Kaelen
Kaelen's mask of fear vanished within seconds.
He stood on the blood, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword as he stared at the boy dying on the floor.
"Is that all?" Kaelen asked, his voice sharp. "A flare trick to hide the fact that you're dying?"
The sharp belt hit him in the back of the neck.
Not hard enough to penetrate deeply, Eira had thrown it awkwardly, her hand slick with blood.
But hard enough to make Kaelen flinch.
She had taken Soren's belt knife. It was a heavy, ugly thing, the blade serrated and stained.
"Don't you dare touch him," she said.
Kaelen smiled. "Child. You've never killed anyone."
Eira lunged.
She wasn't graceful.
She moved like a cornered animal, all bared teeth and terror, and she drove the knife into Kaelen's side, just below his ribs, where the armour gaped open.
The blade sank deep, scraping against bone, and Kaelen felt something warm and vital rupture inside him.
He stepped back, looking down at the hilt protruding from his torso. Blood poured over his fingers when he grabbed it.
He smirked as he watched Eira grab the white lantern and drag the half-dead boy toward the stairs, her arms wrapped around his chest, his heels scraping furrows in the dirt.
Blood smeared across the floor in a wide, dark trail.
Kaelen pulled the knife out. It made a wet, sucking sound.
"Stay away from us," Eira spat, her voice cracking.
"The Council doesn't want your soul, child," Kaelen said, taking a slow step forward. His boots made a wet, squelch in the blood trail.
Soren's head lolled against Eira's shoulder.
His skin was the colour of curdled milk. "Eira," he wheezed, his breath hitching in a throat clogged with fluid. "Leave me. Take the lantern and run."
"Shut up, Soren," Eira hissed, her eyes darting to Kaelen. "I'm not leaving you to him. I'm not letting him turn you into a battery."
Kaelen laughed, a dry, raspy sound. "You speak as if you have a choice. Look at him. His fire is white because it's consuming itself. He's a candle burning at both ends in a hurricane. Without the Council's stabilizers, that light will shatter his glass within the hour. Give him to me, and I might let him live as a ward."
"He's a man, not a vessel!"
She collapsed under Soren's weight, her knees hitting the stone with a sickening thud. They were at the base of the stairs, trapped.
Kaelen loomed over them.
"Man is a fragile thing," Kaelen said, his eyes fixed on the pulsing white lantern. "A soul, however, is eternal. Give me the lantern, Eira. Give it to me, and I'll give you a clean death. Resist, and I'll make sure you watch while I strip the light from his marrow."
Soren's hand fumbled for Eira's face. His fingers were slick with his own blood, leaving dark streaks across her jaw. "Eira," he whispered, his voice a ghost of a sound. "The light... It's us."
Eira looked down at him. The white light was fading, turning a dull, bruised grey at the edges. The connection was breaking.
"I won't let you go," she whispered.
"Leave him, Eira," Kaelen said.
"Never," Eira hissed, spitting at his feet. "You'll have to throw us both into the current."
Kaelen's shadow stretched long and distorted across the wet floor. Before Eira could draw a breath to scream, he was there.
His fist connected with her jaw in a sickening thud.
Eira smashed into the wall of the cellar, her body sliding down in a crumpled heap.
Kaelen stood over her, his expression disturbingly serene. "Sleep now, Eira. When you wake, all this will be over. The boy, the river, the hue of this light. It will all be a nightmare that you finally woke up from."
Eira lunged from the ground, her fist aimed squarely at his stomach, putting every ounce of her strength into the blow.
Kaelen's hand quickly shot out, catching her small fist.
He stared down at her with eyes that were as cold and empty as the river's murky water.
"You've grown bold," Kaelen whispered, his thumb pressing into the bones of her wrist. "Is this what this piece of trash taught you?"
"He taught me that you're a liar," Eira hissed, her voice cracking. "My father's light didn't go out. He saved it."
Kaelen tightened his grip, and Eira heard the faint, terrifying groan of her own bones. "Your father tried the balance. But this..." Kaelen's gaze shifted to the white lantern pulsing beside the unconscious Soren. "This is what the Council needs."
Eira twisted her body. She swung her leg in a wide, violent arc, her shin cracking against the side of his skull.
Kaelen's head jerked to the side, his hair whipping across his face, but he didn't stumble.
"Is that all?" Kaelen asked.
"I'll kill you," Eira wheezed, her lungs burning. "I'll break every glass in that village before I let you take him."
She looked past Kaelen, seeing the white light of Soren's lantern begin to flare, the glass container humming loudly.
"Soren..." she choked out.
The boy's eyes snapped open
"Eira."
Kaelen's grip tightened on Eira's neck for a fraction of a second, his composure finally wavering. "So you're not dead."
When he didn't respond, Kaelen laughed, a dry, rasping sound. "You think a bit of glow intimidates me? I've snuffed out worse flames than yours, boy. You are a freak of nature that I am paid to correct."
Kaelen flung Eira aside like a rag doll.
She hit the wall, the breath leaving her lungs in a sharp gasp.
She watched, paralyzed, as Kaelen drew a heavy, serrated blade from his hip. The metal reflected the white light, looking like a shard of the moon itself.
"No one said the vessel had to be intact," Kaelen mumbled to himself, his expression darkening. "I'll bleed it out of you if I have to."
Kaelen despised the violet hearts. The barbaric murderer who had taken his mother shared the same heart as the boy standing before him. A sick grin spread across his cheeks as he thought about it. He would exterminate every one of them, starting with this boy.