Threads of Fate

Chapter 56 ~ To Begin Making Amends

    Tissaia remained with her brother for hours, offering what minimal gestures of comfort she could. She paid no mind to the warriors who stood guard in the open space where the sanctum doors had been. She'd heard Kahari and Vaeldan's muffled voices a few times, but never bothered to look up.

    If Talarion had noticed them, he hadn't let it show. But he hadn't looked at her in hours either. His eyes were either closed or firmly fixed on Kaius's face. She had long since averted her gaze from the male. She didn't want to remember his colorless skin or the cold stiffness of his body, still firmly held in her brother's arms. She hadn't tried to persuade Talarion to let go of him yet.

    Tissaia barely suppressed a shiver as a gust of wind blew from the opening in the ceiling. She lifted her gaze and spied a few flakes of snow finally making their way inside. The chamber would only grow colder from here, and exhaustion and soreness was beginning to catch up to her. She had already done what she could to heal Talarion's few injuries, but her own had been mostly untreated until now as she'd been too distracted and worn out to work on them after her brother's.
   
    She gripped Talarion's shoulder in an attempt to draw his attention, but he didn't look at her. His gaze remained blank and distant even as he carefully smoothed hair back from Kaius's ashen face. "We need to rest," Tissaia said. The air around them hung unnaturally heavy and her words seemed to flatten the moment they left her mouth.

    "I can't leave him alone," Talarion whispered in reply.

    "He would want you to take care of yourself."

    A wry, scoffing laugh rumbled in her brother's throat. "Do not fucking do that to me, Tissaia." His gaze snapped to hers, as hard as steel in spite of the tears rimming his eyes once more. "Do not tell me what he would or wouldn't want from me. Do not fucking use him against me like that."

    Tissaia blanched at the raw anger accompanying the words and she let her hand fall away from him. "I wasn't trying to. I only meant that..."

    Talarion shook his head and she didn't miss the hitch in his breath. "Just go. Leave me alone."

    "I don't want to leave you like this." She reached for him but he slapped her hand away before she could touch him.

    "Leave me alone!" He seethed. "And don't you dare send anyone in here to try to move me. I'll cut the throat of the next person who touches me." Talarion continued to glare at her, but a variety of emotions flickered across his face and his breath trembled.

    He was clinging to rage, Tissaia realized, because if he didn't, he was going to crumple all over again. And that was why he wanted her to leave. He wanted to fall apart. What she'd seen before was only a fraction of the grief he felt, and she'd only witnessed it because he had been in shock and unable to control himself. He was barely in control of himself now. He had been fighting to keep that control for her sake.

    Slowly, Tissaia nodded and pushed herself to her feet. "All right. I'll try to make the guards leave too. But please, promise me you won't do anything to hurt yourself. Kaius wouldn't..." she trailed off, recognizing that although Talarion was doing his best to keep himself under control, even she wouldn't be immune to his wrathful, grieving instincts if she pushed him too far.

    Talarion didn't answer her, and she didn't ask him to. Tissaia just swiped a hand across her cheek, brushing away some dirt that had dried in the trails her tears had made, and blinked away the stinging in her eyes. "I'll be here if you need me," Tissaia murmured. "I love you, Brother."

    Fresh tears dripped down Talarion's cheeks as he looked up at her, regret shining in his eyes now. His lips parted, but no words emerged. He just let his head fall, and though Tissaia longed to embrace him once more, she forced herself to walk away, and ignored the sound of his sobs when they became audible. She paused in between the two guards at the doorway.