Chapter 67: Gentle Recollection

“Before tomorrow, Scar, I’d like you to have this. May you never lose it. It’s a token of my affection and trust.”

She handed him the Vey family emblem, the ’reaching hand,’ with Purple’s name imprinted on it with care. Scar had never seen it before, and looking at it now, he could appreciate the elegance of it.

But appreciation and suspicion weren’t mutually exclusive, and the latter had arrived with it uninvited. A badge of trust and affection?

He hadn’t been a noble long enough to understand all of it, but that particular gesture struck him as strange regardless.

Even with the suspicion, refusing wasn’t easy. Purple had a way about her, a charm that shared something with Julien’s but was softened by an innocence that was harder to measure.

Turning her down felt wrong in a way Scar couldn’t quite justify, like refusing a lost child something simple and harmless.

And truthfully, nothing in her expression suggested an ulterior motive. Whatever she had behind it, if anything, a badge hardly seemed like the vehicle for it.

Scar accepted it in good faith.

“What’s so important about it? Why can’t I lose it? She went out of her way to give me a few words of encouragement… for tomorrow.”

Tch.

Scar tucked the Vey family badge into his pocket, right alongside the pictures of his parents. Safe, at least, and hard to lose from there. Cringe, absolutely, but safe.

Scar moved through the streets of Barbados alone, coffee in hand, the city around him doing little to settle what was building inside. Tomorrow was Adisa. Tonight was for clearing his head, or trying to.

Haven had been the one to deliver the letter to Robin, and by her account, he hadn’t made it easy. Stubborn from the start, curiosity pouring out of him. However, none of it got anywhere since Haven refused to answer a single question.

The bastard had ended up annoyed, which was fair, but Haven doubted that annoyance would stop him from passing the letter along to Adisa.

But one thing bothered Scar…

The whole ordeal was a bother, but the more Scar turned it over, the more an uncomfortable thought kept surfacing. He hadn’t been gentle with Adisa. Not as kids, not ever.

Adisa had been the only friend he had, the only one, and Scar had never returned the sentiment. Never considered him a friend, never treated him like one.

What if that was what this was? Payback, long in the making, for how badly Scar had treated him all those years ago?

The thought had settled on him heavily, more than the duel, almost more than the reality of what he was supposed to do to Adisa.

It was part of why he had sought permission to leave the academy in the first place, even with the condition attached. He couldn’t return until it was done. That was fine. He needed the space to think.

He had tried a comedy club first, hoping the noise of other people’s laughter would drown something out. It didn’t.

Then a RECO, an hour of it, filling his ears with the same cliché comedies Isaac used to love before Adisa killed him. That hadn’t worked either. Some things couldn’t be laughed away.

Nothing was working. Candies hadn’t helped. Sports hadn’t helped. The weight he was carrying was beyond the reach of distraction.

He had found his way to a quieter part of the city now, away from the noise and the lights, where the air was gentle enough and still enough that sleep felt like a real possibility for the first time all night.

He stood by River Rosie, one of the gentle, calm rivers in the human domain, lined with flowers and trees that gave the whole area a quietly romantic aroma.

He stared into the sky for a long time. The Scarlet Moon was the only thing up there, and beside it was nothing.

No stars, not even the suggestion of one. His imagination tried to fill the absence, reaching for something warm and distant to rest his eyes on.

But imagining a beautiful sky and having one were different things, and tonight the difference was felt.

“Maybe his reason was almost as justified as mine… but what would that make me if I kill him?”

He would be tainted by it. He would be a murderer. He would be no different from the very person he wanted dead.

Even knowing all of that, even sitting with the full weight of it under a starless sky, it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough to make him walk away.

“I need to face the truth. When the time comes, I won’t hesitate. I will kill him… I—I have to accept what that means. A killer. A murderer!”

Something pulled at the corner of his lips. It was a smile, soft and quiet, but carrying none of the warmth a smile was supposed to hold. Something sinister lived in it instead, the kind that came with clarity.

He had finally understood what he was. It wasn’t a new thing, it had always been there. Even before the Inheritance, the most despised one, hunted across centuries, had chosen him, the cruelty had been his.

It was simply what this path asked of him, and he had no desire to refuse. Adisa wouldn’t be the last…

“If I’m going to survive, I need to accept who I really am.”

The moment he spoke, a soft chuckle came from the distance.

“I’ve always known it, Sir. Dain was right to hunt you. You’re a curse to this world… and I like it.”

Luccy appeared from nowhere with a soft smile tugging on her lips, adjusting the red banner across her shoulder that made her a Moon Killer.

“Truth, the facts, means nothing in this world. People believe only what comforts them. And now… you’ve done the same. You’ve become someone worthy of death.”

Scar furrowed his brow. Luccy had become easier to tolerate lately. Familiarity had a way of doing that, even when the familiar thing was someone shadowing your every move.

Yesterday she had slept in the same bed as him, which was a new development he hadn’t particularly asked for. But her showing up here felt like something different. He didn’t think this was about keeping an eye on him.

“Don’t I get any privacy? You’ve been following me for days. Are you clingy, or did Dain assign you to babysit me?”

Luccy moved closer and joined him, the two of them side by side now, their eyes lifted to the sky without a word between them for a moment.

“We’ve slept together. Can’t you be a little more tolerable? Besides, I’m supposed to keep an eye on you. What if a Scarlet Kin attacks and kills you?”

Scar shrugged.

“Fair enough…”

Hmph.

“Have you heard about Emma? She was brutally beaten—

His chest tightened without warning, and a brief shiver moved through his body before he could will it away.

The urge to turn around and go straight back to the academy hit him hard… he was close, very close, to giving in to it.

He didn’t.

There was nothing to gain from going back, and the choice wasn’t entirely his to make anyway. He had been allowed just one opportunity, three dueling wins had bought him that much and nothing more. Even came at a price. Returning wasn’t an option.

With a neutral expression, he asked:

“Is she okay?”

Luccy’s expression darkened.

“You care deeply about your friends. I thought you’d throw a tantrum. But you’re calm… surprisingly calm, considering you warned me not to kidnap her again.”

Well.

“She’s alive… but she’s in bad shape. They say she has some kind of healing ability. It’s the only reason she survived.”

Scar’s teeth pressed together. Emma wasn’t catching a break, and the reason she wasn’t was sitting squarely on his Inheritance research.

Two assaults in less than a week, both of them life-threatening, both of them tied to him. That wasn’t a coincidence.

“Did you do this?”

Luccy studied his face, looking for a reaction, any reaction. She got nothing. Scar held the same expression he’d recently adapted, the kind that suggested emotions were a concept he had heard of but never personally explored.

Luccy exhaled.

“What would you do if I did it?”

Scar continued staring in the distance.

“Simple. I’d kill you.”

He felt something deep and certain, settled somewhere he couldn’t argue with. That was the most sincere answer he had ever given in his life. And he meant every word of it. If it came to it, his own life was a price he was willing to pay.

Luccy chuckled.

“I like that determination. Shame it isn’t enough to kill me. Not right now.”

Sigh.

“It wasn’t me. I may have an idea who’s behind it, but I gain nothing from helping my enemy.”

Scar smiled.

“I was right.”

Huh?

“All Isaac wanted was for me to be happy… to make friends. And my parents fought so hard so I could keep living…”

His smile turned into something malevolent.

“This world is cruel. I can’t afford hesitation or doubt if I want their dreams to come true.”

Ha!

Luccy began laughing psychopathically.

“Yes… this is fitting for the wielder of Flames of the Unknown.”

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