Daevas -I- ✔️

Chapter 12.5: Choice

They were almost out of the haunted forest. It gave way to a clearing. Small patches of grass laid to either side of them and a dirt road in front of them. Cyrus' shoes kicked up rocks causing Ari to pay more attention to the graveled sounds coming from their footsteps. They were loud and raucous. Anyone or anything could hear them. 

Ari did not feel comfortable with Kaval leaving the way he did. He knew something was amiss and he did not want Auovin or Cyrus apart of what it could be. But he could not tell a thing to Cyrus without losing his trust with Kaval. Ari had to figure something out on his own. 

"I want to go back," Ari said.

Cyrus stopped and pushed back the long hairs falling in front of Ari's face. 

"Go back where?" Cyrus said as continued to mess with Ari's hair, pushing it back and styling it in a way that he liked. 

"To Freir and Rein."

"It is too late. I warned you, but you did not listen. Now you must choose."

"I cannot. Not like this... "Ari murmured. 

Cyrus lifted his chin up and gazed into his eyes. 

"And why is that? Has that Great made such an impression on you that you become this uncertain thing? You know where your heart lays. Maybe it lays with some other as well." 

"That is not it! I am not so fickle. Kaval is a friend and he knows a part of who I am. A part of me that you both so conveniently kept hidden. I cannot embrace one side without knowing the other." 

Cyrus frowned and looked at their surroundings. 

"Must I be ashamed?"

"I am not saying you should be... " Cyrus narrowed his eyes and continued to look away from him. 

"Then why? Because of the past? It has nothing to do with me."

Cyrus scoffed. 

"So you can easily dismiss the grievances of others?" 

Ari licked his lips and furrowed his brows. "No... I did not mean it in that way." 

"There is bad blood between them, yes, but not for such trivial reasons as you are assuming. Auovin may sound as if he is a spurned lover... Perhaps he is. But that is not all there is to it. Not to him. Not to me. If you decide to go to them, I will not have any more ties with you. My feelings will not be belittled by someone so ignorant and self-righteous. Nor will I allow his."

There was a squeezing feeling in his chest at Cyrus' blunt words. Ari thought he had grown used to it, but when he spoke to him that way it made his throat tighten and his eyes water. 

"How can I know when you both refuse to tell me anything?" Ari muttered, exasperated. "You complain of my human mannerisms and my ignorance, but you teach me nothing. You dismiss my wants and put yours ahead."

"My wants and his are the same."

"Are they?"

Cyrus narrowed his eyes at him. His lips drew tight and his hands clenched into fists.

"Because you have been disappearing as of late when you once stuck so close to him I thought you would never let me in between what you shared together." 

"That does not mean a thing."

"And Sai... "

Cyrus' eyes dropped to the ground at the name. 

"Once I believed Auovin was all you would ever see, but I did not realize Sai was someone you saw quite clearly." 

"He and I share the same likeness for blood. I do not want him for such reasons."