How to Make a Sinner Sleep - Chapter 92: Chapter 92

"It's going to be fine, Pres." said Niklas calmly, seated at a small table in an empty classroom. It was lunch time, but Nicola wasn't free at any other time. "You trust me, don't you?"
"Of course, Niklas. But his appearance, it's gaunt and pale—this is the same thing that—"
"It'll be fine." repeated the man, although it almost seemed to be a reassurance to himself. "Don't worry yourself to illness."
"Well, it can't be helped. Considering everything."
"Exactly, it's him so—"
Before he could finish speaking, the door burst open. A frazzled girl with her hair separated into messy braids gasped, her bright eyes wide. "There you are! I knew you were having a meeting, but I couldn't find you anywhere!"
Nicola stood up. "Holly? What's the matter?"
"It's Kaden!" huffed the woman in a panic. "He's in the infirmary—he collapsed!"
The chairs scraped loudly against the ground as Niklas stood up abruptly, and Nicola's expression froze. "Collapsed?" repeated Nicola. "What do you mean collapsed? Who found him? Where was he? Is he awake?"
"Pres, breathe." said Niklas slowly, pushing his chair into the table. "We'll head over to him now. Let's go."
Holy sniffed. "It was his brother—Skye that found him lying in the gardens. Nobody knows how long he was there, but his body was cold—it was awful. That boy created such havoc running down the halls with Kaden's limp body!"
The three scurried out of the room as Holly continued to explain what had happened.
"Where's Noah?" wondered the flaxen-haired man, frowning.
"He's already there." Holly chewed the tip of her pen that she'd been fiddling with as they walked. "He was discussing something with one of his classmates when Skye rushed past. It's—his expression. I'd never seen it like that before."
"Like what?"
"Murderous."
Niklas' eye twitched and he picked up his pace. "If anything dire happened to Kaden, then that may very well become true."
Further away, Kaden's eyes slowly blinked open. He tried to move, but his hand was captured firmly in a tight vice. For a second, panic flared in his body and his skin broke out in cold sweat, jerking.
Then, the hand squeezed, tapping thrice with a single finger quietly.
Kaden gasped, stilling. He turned his heavy head sideways.
Noah's head was bent low, hardly moving though Kaden was certain that the dragon was listening. "Chauvet, what can I do for you? Tell me what I can do, and I'll do it. Whatever it is."
Kaden's gaze softened and he squeezed his hand back. He felt like he was swimming in his own limbs, trapped in the thin blankets draped over him. An ache remained in the back of his head, and delusions crept in the corners of his vision.
"...snacks..." he replied weakly.
Noah huffed with slight amusement, finally lifting his conflicted gaze. "Alright." He said after a second, standing. After depositing a restless cat onto Kaden's chest, he turned to the door. "I'll return quickly."
"I expect you to take no more than five minutes." smiled Kaden faintly.
"Done." agreed the dragon.
A minute later, the door opened again and Kaden's eyes brightened—only to dim upon seeing the visitor. Lux leaned against the door, raising an eyebrow.
"Your expression is kind of obvious, puppy."
"Good. So you have some awareness."
Lux was unbothered by Kaden's irritation, casually pulling up a chair as he spun a small knife in his hands. An apple in the other. Kaden squinted suspiciously as Lux begun to skillfully peel the skin, slicing it into even pieces.
"I have some more, so eat up." said Lux, handing Kaden a small plate as he whipped out another apple from a mysterious location. "I did this for my younger brother when he was sick. Amuse me, puppy. You need to eat."
"Why should your sappy story encourage kindness from me?" scowled Kaden, though he took the plate anyway. The sinner was a murderer, but he did not waste food.
Lux smiled when he saw Kaden eating, humming to himself.
"Ah, since you have so much energy, you can't possibly be sick. Don't tell me you're faking it to spend some loving time with me?"
"...you're reminding me of a friend."
"The one with no stamina? I'm not sure if that's an insult or praise."
"What the hell do you want?" snapped Kaden, aggressively chewing onto another apple as more slices appeared on his plate, making it never-ending.
Lux stopped in his actions, staring quietly at his hands.
"I'm looking for somebody, Kaden. That's why I have an agreement with Reed. My bloodline doesn't take well to blessings, yet we are often one of the Blessed regardless. And I'm sure you're aware at this point—that Reed is researching the Blessed and the Watchers."
"What?"
"I'm looking for my younger brother."
Kaden paused mid-eating, placing the plate down. "How do you lose an entire person?" he asked bluntly, having no politeness to the other.
