“You knew what he was,” Aravis says, trying to block that selfsame knowledge from her mind, “and you did nothing.”
Khalid watches her with heavy-lidded eyes, dark and unfathomable in the dim lamplight, low as his voice, and says, “I knew he was cruel - who better to know that than a younger brother, I ask - and I knew he was rapacious, and a fool, a man without the wit to know who and what to fear, and would bring about his own downfall before I could have the pleasure.”
“And while I will not apologize for that, for letting that fire forge you,” he continues, sliding one hand into the dark tumble of her hair, bringing their foreheads to rest together, “I will say that this I know now as well - he did not appreciate the wealth he possessed,” and though he does not say to her, I am not my brother, she hears it nonetheless, spoken in every piece of fealty his hands pay out to her in love.
Let Me Try Once More (Narnia T&K!Verse, Aravis/Khalid)
Khalid watches her with heavy-lidded eyes, dark and unfathomable in the dim lamplight, low as his voice, and says, “I knew he was cruel - who better to know that than a younger brother, I ask - and I knew he was rapacious, and a fool, a man without the wit to know who and what to fear, and would bring about his own downfall before I could have the pleasure.”
“And while I will not apologize for that, for letting that fire forge you,” he continues, sliding one hand into the dark tumble of her hair, bringing their foreheads to rest together, “I will say that this I know now as well - he did not appreciate the wealth he possessed,” and though he does not say to her, I am not my brother, she hears it nonetheless, spoken in every piece of fealty his hands pay out to her in love.