Page 59 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

“Hey.” Kato placed a hand on Skye’s shoulder, backing up a step when he immediately flinched away. “Look, I know we’re not what you might call close, but I heard that the earth mage found Taly’s horse, and… well, I know that can’t be easy. I’m here if you need to talk about it.”

“No thanks.”

“Are you sure?”

Skye rounded on him, coming toe-to-toe as his aether flared around him.

“We might be stuck in this village together,” he said, each word tight and clipped, “but don’t think for one moment that means you get to come in here and start acting like the concerned big brother.

You’re no friend of mine—just some bastard I happen to share a little bit of blood with.

Even if you’ve managed to convince Ivain that you’re not as much of a prick as you come off as you’re still the absolute last person I would ever want to talk to about anything. ”

Ouch . Granted, there was no love lost between them, but that one stung—just a little bit.

Although, he was glad to hear that his efforts to impress the Marquess hadn’t gone unnoticed. He’d take that as a win.

When Skye once again turned away, his hands shaking as he began sketching out what looked like coordinates, Kato backed up another step, glancing around the corner at the suit of armor on the lift. There were two identical suits slumped on the floor, both in similar states of disrepair.

Another glance at Skye confirmed that his brother had already dismissed him.

Kato shifted his weight, glancing at the door.

Damn it all… Skye was getting ready to do something stupid.

He could sense it, even if the little shit wasn’t willing to talk to him.

A year ago he would’ve already been out the door, throwing his hands up and telling himself he had done all he could, but he had come to this island for a reason.

And if he let his brother go off and get himself killed, if she ever found out…

Sarah…

Damn, damn, damn.

Coming to a decision, Kato grabbed a toolbelt from beneath the table, found a ladder, and set to work. If he was going to have to babysit his younger brother, he might as well make himself useful.

Only a few minutes had passed before Skye rounded the corner, drawn by the sound of clanking metal. “What are you doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Standing at the top of the ladder, Kato adjusted the overhead light.

“Our family guards the secrets of this armor like a firedrake defending its nest—which means we’re the only two people in this village that know how to fix these rust buckets.

The guards on the wall are already scheduled to train with these suits first thing tomorrow morning, and since you’ve decided that your time is better spent pining after a woman who may or may not be dead, that leaves me on repair duty.

“Which,” Kato added, digging in his toolbelt, “I don’t really mind. This is far more interesting than a toilet.”

Skye leaned against a nearby table, crossing his arms as he continued to watch. Several more minutes passed before he remarked, “You actually enjoy crafting. ”

It wasn’t a question, but Kato still answered with a, “Yes,” as he began stripping out the faulty wiring.

“I’ve always liked building things—ever since I was small.

Even if our family hadn’t built their empire creating mechanized armies for hire, I think I still would’ve chosen crafting as my specialization. ”

Finding the crystal socket inside the breastplate, Kato pushed aether into the circuit, frowning when something began to grind.

“Why do you ask?” He looked to his brother, standing down below. “Don’t tell me you’re considering choosing something besides crafting. Grandfather will be crushed. He’s been bragging about your metal sculpting skills for nigh on a decade.”

“Does it matter what I want?” Skye asked a bit glumly. “I was told I was going to be a crafter the same way I was told I would be a duke. My decisions were made for me before I was born.”

“A spoiled answer if I ever heard one,” Kato mumbled, snapping a new aethostat into place.

Skye frowned. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You think you have it bad?” Kato huffed out a laugh as he stuck his head inside the open breastplate, trying to get a look at the three shadow crystals set into the frame, each as big as his palm.

He pulled back, his eyes finding Skye’s.

“What have you ever had to give up?” he asked.

“Mother calls you away from your perfect little life and your perfect little family two times a year and makes you go play the role of the dutiful son at court for a few months, but that’s nothing compared to what she could do.

What she will do if you don’t fall into line when she finally calls you home.

We’re members of the most powerful family in all the known worlds, Skylen.

We’re afforded every luxury, granted access to the best of everything our society has to offer—but it all comes at a cost, one that you haven’t yet been asked to pay.

