“I will hear your words in two days,” Cassius said.
Visible relief swept through the man.
Mac moved to him and caught his upper arm, beginning to escort him from the room, but he stopped them when Cassius spoke again to the steward.
“It would be a shame, when you know what you do better than anyone in this city, to lose your knowledge and skills. Think on this, sir, in your two days, and how we will proceed after our chat.”
The man nodded fervently.
Mac pulled him away.
Cassius turned to watch but stopped watching when a beautiful woman with golden hair and flashing violet eyes came to stand in front of him in order to glare at him with her hands planted firmly to her slender hips.
And he was reminded how annoyed he was at not waking with her at his side.
“Was that necessary?” Elena demanded.
“What else have you done?” he inquired.
“Sorry?”
“Flowers in the foyer. A sofa that’s in the bloody way in our chambers. Aelia’s drawing. Truly, Elena, red pillows in the sitting room?”
“It’s a shock of color,” she muttered. “It works splendidly.”
“My warrior,” he said softly. “I appreciate the effort, but the gloom of this place cannot be dispelled by gladiolus.”
“Then you did not see them properly, my warrior, for it can.”
He looked beyond her to the stunning floral array.
The entrance hall was massive, the chandelier above it almost sinister in appearance.
But he could not deny that those spikes of lively blooms did transformed the space.
He looked back down to his future wife.
“I would prefer to wake to you at my side than wake alone as you’re off arranging flowers,” he shared.
The ire swept from her face, she took her hands from her hips and leaned into both at his chest, her lips curled up at the ends.
“I thought I exhausted you last night,” she said softly.
“I thought it was I who exhausted you,” he returned, curving his arms about her.
Her expression grew serious.
“I cannot falter in my mission, Cass,” she said. “I must attack it with great fervor and no respite. For you. And for our girls.”
Their girls.
He slid a hand up her spine, and when it reached the area between her shoulder blades, he pressed in, bringing her closer.
“We have more important battles on our hands,” he reminded her.
“No, we don’t,” she disagreed.
“Elena, they’re but flowers.”
However, should she stop in these pursuits, he would be certain to have that drawing of Aelia’s remain where it was.
And fresh roses put by Elena’s bedside daily.
“I have had a home all my life,” she said, bringing his attention back to her. “You have never had one. Thus, I understand. You do not know how important it is, Cass. But when I show it to you, you’ll understand. You’ll understand there is nothing more important. But for the now, you will just have to trust me.”
He did not understand, she was correct.
However, he was not allowed to continue what had become a rather pleasant discussion with her in his arms, her gaze gentle on his face.
This because a scream rent the air.
They both grew solid before they both flew into action.
When another scream came as they reached the top of the steps, and it was coming from the west wing, his father’s wing, and not the east, his, Cass’s stomach dropped.
“You stay here,” he ordered, still sprinting at the same time trying to push her back.
“Not on your bloody—”
Her last word was drowned out by another scream, this coming from his father’s chamber, but Horatia was scurrying toward them, both her hands up their way.
“It is a matter between husband and wife,” she said hurriedly when Cassius was forced to stop rather than bowl her over.
His head jerked toward his father’s door when he heard a thud.
He moved, Elena moving with him, to round Horatia, but she shifted to block them, putting her hands to Cass’s chest and pushing.
“It is not your concern, my prince,” she stated firmly.
“You’ll get out of my way,” he ordered.
“You have control of a kingdom, but you must understand, you’ll never have control of a man’s bedchamber,” she returned.
She was bloody wrong about that.
Especially when it came to what was happening right then in his father’s.
He did not take time to discuss that with her.
“You’ll get out of my way,” he repeated as another thud that came with a sharp cry of pain could be heard from his father’s rooms.
Horatia shook her head, increased her pressure on his chest, opened her mouth, but the only sound that came from it was her own cry of pain, but also surprise, as Elena rounded him, caught her by the hair, and used it to yank her to the side, where, arms flailing, she went flying.
“He said, you’ll get out of his way,” she snapped to his father’s wife.
Cassius did not wait for what came next between the two women.
He went to his father’s door, but when he turned the handle to let himself in, his shoulder slammed into it instead of it opening, for it was locked.
“Open this!” he shouted at the panel.
“Be gone!” his father shouted back.
“Open!” he barked.
He heard a noise within the room he could not decipher, except it was coming from a female and it did not bode well, and then he put his shoulder to the door with intent.
Elena did the same at his back.
Both of them pounded on it with all their might, and it shook in its jamb, but did not yield.
“What on earth is happening?” he heard Antonius ask.
“This is profane!” Horatia screeched.
“Back,” Cassius growled.
Elena stepped back, as did Cassius.
Then he lifted his boot, and with all the strength he had in his leg, kicked at the door.
Wood shrieked, and the door flew open.
At what he saw, at Elena’s horrified gasp, his blood ran cold, but his lips moved.