Lux laughed. "I don't know. But it might've had something to do with his blessing. The Blessed are awakened in the Academy—or by other means that aren't so ideal. But again, my bloodline isn't the same. Ours are volatile, can be activated without prompting or can remain dormant until certain situations cause them to rise to the surface."
"You can organize the Blessed into a single category. You're saying that you and your brother are 'abnormal'?"
"Yes. The same applications and understandings aren't entirely applicable to use. It's confusing, Kaden. That's why they research these things. All I know for certain is that those like me—we aren't meant to live long."
Kaden placed the plate on the table. "I lost my appetite."
"You don't want to hear this, do you, puppy? But if we're to be working together in the future, I need you to understand. That I have reasons for what I do—"
"And?" Kaden's voice went numb, emotionless. "You have reasons for what you do. So does Reed. So do I. That doesn't make you a better person."
"...you're right. It doesn't. I don't know why I felt like explaining myself to you."
"I don't either."
Lux shrugged nonchalantly, placing a half-peeled apple to the side. "Then I'll leave you be. Have fun, there are several guests approaching to reprimand you."
"Get out."
"Going."
As Lux opened the door, Niklas waited outside, casting a brief glance sideways as he nodded. The other man ignored him, walking past. That friend of Kaden's, thought Lux with some amusement, held as many secrets as the others.
Friendships based on half-truths. He wondered how long they could last.
Inside, Niklas scanned Kaden's entire body and let out a long-awaited breath in relief. He sighed, walking to the curtains as he drew them slightly. "Why have you been sulking in the darkness this whole time?"
Kaden looked over, gazing at the skies. It wasn't clear, and the weather wasn't bright. "Bellamy hadn't drawn it, so I didn't consider it."
"Oh, so nothing matters if Noah doesn't do it?" laughed Niklas teasingly.
Kaden shook his head, waving him away. Of course, Niklas took it as a sign to come closer, twirling as he neared, eliciting a brief scoff from the other.
Niklas fiddled with the charm hanging around his neck, sighing. His fingers glided over the carved metal, a delicate thing that dangled loosely.
"Do you own any jewelry, Kaden?" asked the man quietly.
The other looked at him oddly. Then, after a moment of thought, he nodded. "I do. It's... I'm not sure where I left it." He furrowed his eyebrows in faded pain. "It's..."
"Not important. Sorry, I don't need to know. I was just curious." Niklas grinned. "But you're getting old Kaden, if your memory is already fading! You'll be hunched and wrinkled within years."
Kaden sneered. "With your inactive lifestyle, I believe you'll be begging me to carry you around within months."
Niklas looked genuinely concerned, his face twisting into something akin to constipation. Kaden coughed at the expression, uncertain whether to laugh or scoff.
"You should give up on being an investigator and join Nicola's plays. I'm sure your colourful expressions will add quite the charm."
The cheerful man laughed, plopping onto the side of the bed. "Why not both?"
"Are you capable of multitasking?"
"Not necessarily, but I'm good at solo-tasking. I can do one and then the other after." Then, his expression turned somber, matching the changing weather outside that darkened into grayer skies. "Kaden, let's talk."
"We're talking."
"You know what I mean. You've been disappearing at night, barely eating or responding during the day. There's this distant look in your eyes and Holly's scared that you're going to fade away."
"She worries. She's an over thinker."
"She most definitely is. But I see it too, you bastard. What're you trying to do, to accomplish? And do you have to do it alone?"
"I wasn't." said Kaden sharply, sucking in a breath as he felt the hollowness in his stomach. "I wasn't alone."
Niklas fell silent.
The two men sat in the creaking and thin bed, the silence slowly transforming into a line drawn between them. They became keenly aware that despite their past year together, of how little they knew each other.
Friends were merely closer strangers. The depths of another sometimes became vividly foreign.
"I want to talk to you Kaden." said Niklas finally, quietly. "There are many things I'd like to tell you."
Kaden turned his head. "Not today."
"Not today." agreed the other. "Another day. Now, come on, are you attending the dance? Confirm it with me before I'm whisked away by a fair maiden."
"I'm considering it."
Niklas smiled, leaning closer and wiggling his eyebrows. "Here, this trustworthy big brother will be the date for your lonely arm." He winked and drew closer, holding out an arm.
Kaden swatted the arm away, eliciting a boisterous laugh. "Who has a brother like you?"
Niklas continued to shuffle closer, though careful to remain distant. "Family," he laughed, as his arm was slapped away again. He lunged forward, pulling his sleeves to cover his hands before aggressively ruffling Kaden's hair. "Is not defined by blood alone."
