Page 18

Raidon/Kael

“Y ou look like shit,” Kael muses, flicking open his zippo and igniting the cigarette fixed between his lips. The flame casts a flickering shadow against his face, carving out the edges of his grin.

He exhales a slow plume of smoke, watching his brother, Raidon, through the curling tendrils.

Raidon doesn’t respond right away. His eyes—dark, rimmed with exhaustion—remain fixed on Kael from across the dimly lit room whose only light comes from the guard tower outside, its glow barely seeping through the glass balcony doors.

Shadows pull in the corners, thick like oil, pressing in.

“I know,” Raidon finally murmurs, voice raw, drained.

Kael shifts against the leather couch, stretching his limbs with lazy amusement, the cigarette still clenched between his lips. “Give me control.” Another exhale of smoke, deliberate, taunting. He knows how much Raidon hates the scent, the way it seeps into everything, suffocating.

“No.” Raidon’s answer is curt and clipped.

Kael’s jaw tenses. “At this rate, you’re going to work yourself to death.”

Raidon drags a hand down his face, the weight of exhaustion clinging to him like wet clothes. “Wouldn’t be such a bad idea to die.”

Kael stills at the careless way his brother is throwing around the idea of dying . The smile on his face fades, but only slightly.

“Well, I do not desire to die.” Something bitter and curdled festers beneath Kael’s voice. “Because of you, I’ve barely even lived.”

Raidon doesn’t argue. Because it’s true. He’s the reason Kael exists only in the periphery, a phantom caged inside his mind. If not for him, Kael would have been born whole—with his own flesh, his own body, his own will. Instead, he is trapped, a parasite without a host, a shadow without a shape of its own.

“What are you afraid of, brother?” Kael asks. “That you’d rather work yourself to the brink than let me out for a moment?”

Raidon lifts his gaze to his brother, something cold flickering in it. “You.” A pause. Then, quieter, but heavy with meaning. “Because the moment you sensed her, you saw a prey. And she’s no prey, Kael. She’s not a game for you to hunt, not another body for you to carve into. I won’t let you touch her. She’s not yours.”

Kael’s smile vanishes entirely, his jaw pulled taut.

Her.

The reason he has been caged all this while is her. That fragile little thing.

Kael’s fingers twitch against his thigh, nails pressing into his skin. He has suspected it before, but hearing Raidon confirm it sends something venomous slithering through his gut. Who the hell is this girl? Where did she come from? What gives her the right to interfere in his existence?

He wants to find her. Tear her apart just to see what makes her so special. Just to see what will break first—her mind or her body.

“So, you’re denying me my right because of her?” His voice is low, edged with something sharp.

Raidon scoffs, brow lifted. “Your right?” His head tilts back against the couch, his lid heavy. “Since when did borrowing my body become your right?”

“Since you denied me of my own body.” Kael’s words are laced with venom, years of suppressed rage and hate. “Since you killed me before I even had a chance to be born.”

Raidon exhales through his nose, threading his fingers through his hair in frustration. “For how long are you going to keep using this against me?”

Kael leans forward, elbows on his knees, cigarette burning between his fingers. “For as long as I don’t have a flesh of my own.”

Silence stretches between the two brothers, thick with tension and the acrid scent of smoke.

Kael breaks it first. “I’m tired of being locked away.” His voice is softer, but no less dangerous. “I need to stretch. I need to hunt. And most of all, I need to help you look for the ledger, since you clearly haven’t figured out a way. And I can’t do this without a fucking body, so why don’t you quit being stubborn and let me have control?”

Raidon lets his head roll to the side, observing his ever deceptive brother with deadened eyes. “I’m not giving you control, Kael.”

Kael inhales sharply, jaw working. Raidon may be weak-minded, easily manipulated. But it’s no lie that he’s also a very stubborn fellow. And whatever spell the girl has cast on him is quite strong. He will not break easily at this point. Not with a brute force, at least.

“I won’t touch her,” Kael says smoothly. It’s not exactly a lie. He will try his best to resist the temptation. But if he as much as catches a whiff of her while in control, then this truth will easily become a lie.

Raidon’s eyes narrow. “Since when have you ever done what I wanted, Kael?”

Kael smirks. “Since I became desperate.” He stubs out his cigarette, crushing the embers on the glass coffee table. “I’m giving you my word, now. I won’t touch her. I won’t go looking for her. I won’t even think about her.”

Raidon studies him, deliberating. Kael is a pathological liar, a manipulative bastard. To trust him is a foolish and thoughtless decision. But there is also a fact that he’s exhausted, bones aching, mind fraying at the edges.

Then there’s the weight of Veronica that’s also quite unbearable. She’s in his thoughts, under his skin, clawing at him from the inside. Staying away from her is the most difficult thing he has ever had to do in his life. It has been for him like an addict resisting a pull of his next fix. The craving for her is insidious, burrowing into his bones, whispering to him in quiet moments before sleep takes over.

It’s been two weeks since he said goodbye to her. But even then, it had already been too late. Because then, she was already in his bloodstream, an intoxicant more potent that any drug he has ever known. The longer it has been without hearing her voice, the worse the withdrawal gets.

He tried burying his mind, soul, and body into work. He has overexerted himself, his mind and body close to shutting down. But it hasn’t been working. His finger keeps twitching with the ghost of her touch. His lungs are too tight, throat too dry.

Every thought keeps looping back to her. Every breath is thick with the need to see her, to watch the way her lips part before she says anything.

When he realized she had blocked him right after he left that day, it had shattered him. The feeling was like a dagger clawing out his heart. But he also felt that was safer for both of them. But it was worse. That he couldn’t even talk to her no matter the distance has left him pacing around his room on numerous occasions.

A madman he has become.

The thin thread of restraint he has been gripping onto with white-knuckled desperation is about to snap. All he needs is someone to even mention her name. All he needs is a fleeting moment and he will break. And he doesn’t want to break. He doesn’t want to drag her into his world. It’s far too dangerous. Too cruel.

Giving Kael control will never be a good idea. He’s already far too fascinated with the idea of breaking her. The moment he takes over control, he will go hunting for her.

He can’t risk that. He will rather die than let her ever be in the same space with Kael.

“No,” Raidon says, his tone firm, leaving no room for bargain. “I can’t give you control, Kael.”

The corner of Kael’s mouth lifts, his grin a jagged thing, sharp enough to slice through bones.

“Brother, brother, brother,” Kael drawls, his voice low, measured, but there’s something unhinged lurking beneath it, something coiled and waiting. “Only if you’d realize already, that the longer you’ve kept me locked away in the darkness like this, the more patient I’ve become.” He taps his finger against his knee, a slow, deliberate action, then lifts his gaze—dark, bottomless, angry. “The more powerful I’ll become.”

He leans back into the leather chair, his lighter slowly being twirled around his fingers. “Enjoy the control while it lasts. Because soon, I’ll snatch it from you. And then, you’ll become nothing but a phantom—a nameless, fleshless ghost. Just like me.” His words slither into the dimly lit room, curling into the air like cigarette smoke—poisonous, inescapable.

Raidon feels it; a crawling suffocating presence seeping into the cracks of his mind, pressing against the wall of his sanity.

Kael isn’t just laying out empty threats like when they were younger. No. Right now, he has made a promise. And Kael always keeps a promise.