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Whoops, he’d pushed it too far, and this time he hadn’t even meant to. Well. Mostly. Nathair was testing boundaries that was how you figured people out, and figuring out people was how you stayed safe and got what you needed.

“Thank you. It is.” She stepped back, baring her teeth in a plastered smile. Then shifted to an order, maybe to fluster him? “You shouldn’t keep walking on your foot, it’s pushing the stuff further in. Excuse me.”

With that she promptly disregarded her own advice and leapt across the room like some mad fae. Right in the middle of the fray. He raised his eyebrows a little in shock before deciding he better dash after he before she got killed and he was down to allies none again.

 

 

Alessio didn’t move, his eyes fixed on Nithel like that would make him more solid, more real, and everything would be ok again.

Then Nithel skidded to Leana and he suddenly remembered what he was doing. Is she ok?! He didn’t see Nathair with her so where…? Alessio’s gaze skated across the room, slightly feral. And he held his breath, staring at the crystalline blue eyes that still made him wake up screaming every night if he slept at all.

“My prince…” Nathair’s soft, silky voice betrayed the barest touch of shock.

Voices in Alessio’s head shrieked at him to run but he stood frozen. Running wouldn’t do a single, cursed thing. It would only make things worse. Nathair stared at him a long time, scanning every scar on his body in a way that made his skin crawl.

“It’s been a long time,” He said finally. A palpable pause saturated the two of them. “I’m afraid I failed you, didn’t I?”

You…’failed’? That’s…that’s what he wanted to call it. Alessio could almost hear something crack inside him, like…Nathair really believed his words. He really thought…all he did was… fail? Bloody images flooded his brain. There weren’t even words to begin to process, to even…

“We’ll…fix that, won’t we?”

You killed them…

Just to watch the world burn. He didn’t even know why really, Nathair lost his mind. It made sense at first but he was a maniac, and the vengeful kind.

“Fix who?” Alessio muttered “You or me?”

Nathair’s gaze was lingering at his bloody hand for a few seconds too long, before scanning the room quickly, landing on Leana and Nithel. Reflexively, Alessio’s fire flared around them protectively.

He was shaking all over, the only thing keeping him from running as fast as he could was his friends’ presence there. Close enough to be hurt.

“You won’t touch them!” He shouted, “You won’t!”

Nathair looked from Nithel to Alessio, slowly.

“You want him to fill the void your father left.” It was a statement, not a question. Alessio flinched, darting a guilty look at Nithel despite himself.

“Oh Alessio,” he said softly “you know better. You know people like them will never understand.”

He didn’t care if they never understood what had happened, if they never understood what it felt like or how it changed him. All he wanted was to not be forgotten…

“You can’t trust kind people, my prince,” He said “they’ll always ask for more than you can give and then give up on you because they just won’t understand how much they’re asking for…”

That wasn’t true, he wasn’t lying, he believed it, was it true? Of course not…

“He wouldn’t hurt me,” Alessio whispered almost to himself. “I won’t let you hurt them!”

 

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