Page 50 of A Curse So Vile

“Excited?” Brenna said with uncertainty. She looked out again at the ruined fields where men had once warred. “What does that say of me?”

“You are lost and need to come home.”

“They’ll kill me…”

“Perhaps not.”

“You know the rules. I’d have upheld them for anyone else.”

“Come home, sister.”

She snickered. “I’ll be there soon enough, but not for long. Not with what I’ve done.”

“You won’t be anywhere near here. Not physically.”

Brenna sneered up a lip. “Why speak in riddles? You tell me to come home, then say I won’t make it.”

“It’s your heart that needs to come home, brave sister. You’ve been away far too long. You’ll lose yourself if you don’t return.”

Brenna turned away, taking in the hellish landscape. “It’s not fair. Nothing has ever been fair!”

“You say that a lot.”

“And you don’t say it enough.”

“To say it, I’d have to feel it.”

“What do you think is going to happen to you when I die? Do you think you’ll find another? You won’t. You’re destined to mourn me until you can’t take it anymore.”

“I’ve mourned you a lot longer than you realized.”

“That’s a queer thing to say.”

“Do you think it was easy to see you in such pain? Do you think the long times you’re away haven’t hurt? I’ve been mourning you for at least a decade already.”

“I’m sure you hate me,” Brenna said forlornly. “You’ve every right to. I never wanted to be so broken.”

“I’ve never seen you as broken, but your pain makes you difficult.”

“Don’t worry. You won’t have to shoulder that burden much longer,” Brenna scoffed. “I bet you regret seeking me out before you knew better.”

“Sharing my life with you was never a burden, and you’re wrong about my regrets. I knew from the very beginning that your path wouldn’t be easy, and that’s why I sought you out.”

“As if you knew.”

“I did…”

Brenna turned slowly towards Icaries, her green eyes locking with his golden.

“But that’s…impossible…”

Icaries took a step towards her, his face softening.“Your path is about to take an unexpected turn. One that not even I had expected, and I tend to see so much more than you. You’ll face unimaginable trials—”

“How do you know this?”

Icaries shrugged.“Sometimes my senses surprise even myself.”

“It figures that what short time I have left will be spent in utter chaos.”