Unless- A Powerless Story

Chapter 3- Kitt, Present Day

(Parts of this chapter are pulled directly from Reckless, chapter 4)

Not long after Jax has left Kai walks in, a mess after his most recent attempt to catch her. I mock his appearance in a vain attempt to lighten the mood and I watch as he takes in mine for the first time in the days since what happened in the Bowl of Bones.

"Yeah, well you don't look much better," He tells me with a faint smile.

"I'll be fine. Just a little tired, that's all," My little brother who only weeks ago was sparring with, drinking away our problems with, laughing with looks at me like I'm insane. Maybe I am.

"You know there is a simple solution to that– correct?" He asks me with a raised eyebrow, clearly trying to talk some sense into me. I just stare down at my filthy, ink-covered hands.

"You should try and rest. Get some sleep." Kai tells me, concerned. Our roles are reversed, as the older brother I should be giving advice and helping Kai. It's a shame, father would have much preferred Kai to be the older of his two sons. He gestures to the leather chair on which my body has left a permanent imprint. "I haven't seen you leave that chair in days."

"Sleep is for the dead," I tell him matter of factly, what I don't tell him is that I can't sleep or about the dreams that haven't plagued me this bad since the night my best friend was killed in front of me. Sometimes he is there, telling me everything I'm doing wrong, sometimes it's different scenarios, all usually leading to the destruction of Ilya being my fault. They're much worse than they seem. Leaving me awake trying to decipher what they all mean.

Kai suggests that I leave this dreaded room but I decline them all, probably more bitterly than I actually mean. My eyes fall to his dirty shirt, splattered with blood and dirt.

"Is that her blood?" I ask, nodding to his shirt.

"Would you be more disappointed if it was, or if it wasn't?" He asks me calmly, his voice never faltering.

All I do is stare at him. "I don't know," I stutter out. "You?" Mentally I scoff at myself. He probably thinks I'm pathetically caring at all for this woman.

"I don't know," Kai repeats

"Is it? Hers, I mean."

He tells me no and I get him to partially debrief me. I wish there was less tension in the air, but until she is returned this is what our relationship is reduced to. Formalities in the place of our typical brotherly nicknames. I don't know what he thinks of me anymore, I question him about the children and their families he has been banishing instead of killing, and end up with him probably thinking I am a monster, who wants to see children and their families slaughtered. He addresses me as my king and something inside me breaks a little.

"Kai," I plead with him, softening my voice to get him to hear his brother, not the king. "I know this isn't exactly a simple order to follow. I suppose I'm just paranoid. I've witnessed you go against orders in the past." The look he gives me breaks another small piece of me. Keep it together, don't let him see you fall apart. "For good reason. Which is why I worry when asking you to bring her back to me." I finally look up and meet his stormy grey eyes. "And what better 'good reason' to disobey orders than your feelings for her."

It took me so– too long to realise what their glances and hateful words actually meant. I feel like a terrible brother for asking her to the first ball, for developing my own feelings for her without knowing what they meant to each other. The first person I knew who wasn't forced to hang out with me was Jasmine.

He tries to ask me about her, the very topic we've both narrowly skated around trying not to crack the ice, and then unsuccessfully convinces me that he will bring her back, that his loyalty is to me above all else.