Three Broken Kingdoms-Book 1 of the Lost Continent (Completed)

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Siblings Divided

Talia watched her brother speak to Selene, unnoticed by the two. She felt particularly bitter today at the two of them laughed as happily as they might ever ask to laugh, as though her absence meant nothing at all.

Her world felt empty without her brother and sister-in-law, but it had felt empty many times before. Before, when she still had brother and sister, she had felt not quite completely empty, but with Layla and Maia far away, in a celebrating city-state, Talia truly had nobody left. Every day since their fight, they had not spoken except for practical matters, and she had spending those weeks like a ghost, no purpose or light to her soul.

Apparently, they had been spending those days, without Talia or the twins, having happy times just with each other.

Ever since their marriage, Talia had known she was a little bit of an outsider.  Her brother was wed now, and there would always be some part of him that she could never share and understand. But mere years after their wedding, Talia had fallen in love herself, so it didn't really feel like it mattered so much anymore. When Midas, Elaine and Naomi died, Selene and Orion had taken her so deeply into the fold of their four-person family that she had forgotten what not having her brother close at hand was.

She was still angry, of course. Every time she thought back to that conversation, everything she had shouted at them and every vow they had thrown back in her face, she felt a sudden flush of rage. Every time she thought about going back to them, she felt that rage and injustice anew and she would sustain herself on it, as she had sustained herself on her hatred for Julian Corinth and her love for Layla and Maia the past few years.

The wind brought back Orion and Selene's whispers to her and she watched them, bitter, from higher up the hill. They talked of silly, unimportant things and exchanged do-you-remembers that Talia seemed to know better than either of them. They laughed and smiled, ate from a spread of simple foods and played tricks with ice and fire. Orion sang a little to his wife, his wife danced with him, trailing ice on the dry grass as she went.

They were happy. So happy that it hurt Talia until she cried bitter tears.

Why should her brother get it all? Why should his love still live, and his children still live with them? Why should he get glory and history books, and the throne, whilst Talia stood loyally at his side, hating him and loving him and wanting him back with her every breath.Why should she be the sidekick with the sad story? Didn't she deserve everything he got? Didn't she deserve to have Midas, her sweet Midas, back, and still have children to hold and comfort?She had been a good mother. She had loved Midas with all her soul, and they had treasured each other's Names. Why were they wrenched from her? Why had Lyra, She who Knows All, take them from her? Unable to reconcile her religion with the death of her family, she had instead decided that Lyra had not intended this at all. That Julian had acted against her.She cried bitter tears as she watched her brother gaze at Selene with the love she had once watched Midas with. As they talked about seeing their daughters again-because Layla and Maia loved her but would always love them more.

Oath-breaker. Coward. Brother.

The words contradicted each other viciously, and yet slide perfectly into place.The wind swept up Talia and took her into the air as silently as a valkyrie, and she cast a last mournful glance at her brother and Selene as she slipped into her own mind, which had been her haven all these years.

Even when the ones she loved turned her away or disappeared into the afterworld and Lyra's grasp, the secret place within her mind which only people with her gifts could access was always there. A refuge. The last thing she had left.