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She performed every terrible act he required without hesitation, and he toyed with the idea of keeping her far longer than he’d ever kept another Usually he was done after two or three beddings, not wanting to see revulsion s in eyes that should be filled with desire Because, after a while, the feht about what they’d done, what he’d done, and they regretted it all But this feenuine pleasure as she perforreed forless

When it was over, Thane lay still, trying to catch his breath, enjoying the sensation of burning froh the wall at his left--purposely thin so that he and his boys would hear if they were needed--he caught the heartbreaking echo of Xerxes retching into the toilet, just as he always did after sex

He wanted more for his friend Better But he had no idea how to help

He dressed and left the Phoenix exhausted on the bed Bjorn was already in the sitting roolass of vodka

Thane fell into a chair Bjorn never glanced up, too lost in his head, in the darkness that had finally come for him

Xerxes stepped out of his rooaze He, too, fell into a chair

Thane loved these men He did He would happily die for them--but he would not let them die Not like this Not in ether, and so them out of their self-imposed hell

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE NEXT MORNING, A NAKED Zacharel sat at the edge of his bed and rolled his brother’s urn in his hands It was a clear, hourglass-shaped jar, the substance inside a thick liquid as transparent as the urn, with only the tiniest of rainbow flecks glittering in the light

This urn was Zacharel’s greatest treasure His only treasure Now and forever, he would protect this urn as he had not protected his brother

"I love you, Zacharel"

"I love you, too, Hadrenial So much"

"Do you?"

"You know I do"

"And you would do anything for "

"Kill me, then A true death Please You can’t leave me like this"

"Like this" had been broken, bloody and violated in unspeakable ways "Anything but that You’ll recover One day you will even be happy again"

"I don’t want to recover I want to cease to exist, now and forever That’s the only way to end my torment"

"We’ll ether Then we can talk about this again" And Zacharel would once again deny him

"If you don’t kill me, I’ll kill myself You knoill happen to me then"

Yes, he’d known You could not render the true death upon yourself Hadrenial would have been able to slay his own body, but his spirit, dark as it had currently been, would have lived on and been cast into hell That hadn’t swayed Zacharel Still he’d said no But in the end, Hadrenial had stayed true to his proain Always Zacharel had brought him back with the Water of Life

Those years, his entire existence had been spent chasing after his brother, saving his brother and, finally, killing his brother to at last end his pain It was a decision Zacharel regretted to this day, for this urn contained all that was left of Hadrenial

Zacharel had mined from deep inside his brother’s chest the essence of all the love he’d ever felt, then poisoned him with the Water of Death, taken from the stream that flowed beside the Deity’s River of Life That water was the only way to kill an immortal once and for all

To obtain the sh the sa to prove his deterh Council, where perranted, a sacrifice of the Council’s choosing had to be h all of that--after his brother had been denied--but he had hesitated inside the temple The two rivers ran side by side, life and death, happiness and sorrow The choice had belonged to him He could have taken from Life He should have taken from Life But all that would have done was heal his brother’s body, not his h would have been needed to save his h could soothe and save anyone, but Hadrenial had refused to try Still he’d wanted an end