"Oh, my son," she gasped. "I am so sorry. I had no idea--"
"I know that," he said, interrupting her before she could assume any more blame that wasn't hers.
"No one had any idea. It was wrong for Seth and me to conceal the truth. I made it worse when I left Alaska last year."
Kir's scowl deepened. "Worse, how?"
"Seth had killed a human." Kade ignored the horrified gasp that traveled the congregation, his eyes rooted on his father. "He'd killed, and I knew he had. He promised me it was a mistake he would never repeat. I didn't believe him. I wanted to, but I knew my brother too well. I should have done something then.
I should have found a way to ensure he wouldn't do it again. Instead, I left." Silence fell over the room as Kade spoke. It stretched endlessly, a cold, sodden weight that bore down on his shoulders as he weathered his father's unreadable gaze. Kade's mother rushed to fill the terrible quiet.
"You had to leave, Kade. The Order needed your help in Boston. You had important work to do there--"
"No," Kade said, shaking his head in slow denial. "I was glad to join the Order, but that's not why I left. Not really. I left Alaska because I feared that if I stayed, I would become like Seth. To save myself, I abandoned my brother--abandoned all of you--and I ran to Boston for my own selfish reasons. There was no honor in what I did."
He glanced to the back of the chapel as he said it, meeting Alex's gaze. She was listening without judgment, the only pair of eyes in the room that wasn't fixed on him in contempt or stunned disbelief.
"What Seth did was wrong," Kade continued. "He was sick, maybe beyond help, even before his weakness turned him Rogue. But despite all that, he died with honor. Because of Seth's sacrifice a few hours ago, I am alive. More important, there is a beautiful, extraordinary woman standing at the back of this room who's also alive because of Seth's actions in the final moments of his life." As a whole, the group turned to look on Alex. She didn't flinch at the sudden attention, nor at the whispers of speculation and curiosity that traveled the chapel on Kade's announcement.
"Seth wasn't perfect," Kade said. "God knows, I'll never be. But I loved my brother. And I owe him everything for what he did today."
"You honor him well," a male voice murmured from somewhere on Kade's left. He glanced over and found Maksim standing now. He nodded soberly. "You honor all of us here today, Kade." The praise from his uncle--his friend--was unexpected, and tightened Kade's throat. Then similar murmurs rose up from others in the room.
Kir walked forward and placed his hand on Kade's shoulder. "It's time. Daybreak is coming, and I must take Seth into the sun."
Kade reached up, wrapped his fingers around the thick strength of his father's wrist. "Let me. Please
... it should be me, Father."
He expected a curt refusal. A dark glare that would force Kade to insist on taking the burden--the final honor--of accompanying Seth's body for the eight minutes of solar exposure required by Breed funeral tradition.
But Kir did not argue. He took a step back, saying nothing as Kade stripped off his soiled combat shirt and weapons belt, then set them down on the wooden bench nearby.
No one uttered so much as a syllable as he went to the altar and lifted his brother's shrouded bulk into his arms, then began the walk through the corridor that emptied onto the chapel's snowy back garden, where the noontime sun was just beginning to break through the winter gloom overhead.
Chapter Thirty-two
Alex waited in Kade's cabin, anxious with concern for what he was subjecting himself to in the yard behind the Darkhaven's chapel. Eight full minutes of ultraviolet light on his exposed skin. Eight minutes of excruciating pain, before duty would permit Kade to leave his brother's body to the consuming rays of the sun.
Alex wouldn't have had any idea about the funeral tradition of the Breed had it not been for Kade's uncle, Maksim, and the young Breedmate named Patrice, both of whom had walked back to introduce themselves in the moments after Kade had carried Seth's body away. The pair had been warm and welcoming, waiting with Alex while the rest of the congregation departed via underground tunnels that connected all of the buildings in the Darkhaven compound.
Max and Patrice had offered to keep Alex company in Kade's quarters to await him and help tend his burns, but Alex had declined as politely as she could. She didn't think Kade would want to be fussed over. She wasn't even sure he would want her there now, a worry that made the wait for his return drag out all the more.
But thoughts for herself blew away like cinder on the breeze when she heard Kade's footsteps coming up the front porch of the cabin.
coming up the front porch of the cabin.
Alex ran to the door and opened it, stricken by the sight of him standing there with daylight blazing behind him. Incredibly, after the eight minutes he'd given his brother, Kade had not taken the tunnels but had instead apparently walked across the grounds from the chapel to his quarters.
"Oh, my God," Alex whispered as his pale silver eyes stared out at her from the reddened, blistered skin of his face. Her throat squeezed up like it was caught in a fist. "Come inside now." As he walked past her, his bare shoulders, arms, and torso radiated palpable heat that she could feel a foot away from him. He was obviously in agony, but he showed no sign of it beyond the visible UV damage of his skin.
"Come with me," Alex said. "I have a cool bath waiting for you." He shot her a questioning look.
"I met Maksim and Patrice in the chapel. They told me what you might need when you came back." His mouth curved slightly at that, but when he tried to speak, his voice was nothing but a raspy croak of sound. "Come on, Kade. Let me take care of you."