Page 29 of Red Demon (Oria #1)

Galen’s Son

I jogged to the greenhouse lab, fuming in the afternoon heat as I passed the market booths and white-washed homes on the way. The air felt stifling until I burst through that door into the climate-controlled greenhouse, the wrapped sword still clutched in my hand.

Mira looked up from Asher’s shoulder with red, wet eyes. Their startled glances locked with mine. They separated. Ash slumped against the frosted glass wall without so much as a hello.

“What happened?” My question echoed. I set down the blade on the table.

“Jesse,” Mira started, her voice barely a whisper. “My father has given me an ultimatum. I have to leave in a week.”

My brow furrowed. “Leave? Where?”

“I’ll be taking that post in Uyr Elderven,” she said, a bitter edge creeping into her tone.

“The post is at the central hospital—implementing mods and following orders rather than researching—but at least it’s somewhat related to what I love.

And I’ll be helping people again. That’s more than I’m doing now. ”

Asher stared down at the table as if it held the answers we were desperate for.

“It’s for the best. I’ve made no progress at all. And…” she trailed off, her voice cracking. “I expected more from myself.”

I stepped closer to hug her. Asher remained a silent statue, his despair seeping toward me like smoke.

“It’s not your fault. You said it yourself, you could do more with other machines,” I said, holding her.

Mira wiped a stray tear. “I analyzed enough, Jesse. Honestly, there’s nothing to explain your immunity.

That much I should find. And when I ran Asher’s code…

” she trailed off, a hesitant glance thrown toward Asher’s still form.

“There were no anomalies like yours. He’ll probably outlive us all by a decade, though. I’m glad.”

A bittersweet smile flickered across both her and Asher’s faces before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Asher pushed away from the table and walked over to the window, turning his back on us. “I tried to tell her not to blame herself. If anyone messed anything up, it’s me.”

I didn’t understand what he meant by that. “Both of you need to quit the self-blame. Voids.” A knot of tension tightened at my temple. Mira’s frustration, Asher’s dejection, the growing sense of helplessness for what I came here to tell them. Oh right.

My anger rekindled. “Mira, we lost the barrack as a client, and I think your father has something to do with it.”

Asher walked back toward us, his gaze scanning the cluttered workbench, and then the wrapped sword on the ground. A flicker of a storm rekindled in his eyes. “We heard the news.”

I exchanged a worried glance with Mira.

“Why do you think my father interfered?” she asked.

“He threatened me at dinner,” I growled. “When he said he’d do what he needed to make sure I didn’t waste my gifts.”

Asher snorted. Both Mira and I looked up to see him unwrap the sword.

“Yeah, there’s that thing too,” I said, hand on my head. “A shitty gift from Mahakal that doesn’t even work. He writes that note like he can’t even remember my name.”

Asher read the note aloud, “To Galen’s Son, I look forward to working with you.” He let out a dark laugh.

I held my breath. “What is it, Ash?”

“Not everything is about you, Brother.”

With that, he opened the door and strode out with the sword in hand, leaving the burlap wrapping behind. In his grip, the sword hummed to life, a light blooming down the hilt.

“Ash?” Mira said, voice quavering.

A row of peach trees stood blooming by the greenhouse, and Asher swung at one of the fruits, shoulder muscles tightening as he followed through to dissect it in half, stone and all.

My mouth fell open. “That was dull as shit for me. How did you get it to work?”

He sliced again, eyes intense. “Standard issue in Mahakal’s unit, I’m told.

” He flipped it, and as soon as the blade was in the air, the glow stopped, and I saw a shimmer of movement at the edge of the blade as it dulled.

“Neat tech, isn’t it? The blade sharpens at my touch and only mine, reforming itself in battle to keep its edge. ”

I blinked, dumbfounded.

“I’m the one whose name doesn’t matter—Galen’s son. He probably doesn’t remember my name. But—” He ran a finger down the fuller and turned the grip over in his hands. “At least I have a cool sword now, right?”

I stared at the blade in Asher’s hand, my mind reeling. “Mira,” I finally managed, “Did you know?”

Mira nodded, her face pale. “He volunteered a few days ago.”

“I don’t understand.” I inhaled, my breath stinging.

Ash picked up the scabbard and sheathed his sword. He laced it on his belt without answering.

“Ash?” Mira whispered.

He looked up at her voice; his anger softened.

“I think you should explain,” Mira said.

Asher squeezed his eyes tight. “I’m in no mood, Mira.” And with that, he started walking toward the street in bold strides.

I could see red in my vision watching him go. “I need a sword, Mira.”

“What?”

I darted toward the mansion’s back door. Flinging the door open, I ran down the hall with the awful purple carpet to the guards’ storeroom. Inside, I met one of the guards dressing for a shift, a muscular brown-haired woman, scanning me agape from head to toe. Beside her, weapons.

“I need to borrow this,” I blurted out, swiping the best of the lot.

