That was exactly how Delfai had said it was created, but I knew Kolis hadn’t stumbled upon it. “It truly is beautiful.” I watched the milky light ripple through the diamond as he turned it once more. “Why would you change its appearance and keep it here, where it’s hidden?”
“Because where else would I place such a beautiful stone than where I keep what I cherish the most?”
My stomach churned at his response, but I managed a smile. “May I hold it?”
“Of course,” Kolis purred.
I swallowed the sourness gathering in my mouth as he moved the diamond closer. My fingers folded around it—
A jolt danced across my fingertips the moment my skin came into contact with The Star. The rush of energy flowed over my hand and up my arm as the embers in my chest immediately thrummed to life, humming and buzzing so fast I couldn’t stifle the gasp or hide how my entire body jerked.
The intense current bordered on painful as it pumped through me, forcing my hand to tighten around the surprisingly warm stone. A tremor started in my arm as the diamond heated. I tried to force my grip to loosen, but I couldn’t let go of the stone, couldn’t look away as its sheen intensified. The light I’d seen hadn’t been a reflection. The streaks of milky, silvery-white light were inside the diamond. They now expanded, filling the entire stone—
Images appeared in my mind without warning, rapidly forming and flipping as if a tome of paintings. I saw a lush forest—a heavily wooded area atop a mountain—and a man caught in a windstorm with long, whipping strands of dark hair around features partially covered in russet-hued ink. And his eyes…
His eyes.
They were the color of the realms—blue, green, and brown, with stars filling his pupils. He yelled at the sky, his words lost to the wind.
Hot, violent air came from the open jaws of a massive, winged beast. A dragon the color of the ground and the pines its breath toppled.
Red sparked from inside the dragon’s mouth, along the sides. Bright flames erupted from the majestic being, a funnel of fire that swamped the man on the mountain. And the flames kept coming, obliterating the entire crest of the peak until nothing remained where the man had stood.
Nothing but scorched earth and a diamond that sank deep into the ground, burying itself—
The images rapidly changed again. The mountain and the dragon were gone, replaced by another man, a black-haired one this time, who held the diamond just as I did, tightly, his knuckles bleached white. His arm shook as mine did. His entire body trembled as he lifted his head, shock filling his silver eyes and flickering across his broad cheekbones, slackening his wide mouth and strong jaw, paling his golden-bronze skin. He stared at the man across from him, one with golden hair who shared his features.
I knew who I saw now.
“Nothing can erase the past,” Eythos rasped.
A hand the same shade as Eythos’s closed over his. “I have no interest in erasing the past. I will change the future,” Kolis swore.
Their stares locked as lightning erupted above them. “Not the way you think you will,” Eythos pleaded, his large body trembling as he struggled to lift his other arm and clasp the back of Kolis’s neck. “Listen to me, brother. It won’t bring anything but pain to the realms—to you.”
“As if I don’t already live with nothing but pain!” Kolis shouted. “That is all there has ever been for me.”
Tears filled Eythos’s eyes. “I wish nothing more than for your life to have been different. If I could change it for you, I would. I would do anything—”
“But you had your chance to make me happy. You had a choice to do anything for me, yet you refused,” Kolis snarled. “And now look at us. Look at where we are!”
“I’m sorry.” Eather crackled from Eythos’s skin. “I am. But it’s not too late to stop this. I swear to you. I can forgive you. We can start anew—”
“Forgive me?” Kolis laughed roughly as thunder roared. “Come now. You speak as if you’re still capable of looking upon me as your brother. As if you could after Mycella. You’ve never forgiven me for her loving me.”
Eythos drew back. “Never forgiven…？ Brother, she once held a tender spot for you—”
“She was only with you because I wouldn’t have her.”
Anger flashed in the Primal’s face. “Why must you say things like that?”
“It’s only the truth.”
“No, it’s the truth you’ve decided to believe,” Eythos shot back. “Mycella may have loved you when we were younger, and she continued caring about you until the moment you slaughtered her.”
Kolis looked away, his jaw tensing.
“But she loved me, Kolis. She did not choose me because she could not have you. That is not love. What we had? What grew between us? That was love. She loved me, and I never held what she may have once felt for you against you.”
“Fucking liar.”
“Never!” shouted Eythos. He took a deep breath, visibly attempting to rein in his temper. “Yeah, I wasn’t happy about it at first. Who would be? But I never blamed you.”
Kolis scoffed. “You just cannot stop yourself from playing the role of the better one—”
“It is no role!”
“Bullshit,” Kolis shouted. “You’re not as good of a liar as I am. You never were. There’s no coming back from this—any of this.”
“But there is. There has to be. We are of the same flesh and blood. Brothers. I love you—”
“Shut up!” Kolis screamed, his other hand thrusting out.
Eythos jerked, his eyes flaring in disbelief. He looked down at a rod of dull white penetrating his chest, entering his heart.
Time seemed to stop.
The swirling wind. The building storm. Everything ceased as pure, unadulterated energy ramped up.
Kolis snapped his hand back—his bloodied hand. His mouth parted.
“I knew… I knew you were capable of this.” A shudder rolled through Eythos as he lifted his gaze to his brother’s. Shimmery blood leaked from his lips. “But I…I hoped I was wrong. I always…had hope.”
“Eythos,” whispered Kolis. He shook his head, denial etching into his features. “No. No!”
Kolis caught his brother as Eythos’s legs went out from under him and then held him as energy exploded from his twin, filling the air and the realm.
The…vision or whatever it was faded away. I was still holding The Star, still staring at it, but all I saw was the red flowing down Eythos’s chest. The red streaming from Kolis’s eyes.
A wave of incredulity swept over me because I knew—I knew two things at once. “You cried.”
“What?” Kolis demanded, and before I could answer, he gripped my arm and whipped me around so I faced him. Silver wisps of eather erased the flecks of gold. “What did you say?”
Oh, damn, I shouldn’t have said that. Shock had gotten the better of me. “I…I don’t know what you mean—”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.” A hiss of pain went through me as his grip tightened on my arm, stoking the already thrumming embers.