Traumatizing Colt too. I still see it, Mason. I just… I couldn’t pull back once I’d tapped into my bloodlust like that, because of where it’s rooted. In shame. Shame for not being able to stop any of what happened to Brianna and me in that hellhole for two weeks straight. The things they did… especially to her… I can’t unsee it. I can’t let it go. Sometimes I can’t breathe with it, with that image of that useless boy owned by madmen. The demons haunt me each and every day.”

I squeezed my eyes shut against Lev’s agonized words.

“Lev—”

“You think I’m reckless and going after injustice and dangerous fuckers all these years, it sure seems that way, yeah. It was me trying to purge all of that shit from my system when I couldn’t get to the culprits, the demons, themselves. But I also planned and prepared down to every little detail. And you may have noticed that I never failed, I was always victorious. As good a combatant as I am, that still wouldn’t be possible through going in hot without any strategy. I’m meticulous with it, Mason. Like you. Just the act of actually going after people like that seems reckless on the surface.”

“Why did you always have me believe that you were wholly reckless through and through, unhinged with it even?”

“For one, you’d made up your mind about me after the incident. But mostly because I never ever wanted you or Colt involved in anything like that again. I couldn’t stand the idea of you being hurt like you were five years ago.”

“Levi, I get that. I get all of it, believe it or not. But all this approach has done is driven a wedge between you and me and weakened our brotherhood. Knowing this now, it shows me that my worry all this time, trying to rein you in, it wasn’t necessary. We could’ve worked alongside each other—safely, brother. The incident was clearly an anomaly given your other successes in the same vein. Not sheer luck or from wild brute force as I’d thought. Because of your strategies and planning. That changes everything for me, for us.”

“Keeping things off your radar or misdirecting you seemed like the easiest option to allow me to do what I needed to do, while keeping you guys out of it.”

“No more. From now on, we do things as one. No more of going it alone, Levi. No more battling against one another.”

“I’d like that. It’s been a long time—until Brianna came along—since I haven’t felt alone.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I’m sorry too.”

“Brothers?”

“Brothers.”

I smiled to myself and peered around to see them now embracing in an emotionally raw hug.

Holy shit.

Finally.

12

~Levi~

Talk about soothing on the muscles.

I’d forgotten just how incredible the hot springs here at Boreas were.

Just what I needed to relieve some of the lingering aches and pains from that last fight.

When you fought rapid-fire and brutally at the same time, it took a toll on your body.

Even mine, as fit as I was.

It had obviously been compounded by stress and the fact that I hadn’t slept more than a couple of hours in the last seventy-two hours.

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