Page 126 of Sands of Atonement

I reached the small party just before Casimir gave me a glare. “What the fuck, Ezra?”

Stepping toward Eshe, my brother put a hand on my chest, stopping me. I was about to ram a fist so hard into his nose⁠—

“Before you do anything you’ll regret, why don’t you take a step back?”

I took a deep breath and released it. Then I walked the other way, needing to get my head straight, anyway. I couldn’t trust myself.

“What do you want?” I snapped at Casimir once we were far enough from lingering Yven.

Eshe and Norrah had walked back inside. I was already feeling a pull.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“What’s going on? You brought Eshe here, and I know you wanted to keep her far from Kavid. Since when have you taken foreign matters upon yourself? She isn’t your problem? And you forced her to be betrothed to me again? You can’t stand her and vice versa. And since when are you marking her as yours?” Casimir demanded answers and placed his hands on his hips as if he were my father.

“She has always been my problem. That goddamn woman!” I growled. “I didn’t want you to be betrothed to her. I never said who she was betrothed to. Kavid insinuated you—it doesn’t matter. I just wanted her out of his reach.”

“Look, I remember what it was like when she disappeared. You were a wreck. You couldn’t control yourself⁠—”

“And I thought you liked me better back then⁠—”

“I did.”

“What’s your point?”

“I wouldn’t be marking a woman like that if I wasn’t planning on making her my wife, Ezra. That sends a message.”

“To whom?” I waved my hand around since we were in the middle of fucking nowhere.

“It sends a message to Eshe!” Casimir raised his voice.

I dropped my body to the sands, sitting with my head between my knees.

He shook his head and looked at me as if I were a child who was caught playing with dangerous swords.

“What?”

Casimir rolled his eyes in disbelief. “Of course you don’t give a shit.”

I grunted.

“How could you be so blind? How are you so observant and in control of everything else in your life except for matters pertaining to yourself?”

Shrugging, I scooped up a handful of dry sand and let it seep through my fingers. Because being around her made me unable to see things clearly or think clearly.

Perhaps in doing so, I had hurt Eshe. I squeezed the next handful of sand.

“Listen, Ezra. Whatever this is that is holding you back is keeping you captive. I know you keep your life private from everyone, even me, but I can see you’re being controlled by something that doesn’t seem to benefit you anymore. It helped you at one point—to get you out of a dark, mental place after what happened in Zyriah.” When I found the Atrove. “I’m proud of you, brother, but this—this is making you weak, and you don’t even realize it. Eshe… I see the life back in your eyes when you’re with her.”

I laughed, but mostly to myself.

“And that makes you stronger,” he continued.

“Are you done?”

“Leave her alone if you don’t plan on changing.” His words were clipped.

Before I could stop myself, I jumped up and landed a fist on his jaw. Casimir scrambled from the sands and rammed his shoulder into my core. We both toppled over in the sand, landing fists and elbows into our bodies.