Mira tried to block my path, her arms wide in flowy pink sleeves. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

I darted under her, too caught up in the storm of emotions churning within me to respond. I glanced back at the front door, a flicker of guilt breaking free before I started running. Ash was already too far up the road for me to see.

“Jesse!” Mira’s cry fell under the sound of my pounding boots.

I started catching up to Ash on his way home, but he veered off, picking up into a run into the woods as he passed Ruan’s house.

My lungs were heaving as I reached the training clearing, the sky bathed in the first fires of sunset. He kept his back to me as he came to a halt, his hand resting on the grip of his sword.

“Ash!” I called out, my voice raspy from the run.

He whirled around, his face a mask of fury. He gripped the haft with a tight fist.

“Leave me alone, Jesse. I don’t want to talk.” His tone was neutral, but I could see his rage straining its leash. He never wanted to talk anymore. He was shutting me out yet again.

“Spar?” I couldn’t understand his anger, but I was tired of it. I let my anger rise to meet him where he was at, drawing the borrowed blade in one fluid motion.

His eyes widened, hardened. We both knew how stupid it was to fight with battle-ready blades and no armor. In retrospect, I was a cocky idiot to assume I wouldn’t hurt him. I considered no other possibility.

With a nod, he was on me. The clash of steel shattered the tense silence. Sparks flew as our blades met in a flurry, leaving a groove in mine from the force of his first strike.

Voids. It was a good blade.

“Remember what you told me when Mahakal asked me to join his battalion?” I yelled between parries. “You asked why in the black void I even considered it.”

Asher countered with a brutal swipe, forcing me to backpedal. “I’m not you.”

“Yeah, and that means you’re more likely to die out there,” I said, launching a series of quick attacks that put him on the defensive.

“Because I’m weak? Because you’re the better man?” he roared, regaining his footing and landing a blow that sent a jolt up my arm.

I’d been thinking about the SBO immunity, but I was too busy reeling away from that steel to say so.

“I’ve been in your shadow for years now. Everyone notices you first.”

I just laughed, swinging. “No.”

“The governor!”

I parried, my blade sparking, shredding.

“The major!”

My blade broke against his, and I barely twisted away.

“Mira.” His blow landed, cutting me to the bone across the chest.

I folded.

Asher froze, his blazing eyes going distant when I didn’t rise. “Sometimes … sometimes I do want to cut you a little.”

My hands soaked red. I tried to push past the pain, pulling my shirt open to study the wound. It was the first time I’d seen the white of my bones. “I can tell,” I wheezed out. “I yield, by the way. Point yours.”

He dropped the blade, kneeling in the dirt beside me. Before I knew what was happening, he had ripped the shirt off my back and was winding strips of it tight around my chest. He then removed his own shirt to do the same.

Pain pulsed above my heart, stinging sharp with each ragged breath.

Asher knelt beside me, the dying light of the sunset reflecting the worry on his face. “I’m sorry. Voids, I’m sorry.”

A tremor ran through his hands as he ripped the last of his shirt to close my wound, and I found it hard to sit up to make that easy. “I need to get you to a healer, fast.”

With a grunt of effort, he helped me to my feet. Once up, I couldn’t convince my back to fully straighten. But I kept my head afloat, leaning most of my weight on Asher as we stumbled through the darkening woods, dripping a trail of blood between the trees.

“About a week ago, I asked Mira if she’d go to the elders with me,” Asher said, just above a whisper.

My head lolled up, disbelief as sharp as the throbbing in my chest. “What? Fuck.”

Asher looked away. “She—she turned me down.”

“Ash,” I rasped, my voice weak. “She was always leaving. You knew that.”

He stopped walking to regain a stronger grip on my arm. “I know,” he admitted. “But I knew I loved her the moment I met her.”

My heartbeat fluttered. I was speechless.

“Her research is important… Sure, I can support that. I could open a forge anywhere and follow her around. She didn’t want me to—in her words—give up my whole life for her.”

A bitter chuckle escaped my lips until I cringed from the pain of even a little laughter. “Loving like that—the minute you saw her. That’ll scare any Chaeten, Ash.”

His breathing picked up beside my ear, and I wondered if he was crying.

“She said she loves me, that’s what hurts the most. I’m not like either of you, though.

To her, research is first. To you—killing someone is first. For me, the people I love are first. You don’t want my help with the Red Demon anymore.

She doesn’t need me at all. So what good is that love? ”

I wanted to stand up, to look at him, but I couldn’t find the strength. “Maybe she just needs more time.”

“There is no time. The post she’s taking, it’s not a civilian one. It requires a pledge after a few months, and Z’har can’t marry. So—” His voice broke, and a sob wracked his body. My vision blurred, a mixture of pain and a rising sense of dread.

“No Ash, there’s not… She… She can’t—” My words failed me as my vision spun, and the world tilted on its axis. “Ash,” I managed, my voice a hoarse whisper. “I love you, Brother.”

The words slurred out, a long breath of cool evening air. Then, the darkness rushed in as I fell onto the mossy path.