Page 57 of Loving the Alien Spy

Ryvik chuckles. “Perhaps.”

“Unless he was merely playing with me in order to shut me up, Carrik should be here soon.”

The other Bohnari moves closer. “You must truly hate your brother if you’re willing to not only trick him into coming here, but wanting to be present.”

“Any love I had for Carrik has decayed. He’s the one who chose whatever life he has been leading over me. The brother he shared a womb with. The brother who was the other half of him. Together, we were complete, but he fractured us. He and my father. I want to look my brother in the eyes and watch him suffer the consequences of the decisions and choices he made.” The words taste like bile in my throat, but I release themanyway. I have to if I want to protect Bannik the way I always have.

“Loyalty is not felt in the House of Deqan, it would appear,” Ryvik notes.

“I am loyal to myself and to those deserving of my loyalty.”

The sound of slow clapping reaches us and grows louder as someone comes closer. The clouds drift, exposing the moon to shine down on the figure that approaches. It takes less than a tick to recognize Bannik. He is dressed in a pair of black trou and a loose-fitting shirt with dark boots. It has been over ten anums since I have seen him in anything but his guard’s uniform.

“Bravo,” he says as his clapping dies down. “Finally admitting that you hold no loyalty to the brother with whom you shared a womb. I have known this for twenty anums, but to hear you confess it out loud brings me a certain amount of satisfaction.”

Gods, there is so much bitterness in Bannik’s words. This is not him playing a role. While I am not certain I would change anything I’ve done, I wish I could take away my brother’s pain and anger.

“Do not speak to me of loyalty. You are the one who created the rift between us. All because you were born eight ticks before me. Because you chose to blindly follow the path our father set you on. Not once did you bother trusting me with your secret, knowing I would have taken it to the grave with me.” That fact causes me the most pain, because the truth is, Bannik would have kept our family’s secret. He never would have betrayed me by telling anyone who I truly was.

“You were always weaker than me. Father saw it, and so did I. That is why I never told you about the role I—and our father—played for the king and then for Alik. It would have taken nothing to break you,” my brother sneers, taking his role as Carrik seriously. As though he truly believes this is how I feel about him.

“Enough,” Ryvik bursts out. “I didn’t come here to listen to you two argue about your brotherly grievances against each other. That’s not why you’re here.”

Bannik steps forward with clenched fists. “Then whyamI here?” He looks the other male up and down. “And who are you exactly?”

“Your brother didn’t tell you?”

“My brother,” he snarls, “doesn’t tell me anything.”

“Then why did you agree to come?” I have to trust Bannik to continue playing his part.

“Because I want to know where Mohneek and Orvak are hiding.”

Ryvik laughs. “What makes you think I have that information?”

Bannik takes another step closer. The smile on his face makes me uneasy. “Because Orvak is your father.”

Shock ripples through me, and Ryvik’s laughter cuts off. I glance between my brother and him. Ryvik’s mouth falls open and snaps closed like he’s struggling to find something to say. The self-satisfaction radiates off my brother. Finally, the other Bohnari stutters out a sentence.

“How do you know that? No one knows.”

“There is a record of every single birth on Bohna, including yours,” Bannik says smugly.

Ryvik shakes his head. “We erased the records. Scrubbed them clean.”

This time, it’s my brother who laughs. “You may have gotten rid of the electronic records, but there’s one record your father forgot about.”

“The Archives,” I breathe out.

Bannik jabs his finger in my direction. “The Archives,” he echoes. “I have spent countless anums reading through the thousands of annals stored there, absorbing all the various and interesting facts about Bohna. About its history. Its people. While my brother was off traveling to other planets, gathering intelligence for the prince, and leaving me behind, I lost myself in the stacks. It was early this morning when I remembered something I’d once read. I returned to the Archives and found exactly what I was looking for, which is that Orvak of the House of Xiten had a single heir by the name of Ryvik.”

My eyes close, and I let out a heavy sigh. Only then does Bannik realize what he’s said. Guilt is evident in the way he hangs his head. Ryvik’s gaze bounces between us until he, too, comes to the truth my brother inadvertently revealed just now. He focuses on me.

“You’rethe real Carrik,” he says finally. “You set me up.”

“It’s what I do. Iama spy after all.”

“Do you plan on killing me, then?” Ryvik asks without a hint of fear. “Since I know your father’s secret.”