Page 40 of Flamesworn

“My goddamn dumbface, stupid sister,” Theron said, pointedly.

Kataida relaxed somewhat under her father’s approval, begrudgingly as it was given, and under the familiarity of Theron’s childish insults as well.

“Are you sending us back to Axon, sir?” Kataida asked, dreading what he would say.

Evander shook his head. “No. I am not perfect, but I’m not so weak a leader that I cannot admit when I’m wrong. It was wrong of me to keep you away. I did it out of love. I assumed the enemy would not stop at my demise, but see the rest of my family slaughtered in their madness. If I fell here, I needed someone to protect my pregnant wife, my submissive, my little son who doesn’t understand why Dad isn’t home to tuck him in at night, or where Kat-kat is, or why his favorite babysitter isn’t there to draw pictures with him.”

Theron made a soft sound next to her. Kataida was quietly impressed at her father’s emotional manipulation, even as she wondered, yet again, why she felt so removed from it. She brushed the hilt of her sword again, and decided against protesting how capable a fighter Elena was. He knew, and shewasquite pregnant, which was physically limiting if nothing else.

“That being said, when I discussed strategy with my advisors, one said you should be here, one said you shouldn’t. This isn’t an apology or an admission that what you did has my blessing,but since I am not capable of drawing up your orders without my personal feelings interfering, your command for the duration of the war will be turned over to the advisor who didn’t think you should be left behind. From now on, you will report directly to Taxiarchos Stavros and no one else. Do you both understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Kataida said, and even she bowed her head under the press of Evander’s dominance.

Theron made a thoughtful sound, but added a hurried, “Yes, sir,” and that was it.

Evander didn’t embrace them, though she thought he probably would have liked to, and she and Theron ducked out of the tent as Evander called for Stavros to join him.

“I would have thought Menelaus was eager to show off his prize student,” Theron said, as they headed away from the central command tent. Theron saw the pyre in the distance where the dead would be laid to rest, and she saw his face go white, his gaze slide away from it.

She thought she could see a figure there in the distance, cloaked in black, but maybe it was just a trick of the light, or her own imagination. Now that the confrontation with Evander was over and the battle behind them, she was staring to feel her carefully constructed mental armor begin to crack at the seams. She wanted– She had to–

“Look, Kat,” Theron said, suddenly, before she could respond to his point about Menelaus. He took her shoulders in his hands. “I’ll talk about whatever later, but right now, I need to get put under and fucked by six, seven soldiers in a fuckingrowto forget about what I just saw.”

Kataida stared at him, and then she laughed. She couldn’t help it. “I was thinking the same. It’s fine.”

“Six or seven at once? Really? Your arm is gonna get tired.”

“Myarm? Do you know how fucking works, Theron?”

He grinned at her, a little wild. “I don’t know how you like it and I don’t want to. But, yeah give me a break, sis. I thought I was going to die. I really did.”

“I know. But I wouldn’t have let that happen.” She touched his face, carefully, searched his gaze. “Thank you for coming with me. I know I’m not an easy person to be friends with, or family, or anything else, but--”

“Yeah, yeah, I love you, too.” Theron drew her in and hugged her, which she allowed because she knew he probably needed it, too. “Where’s your shadow? The war god usually isn’t very far from you, don’t tell me they waltzed off to beguile some other soldier.”

Kataida shook her head. “No. Here.” She took up the sword, showing him. “That’s them.”

“Uh, Kat, that’s a– Oh.” Theron peered at it, but she noticed he made no move to touch it. “Thanks for nothing. Gracious One, my ass.”

In her head, she heard the soft echo of a laugh.

“Go get fucked out of your mind, I guess,” she said, and grinned when he blushed. “I bet you’ve already got a line at your tent.” That probably wasn’t even an exaggeration. His need for submission was practically pouring off him in waves, though she did hope his evening’s entertainment understood how combative Theron’s submission could be.

“What are you going to do? Murmur to your sword in your tent?” Theron grinned, but it was a shade too forced.

She’d considered going back to her father’s tent to speak with Stavros. She was still too annoyed that Menelaus had been on Evander’s side about keeping her from the front, though she supposed he could have some sort of avuncular feelings toward her, given how long he’d overseen her training. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing, relaxing and taking some time for herself. This had been nothing like her brief foray into combatbefore. She wanted to be alone with it, think through the battle, carefully consider what happened.

She caught Theron’s arm before he turned away. “After you’re done, see if you can figure out the one thing that doesn’t make any sense.”

“Uh,” Theron said, eying her. “I think you’re missing the point, but now I’m curious as to what you think theonething was that didn’t make sense in all of this, ‘cause I’m still looking for the one thing thatdoes.”

She waved that aside. “Why did he stop? The Beast. I thought hewantedto kill Father, but he seemed shocked when he heard his last name. Isn’t the whole reason there’s a civil war because offatherspecifically? When The Beast heard our names, he stopped.”

“Yeah, he’s the last thing I want to think about, literally ever again, Kat.”

“But don’t you think that’s strange?” she demanded, watching two soldiers with bandages leave the healer’s tent. “Father said we couldn’t be here because we were liabilities and the enemy would go right after us, but when he found out who we were, he did the opposite. It was the same with father. Why?”

Theron threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know, I’m just glad he did. What part ofif I don’t get gangbanged I’ll be howling at the moondon’t you get, here, sis?”

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