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Nox chafed and muttered, “I can’t fathom the disrespect of those two.”

Rayne’s laughter chimed, beautiful and bright. He appreciated the presence of it in the wake of the recent troubling news. With a kind smile, she teased him, “Aww. What happened to ‘Do you think for one second Para and Bones feel anything less than the utmost respect for you?’” She fell gracefully onto the couch and stared up at him with that light in her eyes.

He turned his back on her and raked a hand through his hair. A little gruffer than he meant, he elaborated, “For you, of course. But those are my chambers.”

“They’re mine now.”

The former King of Cinder hid his wince at the reminder of his demise. Nox found their current situation more than he deserved. Beyond what he imagined for Eternity. But it still made for an in-between existence. What of its permanence? Would he spend forever as a second personality in Rayne’s mind? If not, how long before she exiled him to the dark? Only retrieved as needed?

Still, better than he deserved.

“Nox…” Rayne called to him softly.

It forced his eyes closed. He loved the sound of his name from that kind, hopeful woman.

More than he deserved.

The leather of the black sofa creaked as Rayne stood. Closer now, she called again, “Nox.”

At her will, she shared in his thoughts and emotions. He wished it wasn’t always so. As he turned to face her, he wished certain ruminations remained his own. Rayne stood within reach, and he wished more than anything to air his regrets. All of them. With no pressure on her to forgive him. Or to absolve him. He sought only to make them known.

That Nox was wrong.

But this bastard mind of his wouldn’t stop admiring how captivating she looked. Standing there, straight and tall, yet still only reaching his chest. Rayne had to fly to his height when she took his nacre from his sternum during their penultimate fight. Then, she wore fitted battle armor, all in black. Now, she traipsed around her mindscape like a sprite in flowing tops of purple, burgundy, and blue the color of her eyes. The color of his blood. With her shoulders and back exposed, her skin shone like moonlight. Elden’s Verse written in gold ink across her shoulder blades and down the small of her back. He caught himself reading it more here than ever in his studies.

Rayne swept her long black hair over to one shoulder before addressing him, “Your concerns are understandable. For now, I’ve no intention of exiling—”

The exsanguination mechanism kicked in. The Martyr Complex acted as Rayne’s prison where she served a fifty-year sentence for war crimes against the Vast Collective. It also served as the lock for the conduit between Earth and Cinder. Her blood was the key. As long as her blood flowed through it, the conduit remained open.

So, the Complex mined her blood with sixteen golden cylinders every hour. They fed her anesthetics and nutrients as they filled the glass coffin with her life. Her nacre kept her from drowning in it.

“Every hour, I curse myself for designing that damned mechanism,” Nox growled softly. If one could soften a growl. The giant Icarus tried his best not to raise his voice around her. He gave her no cause to feel unsafe in this mental space of hers.

Rayne searched his eyes intensely before accusing, “You didn’t design it. I know you didn’t.”

He looked away and shifted his weight between his feet. Uncomfortable. Caught in a lie.

Shifting, she eyed the rope on the couch. The one she routinely braided from their nacres and knotted whenever her hands idled. Quietly, as if saddened, she explained, “I know the mechanism was Korac’s idea. He never told me. But you mentioned in your Verse that he created certain components. The cylinders were the most artistically designed and fine-tuned for pain.”

“He only followed my orders—”

“It’s okay. I won’t punish him for it. But…” She turned back to him, looking up their height difference to meet his eyes. “I’m so curious that you would lie for him. Shoulder the responsibility. Almost on a reflex or out of some instinct.” She closed her eyes and concentrated. He sensed her rummaging through his conscience. “You love him. And you want to protect his happiness. Even after he betrayed you, Nox?”

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

The former King of Cinder walked away from her again. He needed a better coping mechanism. This farce of escaping her scrutiny solved nothing. With his back to her, he confessed a hard truth, “Korac was right to betray me.” How could he fault his second-in-command for choosing Rayne’s side? For protecting the Seamswalker—the woman Korac loved? No. Their diversion was inevitable. Not unlike—

“Let’s change the subject,” Rayne offered with a tension-relieving exhale.

Nox released one himself. “Let’s continue your education.” Hearing the sigh of the couch once more, he turned to find Rayne curled against the leather with the rope in her hand. He stepped over to collect the free end, careful to move slowly with his arms loose. Retrieving shards of his nacre as she showed him, he wove a piece of himself into the strange mental construct. “A net, a noose, or a bridge,” she’d said. Peering at her, he imagined the woman intended to build a bridge. A representation of the ability she harnessed to reach Pax and her other loved ones in their dreams.

“Tell me again of the reproduction program.”

