UNDER SIEGE |COMPLETED|

⚔️Chapter Thirteen⚔️

Chpt. 13.)
A GAMBLE

Kyah woke up early the next morning, but he wasn't the first one up. Ari came to sit beside him, smiling softly at his brother before looking out at the horizon.

Kyah felt himself relax, there was something about Ari that comforted him. "You ready for this? This is it, isn't it?" Ari pondered, tilting his head in regards to his brother.

The prince nodded sadly, "it is. And no, no I'm not, but it's here. Ari, I'm, I'm scared."

"About?"

Kyah clasped his hands together, "the right thing. I know killing Crone is the only way, but how can I ensure that? I can't guarantee he'll die or I will in his place. Everyone is counting on me to accomplish this, to k-kill him, but I- I don't want to disappoint them."

Ari hummed, looking him in the eye, "Is this about them or about you?"

A moment of silence passed between them.

"I've never killed someone."

"Remember when Mother got sick? The day she told us, it felt so heavy, so real, like she was to die the same day. Now it is less heavy, less real, we think of it from time to time of course, but it doesn't consume our mind like it once did. You understand?"

Kyah smiled, it had been awhile since he thought of Faelyn, his mother. Her kind eyes, soft smile, and contagious laugh. She kept joy in his life from the moment she first met him.

Unlike Nix, she was not a chef. She couldn't cook, but she loved her animals. She could identify any bird, deer, fox, or insect that fluttered by their little hut in Petal Locke. His mother had a bright mind and a passionate heart.

"I'll learn to live with it, is what you're saying."

Ari shook his head, "we'll learn to live with it. I'll be right there when you strike down Crone, I swear."

They held each other's gaze for a moment, fondly, appreciating the fact that they had one another. "What're you lads doing up so early?" Pennsworth commented, walking up from behind them.

He must have just woken up. "Wondering why our lazy knight was still asleep?" Ari joked, enticing a laugh from the prince.

The knight rolled his eyes, placing his hands on his hips, "har, har. When are we taking our leave? This island gives me the creeps. All the colors are unnatural."

"Have heart, Pennsworth, perhaps it is our colors that are unnatural," November commented, coming to stand beside him.

The knight swept his sharpened gaze over the white tree tops and blue forest floor, he could see in no world where mage colors would be natural.

"You have the only name with three syllables," Ari pointed towards November. She raised a brow, "and?"

He shrugged, facing Kyah with a smirk, "we used to call you Novie." "And you wish to call me such a ridiculous name again?"

Kyah beamed brightly at her, his dazzlingly smile quickly cutting into her hardened edge. The sparkle of hope in his twinkling eyes seemed to sway her. "Fine."

Ari's triumphant grin grew half the size of his face. "Does that apply to me as well?" Pennsworth said, clasping his hands together to beg.

She rolled her eyes, "pathetic." The young woman hummed thoughtfully, "you know, for what it is worth, I'm glad I had the honor of meeting you all."