Saul continued the story, disproving her premature theory and leading into the fall of Dahlia de Mai and the creation of Ichika no Ho-en: a name that she recognized from Gideon, alongside the name of its leader and his former lover. Like the dark Stormbringer and his mate, however, it seemed that love wasn’t meant to last for Saul and Siku on the other side of the mountains. She offered him sympathy with her eyes, wanting to comfort him, not trusting herself to speak and knowing the words would sound hollow.
The Siku part of the story ended depressingly, and Saul went on to say how he’d gotten intoxicated with a random female stranger. Shiloh wiped her expression off her face before it could truly form, very aware of the bottle between them. She found the whole thing extremely distasteful, especially succumbing to the liquid drug when already in such a weak state of mind—and so it was not far-fetched to believe that his body would act of its own accord, joining with Imari’s. Shiloh burned at the thought of the woman taking advantage of her sweet brother, more anger at her than him.
Imari disappeared from the story until she returned with a puppy in her arms. When her brother bowed his head and sighed, Shiloh scooted closer and snaked a slender white arm around his shoulders, her fingers rubbing his tawny and grey fur. “I can’t imagine,” she murmured, but nuzzled his ear as she added: “But I do think you did a good job with Temeraire, considering. He seems like a bright boy, maybe a bit unruly, but that’s just like any other teenage boy—which I have plenty of experience with.” Her final words were teasing as she remembered how unruly she’d viewed her brothers as. It was amazing to see how they’d matured since then, Saul a pack leader and Gideon such a brave man and Ascher scholarly and wise buried in his books.
With her reassurance, she pulled away lightly, wondering if that might be the conclusion of the story. A tooth pressed into her lip as she considered how long to wait before she asked the other difficult question: the one about Lilin. She found herself dreading this confrontation, though it did help her to understand Saul so much better.
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