And even then, he walked.
He couldn’t stop walking. If he stopped, he would think, and if he thought too hard, he would go home.
He walked for hours, and only when his legs felt like they would give way unless he stopped, did he finally sink onto a bench along the Thames and listen to the sounds of Grey London, similar to and yet so different from his own.
The river had no light. It was a stretch of black, turning purple with the first hints of morning.
He turned the options over in his mind like a coin.
Run.
Run home.
Run.
Run home.
Run.
VI
RED LONDON
Ojka paced the palace shadows, furious with herself.
She’d lost him. She didn’t know how he’d gotten away, only that he had. She’d spent the day searching for him in the crowds, waiting for night to fall, had returned to her post on the balcony, but the ballroom was dark, the celebration somewhere else. A steady stream of men and women poured up and down the steps, vanished and emerged, but none of them were Kell.
In the thickest hours of the night she saw a pair of guards, men in splendid red and gold, leaning in the shadow of the palace steps, talking softly. Ojka drew her blade. She couldn’t decide if she should cut their throats and steal their armor, or torture them for information. But before she could do either, she heard a name pass between them.
Kell.
As she drew close, the language rune began to burn against her skin, and their words took shape.
“… saying he’s gone …” continued one.
“What do you mean, gone? As in taken?”
“Run off. Glad, too. Always gave me the creeps….”
Ojka hissed, retreating down the banks. He wasn’t gone. He couldn’t be gone.
She knelt on the cold earth and drew a piece of parchment from her pocket, spreading it over the ground. Next she dug her fingers into the dirt and ripped up a clod, crushing it in her palm.
This wasn’t blood magic. Just a spell she’d used a hundred times in Kosik, hunting down those who owed her coin, or life.
“K?s ?char,” she said as the earth tumbled onto the parchment. As it fell, it traced the lines of the city, the river, the streets.
Ojka dusted off her hands.
“K?s Kell,” she said. But the map didn’t change. The earth didn’t stir. Wherever Kell was, he wasn’t in London. Ojka clenched her teeth, and stood, dreading her king’s reaction even as she drew upon the bond.
He is gone, she thought, and a moment later she was met by Holland—not only his voice, but his displeasure.
Explain.
He is not in this world, she said. He is gone.
A pause and then, Did he go alone?
Ojka hesitated. I believe so. The royal family is still here.
The silence that followed made her ill. She imagined Holland sitting on his throne, surrounded by the bodies that had failed him. She would not be one of those.
At last, the king spoke.
He will come back.
How do you know? asked Ojka.
He will always come home.
*
Rhy was a wreck. He’d stayed up through the night, through the darkness, through the memories, resisting the urge to take something to bring sleep without knowing where Kell was, and what might happen to his brother if he did. Instead the prince had tossed and turned for half the night before throwing the blankets off and pacing the room until dawn finally broke over the city.
The final match of the Essen Tasch was mere hours away. Rhy didn’t care about the tournament. He didn’t care about Faro and Vesk and politics. He only cared about his brother.
And Kell was still gone.
Still gone.
Still gone.
The darkness swarmed in Rhy’s head.
The palace was coming to life around him. Soon he’d have to don the crown, and the smile, and play prince. He ran his hands through his hair, wincing in pain as a dark curl snagged on one of his rings. Rhy cursed. And then stopped pacing.
His eyes danced across the room—pillows and blankets and sofas, so many soft things—before landing on the royal pin. He’d cast it off with his tunic after the ball, and now it glinted in the first of the morning’s light.
He tested the tip against his thumb, biting his lip as it drew blood. Rhy watched the bead well and spill down his palm, his heart racing. Then he brought the pin to the crook of his arm.
Maybe it was the lingering alcohol. Or maybe it was the gnawing panic of knowing that he couldn’t reach Kell, or the guilt of understanding just how much his brother had given up, or the selfish need for him to give up more, to come back, to come home, that made Rhy press the point of the pin into the smooth flesh on the inside of his forearm, and begin to write.
*