The Reckless Reign (Book 3, The Culled Crown Series)

Chapter 79

There were guards positioned outside the room when we finally made our way outside. The hallway was empty for the most part. The Synod was in a meeting with Britta. According to Cohen, who had sat slumped on his sister's throne waiting for us, the doors to the throne room open so he could see us walk by, the advisors had been upset with this newest development.

"Of course that isn't the way they're phrasing it," Cohen had said, his hair curling over his flushed cheeks as he'd glanced over at Kai as we'd begun walking towards what I'd been told would be his new room.

The tension between the two brothers was thick enough to cut with a blade, but I wouldn't be the one to break it.

Kai seemed unsure what to do either. His hand was unusually sweaty against mine, his usually tanned skin lacking color. Cohen had been trying to fill the silence of our walk with conversation, asking me about anything and everything he could think of. But we'd spent a good deal of time together and it was becoming obviously redundant.

When he nervously asked me for the third time if I'd been given a new room assignment or if I was still staying in the first floor closet I'd been given after the attack, Kai put him out of his misery and said, "Thank you, Cohen, for what you did back there."

Cohen nearly tripped over his own feet. "What?"

Kai's smile was uncomfortable. "With the trial. I talked to Britta plenty, but it's clear that whatever you said to her...she cares a lot about your opinion," his voice sharpened with emotion and he cleared his throat. "And your opinion means a lot to me too. So thank you for whatever you said to her."

"Oh." Cohen swallowed, his hands slipping into his pockets as he shrugged, trying to give the appearance of nonchalance—but I knew him.

I'd known him for a long time now, or at least it felt that way. The things we'd seen and been through together were the sort that bound you irrevocably. He was my family. I could see the way his half-brother's words weighed on him.

"I told her that if she executed you, I'd never speak to her again." Cohen cleared his throat and then coughed, the sound turning into a little laugh as he added. "I wish I could say I was kidding, but that's legitimately what I told her."

Kai stopped walking, pulling me to a halt with him. "What?"

Cohen stopped too. "Yeah. All of this," he gestured to the palace around us. "It was built on lies and betrayal and a family that was at each other's throats and I'm done with that. We're a family. Or we're supposed to be, I guess. Blood means shit. And what you said back there about not being a Warwick is shit too. You're a Warwick as much as I am—"

Kai hissed through his teeth at the words and shook his head, "Damn, Cohen. As appreciated as that is—and I need you to listen to me and know that I appreciate it, I do. Truly. It means...It means a lot to me, coming from you. The fact that you're saying that...that I think you mean it..." Kai shook his head and let go of my hand to run his fingers through his hair. "But you can't say that. Not to anyone. Not ever again. I can't either. As far as the world is concerned, I'm a Callahan. I might be better off changing my full name as well."

I winced as his words, the idea of him being anything other Kai physically paining me.

"Maybe," Cohen said, his voice low. "But I still meant it. I still do mean it. You're my brother. I don't know what that means or what I want that to mean. Maybe nothing. But I did know that I couldn't let her put a bullet through your head. I couldn't. I've lost my parents and Uri. And before it's over, Larkin will probably be gone too. And my family was never anything great, but it was mine. And now it's you and Britta. I'm tired of loss."