Worlds Apart

Chapter 44

E T E R N A L • N I G H T

Nov. 06 2020 18:25 ALT

Orma Ancestral House, Rejj, Province of Aleya

Day and night—hours—blurred, the towering finials and flattened domes of their summer house puncturing the white noise. Neàl had crawled to the Province of Aleya, to the house where Sumadra Orma-Konomid had spent her frivolous childhood. It had nothing to do with his mother. Neàl had no mother.

They knocked on the ancient door, feeling like a stranger. This was no homecoming. He was only looking for his girls.

The door cracked open and there she was, her silver eyes bloodshot.

Neàl smiled. "Riona."

"Go away," she whispered hoarsely from behind the door. A single eye glared at him through the crack.

They blinked. "No."

"Go. Away," she hissed. "I know what happened. I know what you did. Go away."

"Where's Adalina?"

"Away from you."

Neàl stared. Their little sister stared back.

"Ma?"

Riona's eyes narrowed. "So you can murder her, too?"

He didn't know why he had asked either. He had no mother.

"Why are you here?" Her voice lost some of its edge.

Neàl didn't know.

It was dusk, a large red bleeding sun sinking towards the horizon. Birds were returning home in flocks, dotting the darkening sky. The wind picked up, rushing through the rift that split the threshold.

"I need your help."

A treepie trilled a high, shrieking song.

Riona opened the door wider. She was dressed sloppily in pyjamas, the shirt partly tucked, one pant leg rolled to her ankle. Dark, wavy locks had sprung loose from her braid. She looked tired, but those were the pyjamas she had bought last summer on a bright sunny day when they visited the capital. She had been nice to them that day, even laughing with them as if it were all okay again.

Neàl wanted it all to be okay again.

"I need your help. I'm sorry, Ri. For everything. I'll—" Neàl swallowed thickly—"I'll stop this. I'll drop my dreams, I—I won't ever think of them again, just...let me come home. Please."

Her eyes were wide. She hadn't expected this. Neàl hadn't either, but they had known it was true the moment they said it.

"I didn't—I didn't want to kill him, Ri, I swear it on Àl. On us." His voice cracked. "Please. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

A sob burst out.

"I'm sorry, I am, please, please, just help me, please, I'm sorryI'msorry—"

Neàl gasped and sobbed, something deep within his gut pulling the words out. He felt broken and shattered, like the bits they had been keeping tied up for all these years finally slipped from his fingers, spilling all over the floor. He could only hope Riona would pick them up because he couldn't. Not anymore.

"Hey, Neàl?" she whispered tenderly, kneeling next to his curled form on the patio, sobbing and trembling. They raised their head, sniffling, throat raw, hoping she would—would—

"Go. Away."

Their heart stopped in his chest, bile rising.

"You are not my brother. You never have been."

Neàl stared at her, speechless, empty. His jagged pieces lay untouched on the patio floor, where they would remain seared forever.

"I am the one who should be sorry for thinking you could ever change." Riona scoffed, shaking her head, and stood. She stared down at him with unsympathetic, steely eyes. "You took my best friend. You took my father. You are a murderer and you always will be. You aren't welcome here."

"Riona," they whined pitifully. "Please, I—I mean it. Please, just show some mercy—"

That was the wrong thing to say, for his sweet little sister's face twisted with something dark.

"You want mercy, Neàl? Here's my mercy: go away or I will call the Guardians on you."

"Ri—" He reached out, fingers trembling.

She spun on her heel and slammed the door to his childhood home shut, the reverberation shaking the patio and his bleeding, bleeding soul as the sun dipped below the horizon and an eternal night spread across Evanos.

‡    ‡    ‡

"Quit being so stubborn!"

"We have a choice in this matter. We aren't going." Daisha crossed her arms, stance as solid as a rock in the middle of the tumultuous ocean. "That's final."

"Your revenge is—it's stupid!" Kasumi snapped. "Unnecessary! You'll put yourselves and us in danger for nothing but your closure?"

"Yes," Elin said shortly. "And?"

Kasumi blinked in surprise as if she had forgotten Elin was there. Elin had forgotten she was there, too.

For hours, Daisha and Kasumi had gone in circles, their other allies having left them to make arrangements to move at dawn. They would head for the Eahil Gate to safeguard it from Guardian control, making up for the loss at Wim. All that was left was deciding whether anyone was going through it to Earth-side tomorrow.

"Maybe this is for us—does it matter?" Elin shrugged nonchalantly. "You will all benefit from us staying and getting rid of him."

Kasumi scowled. "Why have you both gone mental all of a sudden? Don't you realise if you don't go now, you are never going. The Gates will be gone by the time you deal with them—if you can do anything to them at all. You are choosing murder over protecting your families; just because they survived once doesn't mean they will again!"

Daisha stepped back as if struck.

Elin suppressed the urge to roll her eyes. "I have buried the rest of my family already, what is one more?"

Daisha was not listening anymore, her head in her hands. Kasumi stared. She shook her head and then turned, letting out a frustrated growl. Elin perched at the edge of a large log, watching the dark storm clouds drift by.

Kasumi paced, gesturing wildly as she muttered to herself, "—stupid, stupid, so—" She paused suddenly and fished something from one of her many jacket pockets.

"Riona? What—? Oh my god, you're kidding me. No, no, they don't want to—" She glanced over at where Elin and Daisha were seated. "Gone?"

Daisha looked up as Kasumi rushed over, ending the call. "They—Neàl's gone," she said, panting. "Killed—shit—and now—said he'd give up."

"Huh?" Daisha muttered, befuddled.

"They said they'll stop," she said, straightening. "For good."