“Are you terribly hurt?” I asked, running my hands up and down Octavia’s back in search of any mortal wounds.

She shook her head, the top of her hair brushing my chin. “No, I’m okay,” she murmured faintly. She was muffled against my chest, but I could hear her clearly enough to feel a sliver of relief for her condition. I reached between us to pinch her chin in my thumb and forefinger and lifted her face to mine, examining it for any signs of bruising like I had seen on Edie. There seemed to be none, but I noticed the shallow slit on her neck and the dribble of blood draining down from it. Angry bile rose from my gut to my throat.

“Can you stand on your own?” I questioned gently.

“Yes,” she claimed. I unraveled my arms from around her figure and took a step back to test her contention. She wavered slightly on the spot, but she kept her balance and remained standing.

“Very good,” I praised. “Now, I want you to stay here.”

Her eyes flew open, and she blindly looked in my direction. I was sure she was unable to make out anything in the pitch darkness of the cave because, even with A’li-uud vision, I was only able to see shadowed versions of everything around us. “Where are you going?” she whimpered.

I opted not to answer her and instead turned on my heel to face Ola. She was on her feet with the knife hanging loosely in her fingers by her side, and she was watching the interaction between Octavia and me with an expression I could only compare to deep yearning. It did nothing to soften the contempt boiling inside me. Before she could anticipate my movements, I shot toward her and pummeled her to the ground.

Octavia was screaming instantly with the sounds of the brawl, a high-pitched and blood-curdling scream that made even the Novain language seem pleasant to hear. My head urged me to return to her, scoop her up into my arms and take her back to Ka-lik’et, but my heart was in a battle of its own between my undying love for Octavia and my nuclear hatred for Ola. I slammed my forearm into her throat, sending her head flying back against the stone ground, and a repugnant crack interrupted Octavia’s wails.

Ola was hardier than she looked, though, and her frail form allowed her to snake out from under me and crouch on all fours like a predator before I realized what had happened. I spun to face her and attack again, but she catapulted herself at me first. This time, it was I who collided with the ground. Stars popped behind my eyelids, and I wondered if I had met her knife rather than the ground for the intensity of the stabbing pain. She seized my head by the hair and started banging my skull against the floor over and over again.

“Help!” Octavia was shrieking. “Help us!” Her cries were useless as there were no villages nearby and Ka-lik’et was at least fifteen minutes out of earshot, but worse yet was the incessant ringing they caused in my head, which only added to the pain I was feeling from Ola’s assault.

I pulled my knees up under Ola’s body and shoved upward with force. She was thrown from me as easily as a slip of fabric, and I heard her crumple somewhere nearby before I saw her. To prevent her from regaining her strength, I hopped to my feet and darted to her, pressing my boot down on her belly.

“How dare you,” I growled. Every inch of my body was throbbing, but the massive dose of adrenaline spiking my blood numbed me enough not to care. “How dare you lay a finger on her? How dare you use her for blackmail?”

“I had no other choice.” Ola’s response was weak and trembling, but I was sure she was playing a game with me and trying to evoke sympathy, so I added a fraction of pressure with my boot.

“You had no choice but to kidnap an innocent woman?” I shook my head in furious disbelief. “You believed taking someone I care for is the way back into the good graces of your family?”

She yowled, and I realized she was not playing a game. The murderous black in her soul had dissipated like smoke, and in its wake was left the remnants of who she had become in our years apart. She was broken. When she claimed to have lost everything, she had not been exaggerating. Not only was her love gone, her family gone, but her health appeared to be wasting away into nothingness, and her sanity was clear not far behind.

I took my boot off her stomach but continued to tower over her, intentionally placing my body between hers and Octavia’s to shield Octavia from view completely. I did not want my sister ever laying eyes on Octavia again. “You are going to come back to Ka-lik’et,” I said, barely moving my lips as I spoke. “There, you will be arrested for kidnapping and conspiracy to commit murder, and the Council will decide what to do with you.”

“You were lying to me,” she whispered. A’li-uud did not cry, but I was certain if they did she would have had streams of tears pouring down her face in rivers. “You did not mean it when you said you would talk to Mother and Father, did you?”

“The only thing I intend to talk about with Mother and Father in which your name will arise is what you have done here tonight. They will know what a disgrace you truly are, and they will finally be able to release themselves of the burden they carry in continuing to love you. I will see to that much.”

She drew her legs up to her chest and curled into a ball. Rocking back and forth, she said into her knees, “Then, you may as well kill me now, brother. There is nothing left for me.”

I watched her rock, and I would have been lying to myself if I believed I did not consider killing her. Had she performed her assault and threats on anyone else, I likely would have never imagined doing such a thing. Knowing she had taken Octavia, however, and seeing the blood on Octavia’s throat was more than enough to vividly imagine taking Ola’s face in my hands and snapping her neck in one quick jerk. Witnessing one death of someone important in my life was enough, though. I was incapable of doing any more physical harm to Ola.

“Get up,” I grunted. When she failed to comply, I reached down and snagged her by the arm to wrench her to her feet myself. She stumbled a bit but did not fight me, and I pulled her unceremoniously toward the mouth of the cave. I was careful to keep myself positioned between the two females, but, as the light of the outdoors started to wash over me, I took Octavia’s hand in my free one and led her along as well—much more gently than I did Ola, of course.

Beneath the moonlight, I was able to properly see the damage done to Octavia’s person, and another bout of fury seized me. The knees of her pants had been shredded, and the skin beneath was stained with smeared blood. Her elbows were pink and raw, and there was a patch under her chin where she likely slid across the cave floor an inch or two. A finger-sized bruise was starting to form with purplish tinge around her wrist. Her face still looked flawless, though she had an inordinate amount of dust and sand caked into her hair, but her eyes were visibly terrified, and she seemed unable to stop trembling.

I released my hold on Ola out of disgust and turned my attention to Octavia. “We need to have someone look at you,” I murmured, brushing her cheek softly with my knuckles.

She leaned into my touch and shook her head as she insisted, “No, really, I’m fine.”

“You are bleeding,” I said. I gestured to her neck, and then down to her knees.

“It’s mostly just scrapes. No big deal. I’ll just—”

She was cut off by a loud, long, droning howl. I spun to find Ola on the ground with her knees up to her chest again and her face tilted up to the sky. Her mouth was open wide, and from it poured the agonizing wail of an A’li-uud with a broken heart.