Arden Kole's Arc

Chapter 6 of 8

Arden knelt over the sleeping wanderer for an hour. She could not start cutting. The undertaker had not left the ward. He stood by the sealed door, hands folded, patient as a clock. He said he wanted to be the first to greet her brother. Now she understood the trap. He did not want a greeting. He wanted her brother's first breath to be a debt. "Go home, Kevin," she said. She used his name to make him small. "I'll call you when it's done." "I'll stay," Kevin said. "That's the deal." He did not raise his voice. He never did. That steadiness scared her more than any threat. Arden's mind ran fast. If he touched her brother the way he touched the creature, he could own him. She needed the undertaker gone before the surgery finished. She needed something he wanted more than her brother's first word. A soft click came from the far window. A black cat slipped through the gap. Its skin showed patches of gray, its ribs stitched, one eye a bright green. Arden knew that cat. Where it walked, its master followed. Savanna Noire stepped in behind it, spotted coat swaying, red heels quiet on the tile. "You still owe nothing, surgeon," Savanna said. Her cold eyes moved to Kevin. "But he does. He takes the dying. That's my hunting ground." Arden saw the opening. She stood. "You want a first breath," she told Kevin. "She wants a soul." She pointed at the sleeping wanderer. "It's alive. It breathes. Its flesh doesn't rot." She looked at Savanna. "Take it instead of me. Drain it. Then he greets it, not my brother." Savanna crossed the room. She crouched by the wanderer and pressed one red-nailed finger to its chest. "Alive enough," she murmured. "A soul in pieces is still a soul." Kevin watched the creature. Something crossed his plain face. "That one asked for no one," he said quietly. "I'll take its greeting. It's owed a hand at the end." "Then it's settled," Arden said. "You greet it. She drains it. My brother stays free." Savanna bent and kissed the wanderer's smooth head. The yellow eye flickered once, then dulled. The stitched limbs sank. The composite flesh grayed and cracked, the way her copy had. Kevin knelt and laid his palm on its chest until it went still. "Rest," he said. He stood, brushed his knees, and walked to the door. "Debt paid, surgeon. I greeted the one who woke." He left without looking back. Savanna scooped up her cat and followed, satisfied. Arden stood alone in the sealed ward. Her brother was free of both of them. She had won. Then she looked down. The wanderer lay gray and crumbling at her feet. She had given it away to save her brother. It had been her only material. Now she had nothing left to build him with.