“Your decisions were already made for you?” Kato rolled his eyes. “Well, boo fucking hoo. Welcome to the family, baby brother—where we all follow orders… or else.”

Skye’s jaw tightened. “I know what’s expected of me.”

Kato laughed at that. “Bullshit. If you did, you wouldn’t have been trying to court a human.”

“I’ve already told you, Taly’s not my mate.”

“For your sake and hers, I hope that’s true.” Slamming the breastplate closed, Kato gave a satisfied nod when a row of red and blue crystals began to flicker. “Relationships between humans and fey never end well. Especially among the nobility.”

“And you would know that how?”

Kato’s brows rose. “You seriously don’t know the story?” He thought everybody knew.

“I know there used to be a rumor about you and a human woman named Sarah.” Skye gave a half-hearted shrug.

“That’s about it, though. You’ve never told me any details, and I don’t like listening to family gossip.

It’s all exaggeration and half-truths, and as little as I actually know about you, I doubt you’d ever try to force yourself on a woman—human or otherwise. ”

Kato grimaced. So that was where the rumor mill had landed.

A hundred years ago, he might’ve cared enough to try to defend his honor, but now…

well, he wasn’t the heir. Not anymore. And if he co ntinued to play the part of the snubbed elder sibling, nobody gave him a second look.

He could have even taken a human lover—so long as he was discreet.

That part stung a little more than he was willing to admit.

Kato glanced at his brother still leaning against the table, thoughtfully running a hand over the heavy layer of stubble on his chin.

He didn’t have anything against the kid—nothing personal, at least. It was more what he represented. Skye had been born. That was it. And as a result, everything that Kato had sacrificed had instantly become meaningless.

The decision he had made so many years ago to try and protect the woman he loved had immediately been forgotten. He had been stripped of his title, his duties—he had even been forced to move out of the main estate, as though his half-human heritage might somehow taint his new pureblooded brother.

The same brother that now, despite the different paths their lives had taken, was getting ready to make the same mistake he had made so many years ago.

“I met Sarah shortly after my 65 th birthday,” Kato said, tinkering with one of the gauntlets.

Anything to keep his hands busy. “She was human, and she tried to sell me a rose one afternoon when I was visiting the Lyric flower market. At the time, I was young and stupid, and all I cared about was impressing the woman I was with—so, naturally, when a mortal approached me with some piss-poor excuse for a flower, I did the most prickish thing I could think of and crushed it beneath my boot. ”

Kato smiled at the memory. “Sarah insisted I pay for the rose—and pulled a dagger on me when I refused. I was so focused on trying not to draw blood in front of my lady friend that she managed to get me right in the gut. The lady—I honestly can’t remember her name—screamed and disappeared into the crowd, and Sarah began to laugh and laugh and Shards, I thought she was insane.

Here was this human girl—a hundred pounds soaking wet—trying to take on a Highborn shadow mage with nothing more than a rusty dagger and a basket full of roses.

And even when I turned to her, snarling, teeth bared, all she did was shrug and hold out a hand, telling me that now I owed her four silvers for bleeding on her shoes. ”

The air cannon finally slid back into the gauntlet.

Kato jumped from the ladder, landing with a heavy thud.

“Needless to say, I was smitten from that moment on.

She was beautiful, smart, with a wicked sense of humor.

After a single afternoon, I asked her to go to bed with me, and I think I fell even more in love with her when she nearly laughed herself silly.

“So, I showed up the next day at her stand and bought her entire inventory of flowers, and when she still refused to talk to me, I came back the next day and did it again. Day after day, I kept buying her flowers, until one afternoon she stuck around long enough to help me hand them out to children in the street. I let her believe I was being nice, but the truth was, I just didn’t know what the hell to do with all those flowers, and the kids were the only ones that didn’t think I was trying to sell them something .

“After that, she let me start following her to the tavern where she worked at night, and I would sit at the bar until she came to kick me out at closing. It took me a week to make her smile. Another two to make her laugh. By the end of the month, she let me buy her a meal, and when a year had passed, I finally convinced her to move back to Ghislain where we courted in secret for another five years.”