“Get her gone,” he ordered.
“By the gods,” he heard breathed and knew Ian had joined him.
“Get her gone!” Cassius yelled.
“Cass,” Elena called.
“Fucking hell.”
And they had Nero.
He turned in time to see his men dragging Elena, stunned inert, away, Horatia glaring at him, and Cornelia cowering off to the side, her back to the opposite wall.
He took hold of the door and threw it to, keeping his hand up to hold it shut for there was no longer a latch.
Then he turned to the bed where his father was, on his knees, a bloodied Domitia on all fours in front of him, receiving his cock.
“I’ll be done in a minute,” his father sneered at him.
He was doing this…this…in retribution for all Cass had done.
This.
He had done this.
Horatia was correct.
This was profane.
Cassius walked into the room.
Toward the bed.
“What—?” his father started.
Domitia had her head turned away from him in shame.
“I might not wish my son as audience,” Gallienus noted.
Cassius snatched up a woolen throw from the end of the bed, then gently placed his hands under Domitia’s arms and pulled her away.
“What the bloody—?” his father shouted.
He carefully put her to her feet on the floor, wrapped the throw around her and murmured, “Go. Now. Elena will take care of you.”
He saw it out of the sides of his eyes and caught the fist coming his way in his palm, his fingers wrapping around it tightening in a crushing grip.
His father mad
e a noise of pain.
“Go, now,” Cassius whispered to Domitia.
She kept her gaze averted from him, but he could see her eye already swelling, her nose and lip bleeding.
Blood was also coming from her ear.
“I thought the law now said I could say no,” she whimpered.
Cassius’s chest caved in.
“You thought right,” he replied.
She glanced up at him, and he could see blame in her hesitant gaze.
“Unhand me!” his father ordered.
Domitia flinched at the sound and rushed away, limping.
Cassius’s blood now burned.
“Unhand me!” his father shouted.
“Ian! Tone! Nero!” Cassius called, turning to look his father in the eyes.
Gallienus tried to get free of Cassius’s grip, but he just held tighter.
Gallienus ceased struggling and yelled, “Unhand me!”
“Cass,” Ian murmured.
“Arrest this man for rape,” Cassius commanded.
The room went static.
“Cass, are you sure?” Ian asked.
“You can’t arrest me!” Gallienus shrieked, attempting to gather the sheets around his hips with his free hand.
Cassius looked to him. “Would you like to lay a wager?”
“This is preposterous,” Gallienus spat. “Unhand me!” He jerked his hand in Cassius’s hold.
Cass let go and he fell to his arse in the bed.
“Arrest him,” he said.
“I’ll do it,” Nero said, moving in.
“Do not touch me!” Gallienus screamed, scrambling to get away. “I am your king. I am your monarch. I am your ruler. I rescind the Regency. I take back my reign!”
Cass did not watch.
He turned on his boot, saying, “Ian, help Nero. Tone, come with me.”
He went to the door where Horatia was still standing, glaring at him.
Cornelia was not to be seen, and he hoped she was with Elena, seeing to Domitia.
But Frey and Lahn were now out in the hall, Lahn looking angry, Frey looking lethal.
He took his gaze from them and turned to Horatia.
“Antonius, arrest this woman for abetting a rape,” he ordered.
Her eyes grew enormous, her face went ashen, and she started backing away.
“Wh-what?” she asked.
“I see I was not taken seriously when I heralded my first proclamations as this realm’s Prince Regent. Thus, it’s necessary I make my peoples understand, when my will is known, it will be obeyed. I do not thank you for giving me a powerful example to prove my determination. But as you have provided it, I will not waste the opportunity,” he told her, turned to Antonius and jerked his head her way.
Antonius moved.
“But…you can’t. He’s king!” Horatia cried.
Cassius put her out of his mind and looked to Frey.
“How long would it take for your dragons to make Airen?” he asked.
There was some racket as a king and his wife were forcibly removed from the area, but Frey gamely ignored it.
“They fly fast, not long.”
“I may need to make more examples,” Cassius said.
Frey nodded.
“Your wives?” Cassius asked the both of them.
“They were with us when she came out,” Frey told him, his mouth tight, making his words the same. “They went with Elena and Cornelia to see to her.”
Cass nodded and began to move to follow his men and assist them in dealing with what must be done.
Frey stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“Ruling through fear is risky,” he advised low.
“It worked for me,” Lahn stated, and Cassius shifted his eyes up to the Korwahkian king.
“And then you shifted to something else,” Frey reminded him.
Lahn shrugged. “I would give my son a peaceable kingdom. It is his mother’s wish.”
Frey sighed and took his hand from Cassius.
Cassius almost smiled, for it was not lost on anyone that anything Circe might wish would be something Lahn would see to her having.
He did not smile.
“I would give my daughters a safe kingdom,” he stated, and earned both men’s attention. “It is their right.”