The pink-haired man stiffened, but slowly relaxed under the familiarity of Niklas' warmth.
After messing around, Niklas fell back on the bed. "Hey, Kaden. There is something I have to tell you—because I'm sure you'll find out soon, and it'll be worse if you find out on your own."
"Don't be cryptic. What is it?"
"That brat—Arlo. He's been taking sword lessons. That's why he keeps disappearing and running off despite being clingy."
"Sword lessons? Since when? From who?"
Niklas sat up, pressing his hands onto the blanket to put light pressure on Kaden's legs. He looked at the other solemnly. "Stay calm, Kaden." He spoke slowly, carefully. "But the one teaching him is Reed."
Kaden's pupils constricted, fear pooling into his gaze and then peeling away, returning to a blank stare. Niklas exerted more pressure, frowning. "Kaden?"
"What? You're right, I would've panicked if I caught them doing it privately. Reed's a good teacher—though if he does anything, I'll break all his carriages." Kaden scrunched his nose in irritation, displaying neither an outburst of emotion or repressed feelings.
Niklas breathed. "I have the keys to the carriages. Technically, I haven't been fired yet. I guess it's because you haven't reported me."
"It's not because you're decent. But not many would allow me to sit in the front."
"Ah, so it's a give-and-take relationship, is it?"
"What else?"
After messing around a little more, the pair of friends were interrupted by Holly's lively and dramatic entry, followed by a worried Nicola. She attentively examined his expression, noting the man's paleness and hollowed cheeks.
It was similar to the Kaden she'd met in the beginning of the year. That comparison made her stomach turn.
Because Kaden could not go back to that time.
Niklas slid over, clapping. "Well, thank goodness you're not dying. I'd have to deal with two crying ladies—although my shoulder is especially sturdy for them to lean on."
Holly scrunched her nose. "I'd rather lay on Kaden's shoulder."
"His corpse?"
"It's not like he's going to decay right away—"
"Let's not talk about how sturdy my corpse would be." Interrupted Kaden with a half-amused tilt of his lips. "I'm... sorry to worry you."
Holly turned her nose to the sky, huffing. "Yeah! You better be! Stress isn't good for the skin, oh dear, what happens if my body wrinkles because of you? I'll become unwanted."
"I think it's highly unlikely for you to be unlikable, Holly."
"A compliment, is that right? Don't tell me you're actually dying."
"...would you prefer I call you unlikable?"
Holly laughed, shrugging. "Well, I'd know you don't mean it even if you do."
They continued talking, steering the conversation away from Kaden's condition and state of mind. Even when Noah returned with a basket full of snacks—half of which were gobbled immediately by Niklas and Holly—the small room was filled with noise.
They refused to leave even when the midday turned to deep evening. Blankets were scattered on the ground alongside pillows and more snacks.
The moon hung high in the skies. It was especially clear that night.
Holly rolled on her back, half her leg wrapped around a pillow while another clutched the corner of a blanket tightly, her braided hair untangled in her messy posture. Nicola lied next to her, graceful even in her quiet sleep.
Niklas had fallen asleep while leaning against Kaden's bed, his arms crossed and expression oddly serious for a man that was so bright during the day.
Noah leaned against the wall on the bed, a familiar weight pressing against his side. When the blankets shuffled and a certain sinner woke, the dragon's eyes sleepily cracked open. His head rolled to the side, watching the escaping fool.
"Chauvet," said Noah quietly. "Where are you going?"
Kaden paused in his actions of slipping off the bed. Ideally, he wanted to leave without waking anybody. He was skilled at it—being invisible and unnoticed. When he wanted to be, he could slip in and out of places without leaving any impression.
In this room, his memory was imprinted in four. He'd left his footprints everywhere, and it could no longer be erased.
"To the bathroom."
Noah gazed at him deeply. "Are you lying to me?"
Kaden smiled faintly. "I'm lying to you."
Noah closed his eyes, his hands curling underneath the blanket. A spark of irritation lit in his chest, nails digging into the mattress.
The dragon thought he'd go crazy soon.
"You frustrate me, Kaden. Do you even know to what extent my frustrations reach? That what you deem best for me is killing me inside?" The dark eyes fixated on Kaden's face, the every line that made that sinner the lovable and yet irritable fool he was. "Do you understand to what extent I need you alive?"
Kaden hesitated, legs hanging off the side of the bed. He was deadly terrified of making the wrong decisions, repeating the history of tragedy over and over again.
Noah was always honest with his feelings, though keeping pieces to share at specific moments. It was a kindness, and not something Kaden overlooked. Noah treated him so carefully that it hurt.
