unfeelingly as she slammed into the wall, a small gash appearing on her forehead. Eyes turning dead, the same time that his heart froze, he picked her up by her arm and shoved her into the street, naked as the day she was born.
The ultimate shame that came over her face was not enough for him. Lyne looked back at the house, the dark interior as eerie as the silence that it permitted. Feeling his face flush with rage as women and men turned to look upon the once happy couple, he took his sword from its sheath.
The cold slide of metal, the sick, gut-wrenching feeling that coursed through his body, and the pained eyes of his wife were not lost to him. Amena cried out in horror, scampering back, her hands trying to protect her modesty even as she ran from her enraged husband. She tripped and almost fell, catching herself with her arms at the last second. Hunched over and heaving, she threw a panicked glance over her shoulder.
Lyne advanced towards her, his eyes dead. The love for her that always seemed to shine in his expressive eyes was gone, probably forever. She crawled forward on her hands and knees, sharp, tiny rocks embedding into her skin and leaving abrasions that bled and dyed the cracked soil with blood. One of the men from the crowd kicked her in the stomach, jeering. She lurched and fell onto her back. The crowd laughed and screamed obscenities at her. Amena looked up at the sky with tears in her eyes. She was dead, finished. She had no one to blame but herself.
Her attempt to escape ended when she saw Lyne staring down at her. Sobs racked her body. Ashamed, she was so ashamed. Her vision had gone oddly constricted, the sides blacking out until there was only her husband’s face. The betrayal she saw there cut her. But she wouldn’t be here to regret it, would she? The fight drained out of her. She was tired.
Amena lay still. She was gone. She was finished. But she would be avenged.
As he stared around the gathering crowd, cheers and boasts ringing the dusty air, the wind picking up, Lyne saw Auro.
Silently, calmly, he leaned against the back of a building, watching with an emotion that Lyne could not begin to make out. The sword in his hand felt heavy, the hilt seeming to burn into his soul as he now stared down at the still woman staring up at him with pleading eyes.
His heart stopped in his chest. The knowledge that Auro had known this would happen hit him, almost bringing him to his knees. The welling tears in his eyes refused to fall, rage and betrayal taking their stead.
As he brought down the sword, the crowd crying louder along with his wife, his whisper was lost among the ominous howls of the now-raging wind.
“You will know this pain one day, Talon.”
~*~
Auro looked up at the soft slide of the door. The candle burning beside him flickered in the breeze, the words of his book fading from sight for only a second. He set it down slowly as his brother entered the library with soft steps.
Lyne was quiet as he sat down, something that Auro was wary about. There was a small puckered cut on his hand, and he knew immediately what Lyne had done.
“I am done.” Lyne spoke quietly, head bowed.
Auro smiled, putting his hand on Lyne’s shoulder. “I am glad, brother. I knew it would only be a matter of time til you were completely done with the remembrance of that whore.”
Lyne nodded, bringing his pale face up to meet Auro’s soft eyes. “I do not know why I held onto her for so long,” he murmured, brow stooping over his expressive eyes. Auro smiled again, more adoring this time. It was a pleasure to know that he was the only one who could read his brother so well. Any other man would have thought Lyne was as dead as a corpse inside, but he knew better.
“Sometimes… I get so angry, Auro. I want to kill everything. I know that is what you wish, but when it came to Amena… Auro, it was so bad…” His voice broke on her name, just as his heart pitched.
Lyne was finally over her memory, yet the piece of his heart that she had taken with her, had crushed and torn…it would never be the same. Auro knew that if the time came—and it