And after he said that, he strode away.
It was late in the evening when she found him, standing on the ramparts, staring down at Sky Bay.
He felt her approach, and then he felt her hand at his back before she laid her cheek there and her other arm slinked around his stomach.
She held him even as she gave him some of her weight.
“Are you all right?” Elena asked.
“What else have you done?” he queried in return.
“Sorry?”
“To make this nightmare a home.”
She pressed closer to him and whispered, “Cass.”
“Tell me.”
“Well, the royal gardener has said it’s actually optimal to plant ivy in the autumn, so he has done so. And, erm…there may be quite a few wisteria vines come spring as well.”
Cass stared down at the lights in windows, streetlamps on avenues, dark smoke curling from chimneys in Sky Bay.
And he heard Elena’s words.
But he did not say anything.
She slid to his side, forcing herself under his arm. Therefore, he moved it for her as she pressed her front to his side, her hand gliding up to put pressure on his neck to look down at her.
He did so, seeing her peeking up at him from her place, wedged under his arm.
“You’re frightening me,” she said quietly.
He lifted a hand and smoothed it over her cheek before cupping her jaw, watching his hand’s movements, murmuring, “I wonder what your life would have been like, if the fates had allowed you to have True.”
She wound both her arms around him, shook him, and ordered, “Stop it.”
“You saw that,” he replied.
“So did you, and that’s what I’m worried about.”
“You saw my father raping his wife.”
She shook him again, harder. “Cass, I need you to focus on me.”
“Is she all right?”
A shadow crossed her face.
Domitia was not all right.
But then, how could she be? Without her consent, married to a man more than twice her age, used, abused, debased.
“Cassius,” Elena whispered.
“Flowers will not transform it, my beautiful warrior,” he whispered back.
At his words, she forced herself to his front and took his head firmly in both her hands.
“Bright always beats the dark,” she stated fiercely. “Do you not think one day Domitia will walk down those stairs, see flowers where they had never been before, know her torment is over, and this will not make her heart light?”
“Elena—”
“Do you not think our daughters, the ones we already have, the ones we will make, and our sons, will not play amongst the wisteria one day, having no idea that this place was once a nightmare? All they will know is it awash with blooms and life. And they will laugh at their father telling them tales of their mother arranging flowers and arguing with the steward over red cushions.”
It was a pretty picture, but one that he could not quite bring into focus.
“It is too simple a solution for a magnitude of problems.”
“Why does a difficult problem have to have a convoluted solution?” she asked.
He had no answer to that.
“Sometimes, the solution is missed, for those who search for it are looking for something grander, when what they need is right within reach.”
“I will make an example with the dragons, Elena,” he shared his simple solution. “If I hear aught of this continuing in my realm, I will rain fiery hell on the transgressors and cow them into submission if I have to.”
“And I will champion that decision, not because the oppre
ssors should be forced to understand how it feels to be cowed, but because that will be your decision, and I will stand by you.”
He stared down upon her.
With his head in her hands, she now gave that a gentle shake.
“We will do what we must, Cass, together.”
Gods, he loved her.
His shining warrior.
His magnificent princess.
He loved her to his bones.
Precisely where the terror lay.
The terror of losing her.
“Do not leave me abed alone in the mornings,” he whispered.
“If that is where you wish me, that is where I will be,” she whispered in return.
His head dropped so he could press his forehead to hers.
“I saw my mother like that,” he told her.
She slid her hands over his hair and linked them at the back of his head, holding him close. “I know.”
“It will be a spectacle, a king tried for rape.”
“It will be a message that cannot be missed.”
I would not know what to do if I lost you, he thought but did not say.
“Come inside. Come see Domitia.” When he visibly balked, she held on and encouraged, “Just share she is in your thoughts, and if she needs anything, you will get it for her. Then you can leave. We will have wine. We will go to bed. We will close our eyes and sleep and this day will be done.”
“And more flowers will be arranged in the foyer upon the new.”
“And perhaps the Great Hall will be cleared, for I might have commissioned a number of settees in a rather smashing silver brocade that will work wonders in brightening the space, and I hope, make it rather warm and welcoming for visitors.”
He could not believe it could happen, but it did.
He smiled.
He then shifted his head so he could touch his lips to hers.
After that, he shifted them both so he could guide her along the rampart to take her out of the cold.
“Cornelia is somewhat worried. She fears her loss of status here and that you will turn her out,” Elena announced, but before he could open his mouth to share that would not be so, she went on to say, “I have assured her that you would never do that, this is her home, until she wishes to make that elsewhere.”
“Just so,” he muttered.
“And there is a maid who I have found alternate employment in the city,” she carried on.
Cassius braced.
He then sighed.
“It is good employment and her wages will be higher than in the castle,” she continued. “However, if she does not wish it, I will find something else. Though, her choice will not be to remain here.”
The Dawn of the End Page 23