There would be those that would call him a fool for his actions.
But they could not alter his mind that had known countless deaths, watched his partner shrivel and drain of their blood and transform into something inhumane.
They could not change the stench of flesh and blood that permeated his nose even in the blowing wind, or the nightmares that plagued his waking days. They could not know how deeply he feared loss of the things he once never even had.
It was easy to trust Noah.
And it was just as easy to lose Noah because he trusted him.
"...I'm sorry, Noah."
Noah seemed to bite his tongue, turning his head away as his eyelids pressed closed. His voice was gruff, holding back emotions. "Go. If you don't return soon, I'll look for you."
"I know. Thank you, Bellamy."
He left down the hallway. In its emptiness, it felt abandoned. As if the countless people that roamed up and down its floors during the day never existed.
As he reached Reed's door to his private space, it swung open.
A wide-eyed Arlo lifted his small head up to Kaden. The boy had lost weight, his face slowly defining and sharpening though he didn't lose his large eyes that gazed with such adoration upon seeing Kaden.
Kaden looked down at the boy's bare arms. At the purple and blue splotches that littered up the bony limbs.
Arlo quickly hid his arms behind his back, though parts were still exposed. And all Kaden felt was chilling fury.
"Why are you here, Arlo?" said Kaden slowly despite knowing the answer. He snapped his head up to the man inside who quickly masked his surprise at seeing Kaden. "What have you done to him, Reed?"
Reed walked to his bedside, placing the sword in his arms down. "Nothing important to you. Report to me, foolish dog. Why are you interrupting me at this time?"
"Go, Arlo."
"K-Kaden—"
In a second, Kaden lunged forward, snapping his sheathed daggers into the air as their pointed tips gleamed. Reed didn't flinch, a red hue pulsing in his eyes.
"Kneel."
Immediately, Kaden felt pain roar through his hand, scorching up his body and demanding obedience. His knees dropped, heavily falling to the ground. Surprisingly, Reed had rarely used the curse to command him.
"Take off your gloves."
Kaden ground his teeth together, hands moving on their own to strip his gloves, baring his scar-littered hands. From as long as he remembered, he'd kept the ghastly sight away from Reed's noble gaze.
The burned R imprinted on the back of his hand was vivid.
Reed's eyes flickered briefly at the shape, at the outline of the letter that had been branded on Kaden the day he was taken from the streets. A letter that labeled that awkward and frail child as property to the royals.
Reed may have cursed Kaden with obedience, but he did not brand that mark.
Although laughably, it made no difference. Memories, the more they were recalled, became unreliable. They became memories of memories that distorted with every recollection.
The Crown Prince stared at that scar and wondered, for an act that happened so long in the past, if Kaden believed it was his decision.
Kaden's glare was vicious, disdain burning in the deep green as he laughed. "I've endured this for so long, do you think a little shock will keep me from biting?"
The Crown Prince regarded him, taking several steps forward. He glanced at the door. "Leave, boy. Your presence will only ensure his suffering."
"...you can't—!"
"Arlo!" snapped Kaden, panic in his voice. "Leave. Please."
Arlo flinched, gulping. He'd never been yelled at by the other before, always spoken to in a relaxed, comforting tone. He chewed on his lip until it bled and quietly slipped outside.
Once only two remained, Reed's voice lowered to a whisper.
All the hairs on Kaden's body stood on end.
"I suppose I'll have to train the obedience into you." Reed stalked over to his sword, hand wrapping around the hilt. He remained immobile for a second, hesitation flickering in his gaze before a flare of pain burned in his head.
In order to save something, sometimes you had to destroy it first.
He spun around and held it up. Swiftly, the prince slashed it against his palm, drawing a deep, bloody gape.
Kaden frowned. "What are you—"
Then, the sword was spun downwards, driving through Kaden's scar-covered hand. The man gasped in blinding pain, a silent scream.
It was more than the wound; it was a searing pain that took apart every cell in his body.
Black patterns chased up his arm, like little arms that crept out in the corners of his blurring gaze. Reed's body trembled, similar shapes chasing up his own skin, but Kaden had no sense of mind to notice.
"I curse you, Kaden Alluin Chauvet. My most loyal dog," Reed coughed, a trickle of red running down his lips. "My chosen younger brother. I curse you to submit and pledge your loyalty to me. My life—and yours can no longer be separated."
Kaden's entire body shuddered in unbearable pain as he fell sideways, curling into himself on the carpeted ground.
"To the end of time; we are bound in a promise deeper than death."