Page 110 of A Dawn Of Blood

“You haven’t eaten anything all day,” I hear him say.

“I’m not hungry.”

“You’re moping.”

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

“Not because I’m hungry.”

“Eat.”

Frowning, I turn to look at him. Any other day, the concern in his voice and the pouty, clumsy way in which he’s showing it would melt my heart. But now that I no longer see the end of the road… It’s only making my desperation grow.

“I don’t want to eat,” I snap a little, “I want you to believe the things I tell you.”

Holding my breath, I watch him grit his teeth and look away.

I get up and walk away, going to mope by the lake.

*

I don’t get much time alone. Cain comes, holding that damn plate in his hand. He lowers himself onto the plateau next to me and puts the food between us.

I turn away from him.

“You’re being stupid,” I hear him say in a low, drained voice.

I roll my eyes at him even though he can’t see me. “Am I?”

“Yeah, you obviously care about this cause of yours, but why the hell do you keep insisting on… me?”

I frown. I turn to look at him. “I love you, Cain.”

He inhales deeply, as if summoning patience. “I really wish you’d stop with that nonsense. I’m not someone tolove, and you know it better than I do.That faeis someone to love, or any one of the millions of other men who are normal, stand-up people a woman could be truly happy with.”

The words make me sad. “No, you’re the only man for me,” I say as I reach for his hand.

He doesn’t let me take it. It’s with this bitterness in his voice that he gets up and demands, “You really think you know everything, don’t you?”

I just get up, frowning without saying anything.

“Fine,” he snaps. “You want to know why I don’t let people call me by my real name?”

Before I can reply, he takes me by the hand and lets me use Mind Magic on him.

*

I’m a child living in a huge, empty fortress on the top of a hill. I have my brother and the two of us cling to each other, feeling as if something terrible would happen to us in that house if we were ever to drift apart. There are people taking care of us, a man and a woman, but they never really speak to us. Most of the time, we train, we train hard to make our father proud, but once a day, in the evening, he comes to have dinner with us. And every time he does, it’s as if I forget to exist. I don’t know how to eat or talk anymore. He tells us that one of us is destined for greatness, but only one. There will come a day when we will both be tested and he will see which one. And when that day comes, we can’t waver.

Then, one day, he comes to watch us train. As usual, it doesn’t take me long to pin my brother down. When I turn to father forfurther instructions, he tells me the day has come and my first test is to kill my brother.

There’s not even an option in my mind to disobey. No, my struggle is forcing myself to do it. And it turns my heart to stone, but I obey.

*

“See?” he spits out as soon as I retreat from his mind. There’s such bitter shame in his eyes when he says, “I’m not the man you think I am.”

---