This subject burned Rayne. She resented that certain Tritans, the unnamed Primary and Abresson, intended to force her into reproducing with them. Ironically, it burned Nox as well. The Primary used his mother in the same way, producing Xelan. “Including everything I’ve already mentioned? Not much is left to tell. All the civilizations of the Vast Collective can reproduce with the Tritans just not all in the same way.”

“What does that mean?” Her nose scrunched cutely whenever she frowned in confusion. It distracted him often.

He kicked himself and continued on with his work. “Recall the people of Monarch 3?”

“That’s right. No live birth,” she pondered aloud.

Nox chuckled. “Xelan threw such a fit over that.”

He caught her staring and met her gaze. “Am I not allowed to speak of him—”

“You miss him…” Rayne tossed the rope aside, stood once more, and crossed the space to search his face. Her heart wide open in her eyes. This was it. “Did you think you’d punish him and somehow everything would work out? That he’d survive and acknowledge you were right? That you’d be brothers again?”

She never raised her voice, but allowed Nox to feel the full brunt of her bewilderment. Her pain. He looked away. It hurt too much to face the truth in her words.

But Rayne was finally ready. “What were his last moments like, Nox? What was the last thing you said to him? What did you do to him? Because I know—Elden, do I know—he survived that explosion. I know he wouldn’t leave me alone in a world with you in it. Not unless you killed him, yourself.”

Nox shut his eyes. The projection flared to life behind him, allowing her to see the memory. To experience it as he did. To feel his emotions and read his thoughts.

“You won’t like what you see,” he warned with no attempt at reproach.

“Show me.” King Rayne of Earth and Cinder stepped in front of the projection and prepared to watch the death of her guardian with his killer at her side.

Nox kept his eyes shut to the scene and tried to ignore the words from his own mouth. He never once believed they’d be the last between him and his brother. There were no excuses. His anger didn’t conquer him. It wasn’t the high of his impending triumph. It was scalding hot venom and malice. Toxic and necrotic. He wanted to hurt Xelan. And then he killed him.

Rayne’s sharp gasp as he told Xelan of his intentions toward her so near the end shattered Nox.

It’s true, he never expected his baby brother to remain deceased. Squabbles and tantrums were common in their household. Usually, after Nox returned from a hunt with a prize for his brother, the tension settled and they got along again until the next time.

The routine of siblings.

But Xelan didn’t perform a resurrection trick. Didn’t fly out of the ashes like some phoenix.

Rayne did. And into a lonely world without her guardian for guidance.

Nox was a bastard.

The fire consumed Xelan’s remains. Nox collected his nacre, turned his back on the ashes, and flew off to commit an even greater sin. For which she executed him.

The End.

Without so much as a glance, Rayne opened to him. All of it. The full force of rage and grief coalesced until it towered into a tsunami of emotion and pain that consumed Nox. He fell to his knees, gripping his scalp to relieve the heart in his figurative skull. He stared up at her with more than tears—his heart’s blood—pouring from his eyes, awaiting her righteous judgment.

Rayne turned to him with his planet’s star glowing in her eyes. Tears, hot enough to scald her cheeks red, streamed down her face. Or was that her heart’s blood? The strongest being in the Vast Collective clenched her fists. She opened her mouth, and he prepared for her to mete out her justice.

A tear fell from Nox’s face onto the abyssal plane. Then another.

His victim. His rightful end… stopped. Her fists unclenched. The glow in her eyes dulled until only the shimmering blue remained.

Nox watched it all from his knees, deserving of her punishment.

He hurt.

More than ever in his life. Sharing in Rayne’s mourning of Xelan intensified his own loss the day he killed his brother. A remorse he allowed to trickle, but now the dam burst open. Flooded him in grief and regret.

Why? Why did he ever allow their relationship to disintegrate so badly? Why did he resent Xelan’s happiness so much that he doled out such cruelty in the end?

“I’ve had eight thousand years to think about what I would do to the brother that betrayed his people. Betrayed me! I thought I’d torture you for the next eight thousand years.”

Manic. Bitter. And remorseless. So close to retribution and righteous culmination. Eight thousand years, Nox waited to prove to Xelan he chose the wrong side. And he refused to show restraint or mercy—the same deference Xelan showed him.

None.

“Force you to watch as I reduced the planet you forsook us for to ruins. As I defiled Rayne. But you know, brother. I’m in the mood for instant gratification, so I think I’ll finish what I started all those millennia ago.”

Those were it? Those were his last words to his baby brother?

He lowered his head in shame.

She vanished. He understood. In no way did he deserve her presence.

The lights shut off as Rayne left Nox in the dark where he belonged.