Keira's Fire

Chapter 4

Eight Years Later

A twig snapped to my left and I was instantly alert, pointing my sword at whoever dared sneak up on me while I slept.

"Keira, it's me!"

Realizing it was my youngest brother, I dropped my weapon. "Blast it, Michael! You know better than to sneak up on me like that!"

"I'm sorry." He dropped his gaze. "I didn't want to wake you. I was going to sit until you woke up on your own."

Sighing, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. "Does Mother know where you are?" I grabbed the canteen and took a long drink.

"She sent me. She wants to know if you'll be coming home sometime soon."

Home was something I hadn't been able to claim for a long time. What my brother meant was his home, the place where my mother's husband, Miles also resided. It had been six years since she married him and I still hated thinking of him in that capacity.

Miles was a nice enough man, I suppose, if somewhat boring and portly. But I would never forgive the fact that he was part of the reason that my father was dead.

After the initial raids on the villages, word quickly spread that there was an overabundance of women in need of husbands. Men who refused to fight in the rebellion or who hailed from the High King's land came pouring into the villages, set to find wives. The pride that was so prevalent in our village for as long as I could remember completely disappeared for many women in light of an approaching winter with no one to provide for them or their children.

My mother held off for as long as she could. She sold our possessions and worked where she was able, but eventually she gave in, knowing that her work alone could barely cover half the bills, and she was running out of other resources.

I didn't hold her marriage against her. She did what she had to in order to survive, but I would never accept that man as anything but a traitor and a coward. I rarely found the desire to even be cordial to him. Which is why I almost never visited. Mother didn't love him, but she did have to live with him. I thought it best not to cultivate problems for her.

And I suppose she could have done worse than Miles. Even if he was a coward, at least he was kind to her. Many of the women who married in haste were trapped in hellish marriages, either being routinely beaten or openly cheated on with mistresses.

It was enough to assure me that I never wanted to get married. My father was a rare breed. One that was almost extinct, if not completely. Anyone worth marrying would have been killed along with him. Or in the raids afterward.

"I don't know..." I avoided Michael's eyes. He had no memory of our father. Miles was the only father figure he ever knew, and he actually liked him. He wished that we could all live together and be one big happy family, but it would never happen. Even if it wasn't dangerous.

Jeremy and Stephen hated Miles more than I did. They refused to even be in the same room with him. Aaron was no fan of his either, but he tolerated him better than we did. Up until recently he hadn't any choice since he lived with them. He still technically did, but he'd been there less and less lately, choosing to stay with the rest of us in the woods instead. James was itching to do the same, but at only thirteen, Mother wouldn't allow it yet.

"Come on, please?" Michael pleaded. "It'll be my birthday next week."

"You think I would forget your birthday?" I raised an eyebrow and wished I could hold the answering smile on his face forever.

"I know you like Miles." I sighed. "But I don't. I never will. Too much has happened for me to just forget."

His shoulders sagged and he nodded in resignation.