Pieces of a puzzle

There was no way that this would end well. He would not stop raising his voice or come up with a good excuse. He would have have rather left his secrets buried deep. Somewhere at the bottom of the ocean with the memories of the man who would by this time had joined his patron.

He had stormed out first, slamming the door with that so much theatrics that it shook in the hinges. He cursed under his breath while he roughly brushed a hand through his hair. He had said horrible things, but he couldn't care less. He was a barrel about the burst. There was only so much he could handle. For a few days he had been happy. Xaila had been the most wonderful time in a long, long while. But everything came with it's price, so it seemed.

And he couldn't catch a damn break. His next oponent had turned up out of thin air, as he looked to his older cousin. ‘‘Don't even start,’’ he warned him before he could try to calm him down with his gentle words. Understanding, smart, little Caelum. Then why didn't she marry him, hm? ‘‘Come back to me when they picked out a pretty little wife for yourself.’’

Oh if he could, he would have strangled the man by now. He had no idea how Caelum could manage so much patience all the damn time. Maybe it came with growing up with boys like Myrddin and himself. He had no idea how he still was such a people pleaser. And it wasn't like he had to keep a knife to his throat to keep his mouth shut about the whole situation with Rhysand in that bar. Chaska already figured out what was wrong. Or maybe Caelum was more malicious than what the eye met, and had put Chaska on the right path.

Ezekiel produced a fake smile as he looked at his cousin. ‘‘Here you are,’’ he echoed his words as he threw up his hands defiantly as he gestured at the eldest of his generation. ‘‘So tell me, what should I do?’’ He eyed him up as his temper had not died down. No, if anything, it had gotten worse. ‘‘Because the only use of you being here is for me to hit something.’’

The patience that his cousin harboured was admirable. Ezekiel knew he shouldn't be so disrespectful to his elder cousin. He deserved to be shouted at. And he kind of wanted it. Just to manifest his anger on something that he could get physical with. Caelum had caught him at the wrong moment in the wrong time. And yet, he stayed calm. Almost aloof, when he offered his kindness.

Caelum should have been married to Chaska. Or Myrddin. They had the gentle nature that fit with being a husband. But no, it felt like he had to be the guinea pig before the real Vylasar pearls had to pick a husband. The youngest of the litter had to walk through hellfire before the more valuable offspring could walk over the path that they had paved. Ezekiel looked at his cousin with an intense glare, but his words somehow made him make sense that his temper of his wasn't going to work. But he also didn't want to talk. ‘‘Why?’’ he asked, finally. Maybe that question had been bugging him most of all throughout all of this. Why did he bother?