A Court of Wind and Song

28: Bridge

Leur

Drip.

Drop.

The tunnels were completely silent. The only sound from our heartbeats and footsteps, and the incessant dripping down the stone walls.

Behind you. My shadows sung.

I stopped for what had to be the third time, my head whipping over my shoulder.

Nothing.

"There's nothing there." I hissed to them, "Will you shut up?"

"Talking to yourself again?" Rhys quipped.

I turned to him, my eyes narrowed, "Watch it, or the voices will start telling me to kill you."

My brother blinked, "Do they actually do that?"

I started walking next to him again, my strides nearly double to keep up with his longer legs, "You've been around Azriel and I your entire life, and you've never bothered to ask what our shadows do?"

Rhys shrugged, "I take it as a general rule not to ask things I'm not sure if I want to know, but I was also really jealous of your shadows when we were kids."

I couldn't help my snort.

Rhys... jealous of me?

"Why?" I scoffed.

He laughed under his breath, "They looked cool, and you could hear things that I couldn't."

I couldn't possibly imagine my brother, pampered, perfect, powerful Rhys, being jealous of anything of mine. The very idea of it was laughable.

But if he said it was true, then I wouldn't argue with him.

"They don't tell us to kill people, Rhys." I answered his question instead of starting an argument.

I'll consider it my good deed for the day.

"What does it sound like?" He asked.

I blinked at him, "You've never heard them in Az's head? His stays around his mind like a shield."

"Another general rule I follow is to stay out of Azriel's head." He drug a hand down the rough wall as he spoke.

I raised my brows at him mockingly, "Scared?"

"Mostly of accidentally seeing my little sister naked, but yes- that too." He laughed.

"Ew." I twisted my face, "Yeah, stay out of Az's head."

"Why are yours at a different place than his in your mind?" Rhys asked, frowning, "And where are yours?"

"Deeper, past anything I would ever let someone get to." I explained, letting out a breath, "I think Azriel is used to using darkness as a shield."

I could practically feel the deflation of my brother's light mood.

"It's all he knew when he was younger." I added, my voice quiet, "Just pain and darkness. And now that he's grown, it's like a mask for him. Not only to shield what is inside, but to live up to what is expected of him."

Rhys just frowned down at his boots, muddy from the damp ground we walked on, "So, then why are yours hidden?"

I scoffed, "Do you really need to ask that question?"

Rhys's voice was solemn, "I guess not."

And something about the guilt and the frown on his face broke a piece of me. A little girl that lived in me who couldn't bear to see her big brother look that way, forcing herself to the surface to beg the adult that replaced her to fix it.