Remnants: Season of Fire Read Online Free Page B

a question stilled me.
    “Keallach, where is your knight?” Every Remnant had been paired with a Knight upon their twelfth year. Where was his? I half turned to face him and felt a pang of fear run through him. My eyes narrowed. Fear?
    His face darkened, and he looked away again. I could feel pain in his memory. “My knight was killed at the same time Kapriel was sent to the Isle of Catal.” He looked me full in the face. “He killed Kapriel’s knight in the same battle.”
    I swallowed hard. “They killed each other.” My words came out in a whisper. Such a waste, such a loss. My Ailith brothers or sisters . . .
    “It was a terrible day,” he said, grief lacing his voice. “And it got worse. My parents would not abide by my decision.”
    I stared at him, wondering if he’d be willing to be fully honest. “What happened to them?”
    “They . . . died.”
    “You killed them.”
    His blue-green eyes shot up to meet mine. “No,” he said with a shake of his head. “No. I did not.”
    I frowned. “Then who did?”
    He took a breath, then a second. “Another.”
    Another . I had a good idea who that might be. “Keallach . . . When did Sethos enter your court?”
    “Sethos was the captain of my father’s guard. I asked him to take . . . my knight’s place.”
    I stared at him, thinking that I might’ve misheard him. My arm cuff seemed to grow colder at the mere mention of the man’s name. “You asked him to?”
    He nodded once, his eyes on mine, measuring my reaction, even as pain and grief continued to lance through him.
    “And . . . before you asked him to do so . . . Were you . . . friends?”
    His lips clamped together as he stared at me. “You’re asking if he influenced my decisions.”
    “Yes.”
    “No more than I allowed. And now . . . Andriana, if you could see Pacifica, see my court, see my people, you would see a good kingdom. My kingdom,” he said, touching his chest. “A kingdom worthy of leading an empire. And it’s my doing. Not Sethos’s.”
    I turned away and stared at the crackling fire dancing behind a soot-covered screen. Was this the fissure I sought? Had Sethos been the one to influence my brother? Turn himaway from the right path? Was this why Sethos had wanted to destroy us before we got anywhere near him?
    I turned again to him. “Sethos is of the dark,” I said carefully. “He is our enemy.”
    Keallach sat down heavily and sighed. “I know it must appear that way, to you. You’ve judged him harshly, because of that. But I sent him to seek you out. To bring the Ailith to me. I knew you wouldn’t come willingly so —”
    “No,” I said, stepping toward him, frowning. “You still don’t understand. Your man,” I said, gesturing past the guard at the door to where I assumed Sethos was, “is of Sheol.” I leaned in, searching him as hard as I could. Again, the confusion in him was clear.
    “Sheol?” he said blankly. “Now you’ve given in to superstition.”
    “Trust me,” I said, crossing my arms. “He is. I don’t know how he has remained cloaked to you, a Remnant. But he is, Keallach. And it was the Sheolites who . . .” My voice cracked with sudden tears, and I swallowed hard. Keallach reached out, as if to comfort me, but I stepped away, alarmed. “It was the Sheolites who murdered my parents,” I spat out.
    He visably paled. “Wh-what?”
    I nodded. “The night of our Call, they came after me and discovered my parents. They tortured them, Keallach. Tortured . . .” My voice broke again and tears ran down my cheeks. I angrily brushed them away as I stared at him, furious, wanting to blame him. To find anything in him that verified that he was as much my enemy as Sethos was. But there was nothing. Still, I pressed forward. “What was it?” I asked bitterly. “After you killed your own parents was it so easy to order the deaths of ours?”
    He scowled and reached out to grab hold of my upper arms, just beneath the cuff. “Again, such lies!