22. Cold

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
It was getting a bit darker when they finally arrived at the graveyard, somewhat of a spooky feeling descending on Nadia. She wasn’t exactly the kind of person that would go near graves despite having buried quite a number of people in her life. It was a closed off place but the guard quickly recognized Sasha, smiling a little at her before letting them in. For the life of her, Nadia couldn’t even remember where they had buried Trina given her state at that time. On the bright side, she was lucky to have Sasha by her side. The latter was already leading the way, an inevitable sadness clinging in the air between them.

“One would think with the amount of people we’ve lost it would get any easier,” Nadia whispered jokingly in an attempt to lighten the mood and stop herself from feeling so dreaded by the idea of being around so many graves.

“Yeah. One would think,” Sasha agreed, a rather grim look dancing on her face.

The silence settled once again between them the closer they got to Trina’s grave. Suddenly Sasha halted and Nadia was about to inquire why when her gaze fell on the figure kneeling on Trina’s grave, holding a bouquet of red roses. At first, all she felt was shock but it soon wore out and in its place was a rising bout of rage as the features of the person grew recognizable.

“What the fuck do you think you are doing here?” She inquired, her voice small but thickened with anger.

Adrian rose up, leaving the roses on the grave then dusted his knees before turning to face his sister. An arrogant smirk quickly dispatched on his features much to annoyance of Nadia. She’d waited, no, yearned for so long to be reunited with her brother but now all she felt was an unquenchable need to slap and kick him endlessly. People had dies. He could have stopped it but he didn’t.

“Hello Sister. Not quite the place I’d expected I’d meet you. We do have quite the bad luck with meeting places, don’t you think?” How could he say that with such a straight face?

Nadia approached, looking at her brother with malice. She didn’t recognize the boy she grew up with at all. Sure, she may have been mad and thirsting revenge against the wolves at one point but Adrian had let the pain destroy every part of him. She doubted there was any humanity left in him at all. Redemption seemed a hopeless wish for such a lost cause of a man.

“This is the Adrian?” Sasha questioned, looking at the man before him.

“And you must be the famous Sasha. Trina failed to mention you were…this pretty. Can I call you gorgeous?” The side of his lips quirked into a pleasant smile, one meant to charm any woman. For a split of a second, a thought crossed her mind. If this moment hadn’t been in the middle of such a tense situation, or people hadn’t died because of the man before her or he wasn’t the asshole he was proving to be, she’d have perhaps fallen for that charming smile, good looks and flirty personality. For just a one night-stand of course.

“Absolutely not,” She said, brushing past him and moving further away from the two siblings. She was not about to get caught in the middle of some intense sibling rivalry. God knows she already had enough on her plate. It didn’t help that she was low-key mad at him for not stopping the war when he had the chance. Trina would still be alive if it wasn’t for this prick.

“I guess I need to brush up on my flirting. You think your friend is a chocolate and flowers kind of girl or more of Netflix and smash?”

Unable to contain her rage, she slapped him hard on the face, “Trina died, Adrian and you still won’t let her be in peace, would you? What the fuck are you doing here at her grave?”

“Okay. That slap was an unnecessary and second, in case it slipped your memory, your friend was mature enough to pick my side in that war. Unlike you, she wasn’t a coward and knew I had the better chance at winning,”

“And look where that got her. Still doesn’t answer the question of what you are doing at her grave,” she crossed her arms, her eyes boring down on her twin brother.

“Maybe I give a fuck about the soldiers I’ve lost,” he shrugged non-chalantly.

“Soldier?” she benefitted him with a look of ridiculousness patched on her face,” Trina was not your fucking soldier Adrian. She was my best friend and you took her away from me. God, I begged you to quit this madness but you were hell bent on becoming the exact monster Carson White is!”

“First of all, I’m nothing like Carson. I don’t walk into people’s houses and slaughter their families in cold blood. The wolves know damn well they deserved it all,” his eyes darkened with anger but his voice remained relatively even, “You think I’m to blame for her death? How about you? Those werewolves and witches you were defending were all the bad guys. All you had to do was pick my side and Trina would still be alive,”

“A-Alive? Right,” she paused, shaking her head, “Do you even know how she died? Because I’ll tell you. It was to save me,” she felt the tears coming along with the pain, “She died so I would live even though I have no right. Those people you call allies, they came at me. That fucking Darius came at me and Trina...,” she trailed off, the words getting caught in her throat.

For a second, she thought she saw a different emotion, probably a pained one, cross Adrian’s eyes but he was quick to put back his neutral face, acting nonchalant.

“You are not some hero, Nadia. Deal with it and when you finally come back to your senses, I’d be happy to welcome you home,” He brushed past her, leaving Nadia standing completely baffled. How could that man be so cold? Was he really the twin brother she was so close to growing up?