The Last Theiro

34

Tessa
•••

Sacha saw the shock register on my face before I could hide it. A small smile played on his lips.

It wasn't what he said though, his words were like vanilla pudding, sweet in their ordinary sort of way, it was the richness of his tones – luxurious and warm.

I was glad I saw him before I heard his voice, I would have never put the two of them together otherwise.  A tear rolled down my cheek and I pressed my lips together. "How-how did you know?"

Sacha shrugged. His smile was one of happiness growing, much as a spring flower opens. I could see how it came from deep inside to light his eyes and spread into every part of him. A person smiles with more than their mouth, and I heard it in his voice, in the choice of his words and the way he relaxed. It was beautiful.

"I thought you might have wanted it, you know, as you start a new life."

Lily watched me carefully. She sat slumped near the fire, her hands held up against its warmth. Her brows were creased and her face was tense. She hadn't been getting much sleep either; she would wake up in the middle of the night in a fit of rage. Some nights I would hear her crying herself off to sleep. When I asked her if she was okay, she merely shrugged. I was worried about her, she wasn't herself. Looking back on it, it was all my fault she was suffering and I hoped that I would have realized that before everything changed. If I could have helped Lily then I could have prevented everything that followed.

"Is that Tom's bow?" She asked, her voice hoarse.

At the mention of my father's name, my eyes flickered up to Lily's. "Yeah." My fingers ran over the bow. It was crafted of flexible, slender yew wood, and wound around the grip was dyed red rawhide. On the quiver was carved the creatures who wore branches on their skulls, stampeding the horizon, pounding it into a grimace.

"How do you know my father?"

Lily blinked. Sacha froze.

I eyed them suspiciously.

She shrugged. "Your father was one of the Elders. It was hard not to notice him." She laughed nervously.

My grip on the bow tightened. Sacha made no mistake and dropped the quill on the floor and made some stupid joke about him being clumsy to try and remove the tension from the situation. Clearly, it didn't work. 

"But you called him 'Tom.' Only the people closest to him called him Tom." I paused and stepped closer to Lily. "How do you know my father?"

Lily swallowed dryly and averted her eyes away from me. 

"How?"

I was aware my eyes were welling up with tears. But I didn't care. I trusted her. And there she was, lying to me. Why would she keep that from me?

She lifted her blue eyes to mine and a smirk spread across her lips. "I killed him."

The Lily I knew and loved was gone. Her eyes were empty, with no emotion present on her face. 

"I killed him."

Lies were swirling all around me, I was suffocating, the empty shape in me stole my breath and, in that split second, I felt nothing. I was dead.