what happened. I didn't know enough, for he could have declared himself as my brother to her during this time for this very reason. To create doubt should he ever be caught.
I was at a crossroads and on one side it was trusting the word of my Chosen One, the person that I would have trusted with my very life and much more. But then there was the other side. The side where my brother stood. A brother who, up until that moment, I had trusted with my very life many times over.
It was a cruel twist of fate, for which road I must travel down now, I knew would shape the foundations of my future for the rest of my lives. However many they may be left to live, given my current situation.
“But the timing, brother, do you honestly not see it for yourself, do you refuse to see how it looks! For the moment the Eye showed me what my Chosen One was seeing, was the very moment that the man responsible was creating a portal. The very same portal you made when arriving back. Explain to me how that is possible! How is that fucking possible, Dariush, if it was not you that was there creating it!? The only one powerful enough to do so!” At this my brother hung his head and started shaking it, as if he too couldn't give me an answer.
As if… as if he just didn't know.
“The very Eye, that I will remind you, held an interest to you beyond that it should have, and well before these events occurred,” I reminded him.
“I merely wanted to know…” he started to say.
“What, exactly?! Where it would be and where my Chosen One could potentially find it? I remember finding it odd when you asked me the question if my Chosen One knew where the Eye was, or if she would know how to find it. Fuck, but I should have known then!” I said in frustration with a shake of my head, getting angry at myself for being so foolish.
“I did not ask for that reason,” he admitted in a deflated tone.
“No? Because I know the hex cast by the witch was not one used for her to be summoned to the witch, but for it to actually hold the reverse effect. I'm very intrigued to know how anyone would have known that Amelia would have been drawn to the Eye enough to find it,” I told him, reminding him of this very conversation.
“But I …”
“Exactly, you brother… you were the only one that knew I had used the Eye for myself. I had also questioned that at the time if you remember and foolishly believed you when you said it was through the power of deduction that you knew.” I’d known in that moment there was something he wasn’t telling me.
“So that's it, guilty by association of knowledge!” he snapped.
“Again, I fear I have to remind you once more but was it not on your advice that I didn’t have the Eye moved…? Think back, brother, trust in my words, for I have spent this night doing this same thing!” I informed him and again he hung his head as if defeated.
“I have questioned myself over and over why these events occurred, when there is only one answer to be found. You planned this. You planned this from the very beginning, and you used my Chosen One to get to the Eye!”
“NO!” he denied it on a roar, one I ignored and continued,
“I don't know how you knew but somehow, you knew that she would be drawn to it. You knew that she would find it and when she did, that harpy bitch, along with the witch you have been working with, used the hex to get to her. It was the only way to ever get inside my domain and you knew it!” At this he didn’t even bother denying it anymore.
“What's the matter, brother, have all your excuses run out?” I asked in that taunting way to try and drag it from him. I just wanted the truth. I wanted him to grant me this one thing, this last shred of proof that he actually gave a shit about the blood we shared. A lasting gift so it may finally alleviate some of my guilt when I had no choice but to take his life.