Page 41 of What Whispers in the Dark
With every button secured, Thalon pulled his hands away, giving Garrik a moment to breathe. And as he watched his High Prince shake, watched him completely break, he shattered too. “I should have been there. Should have disobeyed you.I should have protected you.” A muscle in Thalon’s cheek ticked as tears trailed down his face.
Protected him? No one couldprotect him. Not even himself. He could not stop them—stop anyone. Not with his powers, not even with his voice.Nomeantnothing.His life was in the hands of another. Apetcontrolled by his master until they deemed him truly worthless and ended his misery …
Ended his misery.
All lucidity faded as his drunken thoughts hit him like a damning blow. He opened his mouth, but all that spilled was, “I died—I should have remained dead. Met Firekeeper. Why did she keep bringing me back?”
The look on Thalon’s face could have sobered him.
Then came that tender whisper, “Because we love you, Garrik.”
Garrik’s heart clenched. Actuallyclenched.
Thalon held his stare; something like holy fire flickered in that golden gaze. Garrik was helpless to weather it as his brother urged, “Maker of the Skies knew that. The stars knew. If you were gone…” A choked breath escaped him. Relentless tears flooded that dark face, but Thalon ignored them and continued, “We would have stormed the gates of the Stars Eternal to get you back. Don’t you understand that? You’re ourfamily.”
When Garrik said nothing, Thalon leaned down and motioned with a tattooed hand. “Put your arm around my shoulder.”
Garrik scoffed. “Love?” His boots scuffed against the dirt as he batted his brother’s hand away. “I slaughtered your family. I do not deservelove.”
It seemed Thalon did not accept the refusal. Instead, he banded Garrik’s arm around his shoulder; the High Prince winced when it stretched his still-tender ribs.
With one hand gripping Garrik’s palm and the other around his lower back, Thalon lifted them to their feet. His usually gracious face stern as he said, “No, Garrik. You didn’t.”
Silver eyes blinked fiercely until his vision narrowed on a string of golden beads strung on a single braid dangling from Thalon’s head. His eyes flicked to the tattoo marked on Thalon’s chest. “Everlyn. Koen. They are gone, I killed them.”
Murderer. Murderer. Murderer.
If not for Thalon holding him, he would have fallen. Clear through the dirt to the deepest burning pits reserved for him.
Thalon blew out a breath. “Shedid that to you.Shekilled them.” His grip tightened. Thalon suffered a step forward, dragging Garrik’s feet across the dirt because he was too far gone to do it himself. “Do you hear me?It was not you.”
His chin met his chest. Stars, his eyes felt weighed down by boulders as they sealed. When they surfaced, when he could barely determine the sound of their steps, he breathed, “Leave me.” Let him die there. He was ready.
“Do not ask that of me again. I will never leave you. I don’t care if you have me punished for it.”
What remained of Garrik’s strength faltered, and he buckled on Thalon’s shoulders. When his knees gave out … surely Thalon would let him fall. And fall and fall and fall.
But that grip tightened. Thunderstorms and swirling lightning manifested.
The glow of a firesite cast flickering light across the short distance between them, weaving between the destroyed trees.
He heard a voice. A beautiful, soothing voice.
And suddenly his desire to die there on that forest floor ebbed away. “Tell Alora…” he began, not entirely certain his mouth was moving. Maybe he imagined it. “Tell her I—” It was hopeless to finish as his words trailed off in a mumble. Hopeless as darkness swept from the borders of his mind like ink in water, fading her face into the abyss.
And the last thing he heard before withering to that place his nightmares reigned was Thalon’s relieved sigh chased by, “Thank Maker of the Skies you’ll forget this in the morning.”
Thalon cradledthe back of Garrik’s head, his fingers tangled in sweat-damp hair as he lowered him to the bed. The tent was too quiet—too still. Garrik’s breaths were shallow, each one taken by the strongest male he knew … who’d given up. Thalon swallowed hard, pressing his forehead to his brother’s for a moment, as if willing strength into him. “Stay with me,” he whispered. “Please.”
He tried not to think about how slow Garrik’s heartbeat had become over time. How dangerously slow. Yet Garrik seemed to have mastered each skip, every flinch, and painful prick despite the state it left him in. At that moment, Thalon not only thankedMaker of the Skies for that mercy, but also that Garrik was safe for the night. That his body could at the very least rest and regain his strength come dawn.
Even in Garrik’s tent, his brothersafe, he still couldn’t quell the lingering ache in his chest. The insurmountablerageand deep desire to slaughter. Garrik may not have known it, but the moment Thalon had stepped through his portal, his mind magic had struck him like a solid wall of granite.
Thalon had seen … everything.
Everything Garrik was imagining. To the point Thalon saw crimson and almost sank his familial blade into the viper.Thinkingshe was there.Seeingwhat she was doing to him.
Thalon’s fist trembled at his side as he drew his inked knuckles so terribly taut they discolored.
