Nothing

There are a hundred reasons why Kadaj is their leader, Yazoo thinks, but none of them have anything to do with sanity. Kadaj is, without a doubt, the most powerful and charismatic of the brothers. It is mesmerising to watch him speak before the children, his movements and voice filled with absolute confidence. Kadaj is the one who knows their purpose, their goal – who knows it, who feels it in his very bones. Loz and Yazoo can only feel the faint echoes of Kadaj’s certainty, a mere flutter compared to a gale. The feeling grows whenever they listen to him speak, lending them a stronger grip on something that they can only touch with their fingertips when alone. Yazoo wonders, however, whether it is this certainty of Kadaj’s which has made him so unstable. Even Loz, so sensitive even though he is the most physically imposing of them all, is more of a rock than their brother. In contrast to them both, Yazoo knows that he is the quiet one, the constant one. Their purpose circles around Kadaj and what Kadaj believes they should do next, but if Yazoo was not there with his calm and his silence, the brothers would have destroyed each other long ago. Kadaj does not need anyone – he refuses to – but he would tear himself apart if there was no one around to remind him of their purpose. Loz would serve as a reminder on his own, but then Loz would also break if he had to deal with Kadaj on his own. He is too sensitive, in need of a kind touch, and Kadaj is incapable of it – Loz protects the girl that Kadaj would have killed, after all. Yazoo does not fit on his own, either – he is too quiet, too undemanding, and does not have enough of an overt presence to give Kadaj the reminder he needs. Loz and Yazoo, on their own, are . . . incomplete. They need Kadaj, and it is only fortune that dictates that Kadaj needs them, too. Still, their brother is beautiful in the way a leopard is beautiful, Yazoo thinks, watching as Kadaj moves into the water. The barely contained power and violence there is breathtaking, and the way he switches from dark amusement to rage with the slightest provocation is terrifying. Yazoo does not like to think of what he and Loz would do without Kadaj. Loz is their heart, crying out at the absence of their mother. Yazoo is their head, calm and collected. But Kadaj is their life, raw and untamed and burning with passion, and without him— Without him, nothing.

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