Dead and Buryd

Chapter 15: Blood and Choice

“That self-indulgent, selfish Vtensu!”

Keiran had worn a shallow rut in the dry earth as he paced continually back and forth, boot prints merging into one another. Dust clouds puffed out as each foot landed, but Georgianna had grown tired of watching them settle amongst the dry grass since Keiran had begun ranting. A rolled cigarette was hanging from his fingers, ash gathering on the end as he forgot to flick it away while he paced. Georgianna watched him silently from her position on the wall, her heels knocking against the brick as she swung her legs. She’d tried telling him not to be angry, tried slipping her arms around his waist and telling him to forget it, but she was as good at calming Keiran down as she was with Taye. The more she tried to change the subject, the more it came back to Taye and his—in Keiran’s opinion—ridiculous demands.

Georgianna had been closing down the bar for the night, sweeping the floor while Liliah and Penn put the glasses away and restocked the bottles behind the bar. As she reached the front of the building, she’d been caught by surprise to see Keiran leaning against the building opposite, a bottle of wheat beer hanging from one hand, a cigarette from the other. Glancing back towards Penn and Liliah, Georgianna had signalled to Keiran that she just needed a few more minutes before she locked the door behind her, carrying the broom back out towards the back of the bar. Seeing as Georgianna had offered to finish up many times for Liliah in the past so that she could get home to her partner Qiyan, Liliah had grinned broadly and quickly ushered Georgianna out of the side door towards the Belsa.

He hadn’t planned much, but he’d brought a couple of bottles of wheat beer, and with the promise that he didn’t have to be on duty until later the next day, they’d decided to spend a little of their time together outside the tunnels. They headed to the park that the Adveni had cornered off next to the Rion district.

The park was nice enough, with plants organised in straight lines and low walls cutting it off from the road. Once they’d hopped over the wall, Keiran had brought out the bottles, opening both and handing one to Georgianna before asking about her day.

She had started explaining about Taye’s reaction, and almost immediately Keiran had been up off the wall, his beer abandoned as he began pacing, throwing out questions that Georgianna was sure he already knew the answer to, making comments she was already painfully aware of. However, now he’d started, she wasn’t sure how to stop him. Every time she tried, he would find a way back to his annoyance with the younger Carae man.

“What does he think you’ll do? Walk up to the first Adveni and start demanding to know the location of his little girlfriend?”

“I don’t know. And he didn’t demand anything, he just…”

“He insinuated you were fucking grutt if you didn’t help him break half a dozen laws,” Keiran cut her off matter of factly.

Georgianna raised an eyebrow, watching him with a small smile. She was grateful that he was standing up for her, even if it was only the two of them listening, but his lecturing her on law-breaking was, admittedly, a little funny.

“Because you’re such a good, upstanding Veniche,” she commented sarcastically. “Shall we check that one with the Adveni? Maybe there has been a mistake over that pesky law of being a Belsa meaning an instant death sentence.”

Keiran rolled his eyes as he glanced at her and brought his cigarette up to his lips, inhaling a large breath of the sweet-smelling smoke. He finally flicked the gathering ash off the end, and Georgianna watched as it flittered through the air into the dry grass.

“That’s not the same,” Keiran dismissed her before pointing his cigarette at her. “And it’s not like you can claim complete innocence either.”