How to Make a Sinner Sleep

72 | selfishly; a sleeping trio

Skye hovered outside of his eldest brother's room, waiting. Every time Reed assigned a mission, Kaden would automatically walk past to report a successful job. It was something ingrained to the bone, a habit Kaden would still follow within the Academy's walls.

It was already late, far beyond most students' bedtime. When the young man raked a hand through his blonde hair, sighing, a shadow appeared at the end of the hallway.

The figure trudged closer, footsteps silent. A cold, unfeeling pair of eyes cast itself on the door behind Skye, and upon seeing it closed, continued to walk past.

A dead gaze that miserably sat in its sockets, void of life. There was no light in them, when Skye remembered they once gleamed brightly.

He snatched out his hand, grabbing for Kaden's hanging arm, but it was hastily yanked away from him the moment he moved.

"Kaden. Brother."

The younger man glanced down at his hand that had been treated as if it were poisonous to touch. Nevertheless, he desperately raised his head, moving so that his body blocked Kaden's escape.

The other merely glanced indifferently. "What is it, Skye?"

A proper, polite response. After all this time, Kaden would never ignore him.

Skye chewed on his lips. Kaden never ignored him, but was it because he wanted to amuse Skye, or because he had no choice? Skye didn't want to think about it.

Did anything matter, as long as the sole person who treated him as a person stayed by his side? There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for that reason.

He refused to think about it. "That's... are you oka—"

The sound of the door opening interrupted the pair, light spilling into the hall as an exhausted man leaned against the frame, crossing his arms. Dressed in loose white sleepwear, Reed gazed at them both.

"Will you really stop him, silly child?" Reed leaned closer to Skye in a whisper, but for the silence that filled the hallway, no sounds could be hidden. "If you stop him, he'll leave. If you continue being your spoiled, selfish choice, he'll stay. He will live with us again. He'll be unable to ignore you."

Skye hesitated, swallowing back his words as he glared at his eldest brother, the crown prince of the kingdom.

Scorn flitted over Reed's expression. "Are you satisfied with that? The only method to keep him by your side is miserable and cruel."

Skye glanced over at Kaden, and Reed's scowl deepened. "Did you not want to speak of it in front of him? But between you and he, Skye, he understands the relationship you have the best."

A lump caught in the youngest prince's throat before he offered a shaky smile.

He was not used to being put on the spot; he was not used to things not going his way. It was one of the reasons he despised Reed.

"Goodnight, Kaden."

He moved to leave, expecting no answer, but it was only then that Kaden opened his mouth. "Skye..." He thought distantly, expecting nothing from the other. "If you helped me long ago, I wouldn't have minded becoming your family."

He remembered it well, the young child he met in the library. It was true that Kaden ran away after learning of Skye's identity, but what if... what if Skye had helped him from the nightmare he lived.

What if he'd been saved, offered a slight of salvation?

Instead, Skye's possessive nature determined that the best method in keeping Kaden tied to the castle was by trapping him—and it so happened that Reed had a means of doing so.