I'm not a tattle-tit.

The boy frowned as his brother told him this was dad's punishment. Resin has promised not to tell, and Mortis believed her sincere. How had their father found out? Marshal? Dammit. That ruined Mortis's attempt to work this out between them. He knew Azure would resent him if adults got involved.

He fell silent for a moment, staring at the wood without stripping it, as though it held all the answers in its rough bark. Azure was speaking, his words angry and punctuated, and Mortis flinched. He felt it run through his body, and it was not subtle nor slight. He realised, at that moment, that he feared Azure now. He would never get that look out of his head, of his brother looking down at him, unflinching, uncaring, for the pain he had caused.

Mortis looked at the stick in front of him again, frowning heavily. “I want to believe you. Do you care, that you almost broke my leg?” he started to strip the bark again, even more aggressively then before.