Page 5 of Daughter of the Darkened City

“Well, I won’t, because I’m not,” she said.

“Enid,” Dryston said through clenched teeth, coming close, his face alight with a volcanic anger that rumbled off him in waves, his magic twisting and soiling the air about them, pressing in and in, tightening and coiling around her limbs.

He wasn’t the only angry one in the family, though. Her own magic burst out and pushed back against him, shadows thrusting into hischest and knocking the air out as he stumbled back a step. He growled (those damned growls!), and she stalked towards him, brows furrowed. His chest rose and fell heavily, ire still coiling off him in visible swirls of shadows around his arms, legs, and throat.

“Do you have any idea what I’ve been through?” he asked, his voice cold and dark as a cloudless night.

She took in a steadying breath. Her brother was the way he was because of everything that had happened to them. That was not her fault. She shoved the little voice in her head away. She’d spent the last decade making excuses for Dryston’s anger and controlling nature, and now it was simply a habit.

“I understand it must have been difficult for you—” she started.

“Do you have any idea what the papers said about you?” he interrupted.

She smirked. “I never took you for one to enjoy the gossip pages. IsThe High Fliersyour new form of entertainment, brother?”

“They posted reports each week of a newly dead demon.”

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. That was fear in his eyes, not just fury.

“Do you know how many bodies I was called in to examine and identify? Do you know how many times I mourned your death pre-emptively?”

She could imagine the horror. Dryston carried the weight of his decision to save her over the others on his shoulders every day. But he also pressed the weight down on her. Because if she died, then what was the point? Because if she died, he had failed again.

“Do you have any idea—”

“Kaemon is alive!” she blurted out.

He stopped, stunned, then took a step back, shaking his head. “You’re certain?”

Her heart ached at the torture in his eyes, the desperation in his voice. She knew it wasn’t in disbelief at her credibility that he questioned, but for the sake of his sanity.

“Dryston,” a voice said—one that blended in tones like Dryston’s, but with none of the wrath. They both turned to see Kaemon trotting up.

His face was full of emotion—Kaemon had never been good at hiding it. Where Enid masked hers with humor and Dryston buried his with anger, Kaemon had always left his laying out bare for all to see. He had always been the bravest. Dryston let out a mangled sound,something like a sob and a gasp and a snarl. He frowned with a ferocity that still couldn’t stop the flood of emotion that limned his eyes with tears or made his jaw flex.

Both brothers ran to each other, hugging and burying their faces in the other’s shoulders. Enid knew they were weeping, and she knew it would horrify Dryston for his soldiers to see it, even if they were all filled with a similar emotion at the revelation of Kaemon’s existence. She turned to them as they gawked.

“Back in the sky if you know what’s good for you,” Enid barked and they obeyed without question, reporting back to the squad that flew overhead. In a matter of minutes, the sky cleared, and she knew they were setting up a perimeter around Orc Haven, carefully and quietly assessing any threats to their lord.

Enid crept down the stairs carefully, peeking into the parlor of Aife and Jorah’s apartment that was attached to the inn. Kaemon and Dryston talked at a dizzying pace, their sentences tumbling over each other’s with a giddy excitement. It was as if they were making up for lost years by an avalanche of words. Melina sat wrapped under Kaemon’s arm, his hand resting on her belly, her eyes darting between the brothers with love. Enid sank onto the steps, grasping the balusters and pressingher face between them. It felt like a family. An honest to the goddesses’ family. She drank in the scene greedily, not wanting to disturb it. It had been so long since she had seen Dryston settle in and just relax, talk, and act like a brother.

“Come on now, Enid,” Aife exclaimed as she came down the stairs behind her. “Don’t wait around. Come in and join us.”

Enid cringed, wanting to shush her, but it was too late. All eyes turned her way. Kaemon and Melina smiled as they always did, their little soft hearts all gooey and precious, and she wanted to squeeze them. They were so adorable. And Dryston’s eyes locked on her as well, a confusing storm of emotions taking her in, none of them pleasant enough to entice her.

“I’m feeling peckish,” she said, standing to go upstairs, but Aife grasped her hand and tugged her along.

The orc leaned down and whispered in her ear, “It does no good to put things off, girl.”

Well, she wasn’t wrong. Enid entered the parlor and sat down as far away from Dryston as she could, even knowing, before she saw it reflected in his eyes, that it hurt him for her to do it.

“Enid—” he said, but then stopped, his hands clenching irritably.

Enid was never afraid of Dryston hurting her. He loved her dearly—she knew that. But his expectations, his fear of her harm, sometimes harmed her worse than anything the world could throw at her.

Frustration bubbled up in her. He was older by six years. She had been thirteen when the attack happened that took their family away. The attack that had caused Dryston to be the next best option to take over as Lord of Shadows, ruling the demons of the Realm of Wind. He had stopped being her brother that day and had become something else. Something like a father, more like a lord.

She knew he still saw her as that helpless young girl with an arrow lodged in her stomach, bleeding out on the forest floor. He still saw her as the one he had chosen to save over the others. The magic inhibiting poison of the arrow had rendered her bed ridden and delirious for days, the physicians uncertain if she would make it. She understood him and his fear, even if she needed to be free of it.

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