Nox doesn’t flinch or react to the sight of my shadow creature.
He has one of his own sleeping at his feet, as though it’s nothing more than a docile pet.
I call the shadow creature back to me as I navigate my way over to him, wincing at the plumes of dust that spring up from my steps and the thick layers of filth on every surface. I put it all out of my mind until I get up to the attic and finally lay my eyes on my little brother after six years of living apart. Six years didn’t seem like such a long time until right now as I stare down at this little stranger who looks so much like me that there’s no mistaking that we’re brothers.
He’s so… small.
Unnaturally so, like he’s being underfed or is sickly. I don’t remember my father saying anything about health issues, but there’s no way that my brother is healthy right now. There’s no way this is acceptable. I’ve only been allowed to see him a handful of times since his mother moved him out of the Bonded Group manor, but he’d been perfectly fine then.
What is happening in this house?
I ease forward towards him, slowly and carefully, as though I’m approaching a skittish animal. The shadow creature sleeping by his feet lifts its head to stare at me with its empty but strangely knowing void eyes.
It’s too placid.
My own creatures are rabid beasts, vicious and out of control the moment they’re released, and to see one sitting there like a well trained lapdog is jarring in the worst way. How does he have that much control, and at such a young age? How does he have a better behaved creature than any of mine?
Something is wrong.
My bond, the voice in my head that I will never admit to having just in case someone locks me up in an institution or simply kills me for the anomaly, speaks to me in a stern voice, one that it doesn’t usually use. The type my father would use if I was acting up in my classes or threatening people with my void eyes just for the hell of it.
I don’t need the warning though; I’m well aware that something is wrong here. I’m well aware that no matter what our plan had been when we arrived here today, William and I will not be leaving without my brother.
This is no longer an opening to a negotiation.
This is a rescue… or an abduction, depending on which side of the interaction you’re standing on.
I aim for a calm and reassuring tone as I speak to my brother, but he doesn’t react to the sound of my voice at all. “Can I come sit with you, Nox? Is it okay if I just… sit with you?”
He shrugs, his eyes still down on the shadow creature at his feet. He stares at it as though in a trance and not at all like he’s waiting for it to savagely attack anyone else in the room.
That’s the way I stare at mine.
“I can stay over here if that would make you more comfortable. Do you remember me?”
Do you remember any of your family, other than your fucked-up mother who tore you away from us all? Except I can’t say that to him. It’s not fair, and it’s not right of me to try to drive a wedge between them. William had been clear on that, clear that I wasn’t to even say Emmaline’s name in Nox’s presence. We both knew I wouldn’t be able to keep the venom out of my tone.
I loathe the woman for leaving my father behind.
I hate her even more for taking my brother with her when she left, splitting our family up and being the first of the cracks that splintered everything apart.
Would my mother still be alive if she hadn’t left?
Would the madness that took over my father have existed if he’d have had both of his Bonded with him?
Would the shadow creatures—
“Nox! There you are! I see North found you first; I’m not surprised. He’s been very eager to spend some time with you.”
I don’t turn to look at my uncle as he steps into the attic with us, but his calming presence fills the room as though it’s a physical thing. I keep my focus on my brother as William starts to go on and on about all sorts of happy and gentile things, all of the ways he knows to fill awkward silences and make people fall under his honeyed spell, but the pounding in my head drowns him out, because I’ve finally found something wrong on Nox. Something so absolutely wrong that there’s no way anyone can talk their way out of it.
His fingers are crooked.
My eyes are stuck on the sight of them, the way that they’re jutting out in all of the wrong directions with lumps and bones poking out through the skin. An old injury that wasn’t healed properly.
Our family is richer than God.
That’s not just something I’m bragging or gloating about, it’s a fact of life that my father and William have both spent their entire adult lives spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year on every type of charity and luxury for their family, and our collective net worth has only increased. We’re a pillar of our society because we’re the type of old money that will never run dry. All of this is to say, why the fuck didn’t someone look at Nox, heal him before his fingers set like that?
Why did no one call our father?
“Is this… your room, Nox? It’s quite cozy up here. I used to build forts up in the attic when I was your age. I used sheets and pillows from all of the beds in the house. It used to drive my mother insane. I see a mattress and pillows; your shadow creature looks very happy on them. Can I come give you a hug, or will that upset the two of you?”
Nox doesn’t lift his head, but the shadow creature does, its void eyes staring William down as though daring him to touch the little shrinking boy in front of us. I start to wonder if maybe he’s in a trance… or if he’s inside of his creature right now as an escape from the room, a way to disconnect from us without actually running away or having to confront us to get out of this.
Is he scared of us?
Or of what will happen if he speaks to us?
I want to scream and unleash all of my worst nightmares and shadows into this house and everyone in it out of pure frustration. I hate the lies and whispers, the deceit and veiled ways of doing things when it should be simple.
Nox should come home with me and William, leave behind whatever the fuck has been happening in this place.
I’m about to snap when the door behind us opens again, ricocheting off of the wall as my aunt bursts into the room, her voice shrill as she snaps, “What are you both doing in here?! I told you I would bring him down to speak to you, William. You are not welcome here.”
I can’t turn and look at her, not right now with my eyes shifted and so much anger inside of me. Why would she leave him to heal like that? What mother would deny their son medical attention?
I didn’t think it was possible to hate her any more than I already did, but she’s proving me wrong.
“Nox, come here. We’ll speak to these men in the parlor for a few minutes, and then they can leave.”
For the very first time, Nox moves, but only his lips as he murmurs with a robotic monotone voice two simple words that fracture my world in half, a break that will never repair.
“Yes, Bonded.”
All of the oxygen in the room disappears.
My world very quickly shutters down to focus with pinpoint precision onto that word coming out of my little brother’s mouth.
To his mother.
Bonded.
Emmaline steps forward towards Nox, but the sinking feeling in my gut has grown into a cavernous crater, and now pieces that should never fit together are falling into place in my head.