Fate and Destiny (The Fated Series, #2)

Ch. 95 - Fauna - Memories

Gods and their Saints I can't do this. I can't watch as my brother will crumble beneath my words. I can barely make it past the sting of betrayal that shudders his eyes and pauses his swinging arm.

It too great effort, but it was well worth the spectacle.
I had hoped that I wouldn't have to tell him - that he and Kat would live out in happiness and not be tainted by the truth and corruption of our past - his past. I thought I could keep this one last secret from him forever and spare him this, because this...

They were supposed to have a large family, Willdred and his Rosette, but what good would that have brought.

Get out of my head! I shout at the flashing scenes, casting them back to the shadows of their dark cell.

I can barely live with it, and it hurts.

"Lance-"

"You shut the hell up," my brother grits to Will, laying the point of his blade at Will's throat.

"Lance..." I bring my brother's attention back to me and step out of the rain beneath the canopy. Rohana steps aside but stays close.
"Put down the blade and let me explain. Please. Please, Lance," I repeat when he still doesn't lower the blade.

"Why are you protecting him?" I flinch at the anger in his eyes. "He killed Rose - he killed our father!"

"I know."

"He was standing over her dead body!"

"I know."

"Her blood was on his hands!"

"I know!" I yell back. I hear the anger that strikes my voice and I hate the sound of it. He doesn't deserve any of this.

Such minuscule strings and yet it will cause the most suffering for the rest of your little lives.

He stares at me, eyes still blazing. More hot tears run over my cheeks as I struggle to get the next words out. I can't do it looking at him - or any of them. So I stare at the ground.
"Xaxias, when he...when he would...when he torture me and take...take my memories, sometimes I wouldn't fall unconscious with the pain. I'd-I'd stay awake, and he'd talk. He'd tell me things he thought he could erase but...I remember everything he said."

You think you're strong, but I've already torn you apart before I laid eyes on you.

I lift a shaking hand to my burning temple and look back up at him, already begging him not to hate me. "He told me about how he sent his spies to hunt mom down and torture her to death for trying to escape him, and he told them to make sure that we watched. To drive fear into our hearts. He-he knew that dad would take us back to the assassin's keep and train us, so he sent his two spies to find a way in. To get close to us so he could tear us apart and then be there to pick us up so we would find loyalty to him. When Will came to the keep and we all became friends, Visha and Morana went after him. They manipulated him to gain his trust, and when they found out about Will's fating bond to Rose, he...he used it."

A thing so highly treasured, yet it broke without much fight, Xaxias thought aloud, his fingers playing with my hair he just cut short.

Slowly, Lance lowers the knife. He of all people in the world knows when I'm lying and when I'm not, and I can see it in his face now that he knows now is not one of those times where I am. I wish I were - Saints I wish I was unconscious when Xaxias said all of this. This is a curse. One Will has been carrying for years now but could never say or do anything because what could he do with the damage already done?
I don't want to know this - I don't want to know any of this or to have to tell him or keep going or keep crying. For Saint's sake I want it all gone again. It was all so much easier when it was gone.