The Keeper of Night (The Keeper of Night #1)(97)

“Are you insane?” Neven said.

My face pulled into a scowl as I rolled to my feet. Of course, I could count on my brother to once again ruin everything.

“I told you from the start that we couldn’t trust him!” Neven said, the Yokai clinging to his leg. “Do you honestly believe he had no idea this would happen?”

“You would never understand!” I said, the raw ferocity in my voice startling both Neven and the Yokai into jumping back a few feet.

“Ren, he lied to you so he could kill his mother!” Neven said. “What do I not understand?”

“That she deserved it!” I said. “Or is that too complex for the Patron Saint of Mercy to understand? Did you want to adopt Izanami, as well?”

“Ren, please...” Neven stepped forward to take my hands. I snatched them out of his grasp, and he flinched, the Yokai shrinking into fox form and letting out a high-pitched cry.

All the qualities I’d envied in Neven—kindness, mercy, humanity—suddenly seemed like such privileged ignorance. Of course it was easy to condemn hurting others when you’d never known the voracious anger that came with being hurt. Neven could so easily stand before us and denounce Hiro for killing Izanami because he wasn’t the one who had lost his mother or his home to her. “You don’t know what it’s like to be unwanted,” I said, taking a step back. “That’s why you’ll never understand.”

“Of course I don’t!” Neven said, falling to his knees. “But what would you have me do about it, Ren? If I could take your place, I would.”

“It’s so easy to promise things that will never happen,” I said, turning away from my brother and returning to Hiro, who wrapped an arm around my waist.

Neven looked between us, the Yokai circling his ankle. “Ren, don’t do this. Please.”

“It’s not your decision,” I said.

“Ren, you can’t trust him!” Neven said. “He’s not a good person!”

I scoffed, then slid my hand into Hiro’s. “Neither am I.”

Neven’s eyes went wide, his lips trembling. He fell forward onto his hands, head hanging low. I expected him to cry, the way he always did when things went wrong. But his fingers scraped into the floor like claws, and when he looked up again, his eyes seared with blue fire.

He rose to his feet and grabbed the abandoned, bloody katana from the floor.

“Neven,” I said. “What do you think you’re doing?”

But Neven wasn’t looking at me anymore. He looked only at Hiro.

“You won’t take her,” Neven whispered. “I won’t let you.”

He’d only taken a single step toward Hiro when a thousand shadows wrapped around his arms and dragged him to the ground. His chin slammed into the floor and blood welled in his mouth, but he still clutched the katana in his right hand and thrashed against the guards. The fox keened and leaped back and forth, trying to gnaw the shadows off him.

Hiro stood motionless a few feet away, arms crossed and expression unreadable.

The shadows swirled over Neven’s eyes like a blindfold, but he raked his nails across his face and tore them to pieces.

“Release me!” he yelled in the language of Death, and the shadowy tendrils shivered and loosened their grip just enough for him to slide free.

Neven had never looked so enraged. And for what? To stop me from finally becoming who I was meant to be?

“Stop it!” I shouted in Death, stepping in front of Hiro. “Why do you always ruin everything you don’t understand?”

“I would rather ruin everything than watch you turn into a monster,” Neven said, stumbling to his feet and slashing the blade at the cloud of hovering shadow guards behind him.

I tried to grab his wrist, but he twisted away from me, accidentally scoring a line across my cheek. The sight of my blood startled him just long enough for me to force the blade from his hand, his fingers snapping in my grip. He hissed and cradled his hand as the katana clattered to the floor, his eyes still a scalding blue that now focused on me instead of Hiro.

“I’ve followed you across the world,” Neven said, chest heaving. “I believed in you. But this time, you’re wrong, Ren.”

My hands fell away. I closed my eyes and resolved not to cry, even as I realized that I would never have both the life I wanted and a brother who loved me.

I had so desperately wanted Neven to love me as I was, wretched and dark and greedy. But the only person who would ever love me was someone equally as dark.

Hiro’s hand fell on my shoulder as he stepped beside me. “Neven—”

“Do whatever you want to me,” Neven said, scowling. “Lock me up or flay me or burn my eyes out with your stupid light tricks, but I won’t stand by and watch you ruin her.”

Hiro’s fingers tightened on my shoulder.

“All right,” he said slowly. “As you wish, Neven.”

The shadow guards materialized once again, encircling Neven’s limbs and wrapping tight around his lips to muffle his panicked sounds. The Yokai squealed as the shadows muzzled her, as well.

“Take him away,” Hiro said, waving his hand as if to dismiss them.

“Wait!” I said, pushing away from Hiro. My gaze cast back and forth between the shadow choking my brother and the writhing, screaming fox. “Stop it!” I said, but the guards stilled only when Hiro held up a hand.