The Blinding Knife

Chapter 40

“She’s a beautiful woman,” Karris said.

Gavin said nothing. They were hiking back through the jungle to their own camp. This was the first thing Karris had said since exclaiming over the blue snow-which Gavin had claimed to know nothing about.

“She likes you,” Karris said.

Gavin said nothing.

“You can spend the night with her, you know,” Karris said.

Now she was starting to infuriate him.

“You’ve been edgy,” Karris said. “Maybe it’ll help calm you down if you go get it out of your system.”

Gavin stopped. “You’re saying this to me. Really. You?”

Karris gave a tiny shrug. “What I asked earlier… it wasn’t fair. I’ve got no claim on you. You and I don’t have anything that should keep you from… cavorting as you please. You’re the Prism, there ought to be some benefits, right?”

“Please don’t say stupid things to me, Karris.” Cavorting?

“I was just-”

“I’ve made my decision.” And it’s you.

“And I’m telling you-”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Usually, that would have made her explode. This time, she said nothing. They walked in silence. Made camp in silence. Slept in silence.

Somehow, he did sleep, but he dreamed of colored hells and his brothers. The dread inside him kept that sleep from leaving him rested. By the time Karris woke him for his watch, hours before dawn, the snow was gone. While Karris slept, Gavin sat up. For some reason, he was haunted by his dead little brother Sevastian. Little Sevastian, the good-hearted brother. The peacemaker between his constantly feuding older siblings.

Who would Sevastian have sided with in the Prisms’ War?

In this insane world where Gavin was supposed to have some sort of holy link directly to a deity who didn’t exist or didn’t care, instead, he cared only about what his dead little brother would have thought of him. Who would you have been, Sevastian? Could I have killed Gavin and then handed over the reins to you and the world now know peace? What sort of world would this be, if that damned wight hadn’t murdered you?

A blue wight, too. What did that mean? The very color Gavin had lost control of now was the color that had murdered Sevastian. It was the very color that Dazen had broken out of. Coincidence?

Yes, Gavin, that’s what a coincidence is.

The sun rose, but there was only darkness in Gavin’s heart.