by Amelia Jade
Her eyes met his, glacial blue against jade green, and he saw recognition flicker in hers.
“You know,” she said without preamble.
“I know about your adoptive parents,” he said, not wanting to play games or risk a miscommunication. “I know why you’re here in Fenris, why you hold the position you do. Hell, I know you lied to me yet again. So, now I would like to know why I should continue to trust you.”
Cassi had gone pale when he’d mentioned her parents, and had gotten progressively whiter as he spoke.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
“I’m hearing that a lot from you. I’d prefer to have heard the truth once, instead of half a dozen lies that you only cop to once they’re exposed. I’d hoped you weren’t like most of the people I’ve met from Fenris, but it turns out you’re just like them.”
“Don’t say that,” she pleaded. “Don’t say that. I’m sorry.”
“How many times am I going to accept your apology?” he said, his voice so calm he could tell the lack of anger was beginning to scare her. He was furious, but screaming at her wouldn’t do anything besides create a scene.
“I don’t know,” she said helplessly.
“Me neither.” He shook his head violently. “I thought we had something special. I felt, hell I still do feel things for you. But how can I trust you if you keep lying to me?”
Her eyes shimmered with liquid, but to her credit nothing fell down her face as she held them back.
Cassi opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand, suddenly tired.
“Not today. No more today. I need to distance myself, to clear my head.”
“What am I supposed to do?” she asked as he turned on his heel and began to walk away before he said something he regretted.
“I don’t know. Go ask your brother for advice,” he shot back.
It was a cheap shot, but he didn’t care. Blaine was sick and tired of her lies and half-truths. That wasn’t his way, and he didn’t care what her reasoning was.
He walked off into the late afternoon light, forcing himself not to look or turn back. He needed some time to just let it be.
Chapter Fourteen
Cassian
The tears finally did fall as she watched Blaine walk away from her, his spine ramrod straight, muscles flexed in anger.
She’d fucked it up with him, again.
She should have told him earlier, instead of taking the easy out and leaving the room. It would have taken ten seconds to tell Blaine that she was Garviel’s adoptive sister. That they had been family for the first few decades of her life.
The pair hadn’t been overly close, as there were nearly three centuries between them, but he had helped her out a lot in his early days, before he began to develop into who he was now. Cassi hadn’t liked his new group of power-hungry friends and the way they acted toward others. So she’d distanced herself, removing records and changing her last name.
Although she’d been as thorough as she could, it was obvious now that at some point a Cadian spy had gotten hold of her information and transmitted it back. Blaine must have been digging, trying to figure out who would attack them, and had come across that information.
Cassi cursed herself for not telling him sooner.
Now what was she supposed to do?
His last words echoed through her head.
Shit.
Before she realized it, Cassi found her feet carrying her off in the direction of the Guardian Headquarters, where Garviel was being held. She should have gone and seen him immediately upon arriving in Cadia, but for some reason she hadn’t.
Perhaps a part of her had feared that people would recognize her as his sister, instead of the fact that she was there as part of his counsel. Cassi wasn’t sure, but she’d avoided going there. Now she could do so no longer.
The guard at the front desk checked her against his list of approved people and then guided her down a flight of stairs without delay. The walls faded from a calm, relaxing beige to a stark white as they went, the concrete bare and highlighted under the harsh glow of the overhead lights, also a brilliant white. There wasn’t a hint of naturalness to them.
It must be hell for him down here.
“There are cameras, but no audio,” the guard informed her. “So you can talk in private, but we will see you if you try to do anything to set him free. You don’t want to do that.”
Something about the unthreatening manner in which the guard said the words, as if it were not a boast, but a simple certainty, made Cassi shiver. Not that she’d had any intentions of forcing an escape to begin with, but whatever the method was, this man wasn’t about to hesitate when it came to dispensing whatever force he deemed necessary to stop them.
“Got it,” she muttered.
The sound of her voice stirred something from within the small cell a few steps farther down the hallway.
“Cassian,” came the hollow, haunted voice.
“Garviel,” she replied, her voice suddenly unsteady as she forced herself forward, one foot and then the other.
“I was wondering if you were ever going to come see me,” the voice rasped.
“Well, here I am,” she said, stepping into view, careful to keep herself away from the bars themselves.
“At last.”
“At last,” she agreed, falling silent.
“Aren’t you going to gloat?” he asked with a wan smile.
“No. If I wanted to do that, I would have stayed back in Fenris and sent a Get Well Soon postcard.”
Garviel laughed, a deep, thundering sound that echoed around the cell and then escaped out in her direction.
“Now that would have been funny,” he mused.
“I’m sure you would have howled,” she deadpanned.
Garviel arched an eye at her, but didn’t respond.
“Why’d you do it?” she asked after the silence had stretched on long enough.
“What, not even going to ask me if I did it? Just jumping to the conclusion already?”
Cassi snorted in disbelief. “Fuck you. Don’t play me for some braindead fool. Anyone with half a brain knows you did it. Your only hope of getting out of here is either pleading insanity, or Fenris threatening to declare all-out war if Cadia locks up one of their own.”
Garviel looked at her curiously.
“What?” she asked.
“Not one of ‘our’ own? But one of ‘their’ own?” he asked. His eyes seemed to bore into her, as if he could read her thoughts.
Cassi turned away, unable to meet his gaze.
“What is going on, dear sister?”
“Oh, so now I’m your sister again? After close to a century of ignoring me, pretending I didn’t exist, simply because I was a political liability? Now that you’re in need you think you can just become close to me once more? I don’t think so,” she snapped in a frosty tone.
“No,” he said, deflating as she tore a strip off of him. “Not because I’m in need.”
“You’re serious,” she said, her voice dulled by shock.
“I am. I say it now, because I mean it. I have…done things, that I realize now were…” he paused, searching for words. “Wrong. That single word doesn’t truly do it justice, but it is nonetheless accurate.”
Cassi was stunned. Garviel never admitted wrongdoing. Never.
“What happened to you?” she asked softly.
“I was given the ass-kicking of a lifetime by a half-trained nobody.” Garviel spoke as if it still surprised him that it had happened. “Since then I’ve sat in here, with nothing to do but talk to the guard, and contemplate my own life.”
He gave her a sad look, leaning up against the bars now even as she rested with her back against the far wall.
“So what did you learn?” Cassi found herself unsure if she wanted to hear the answer to that question, yet needing to hear it at the same time.
“I’ve learned that while people like me exist here in Cadia, they are the excep
tion. Not the norm. Whereas people like you,” he said with a wry smile. “They are much more the norm.”
Cassi froze, unable to move, stunned at how similar their minds seemed to be working.
“I was going to tell you this when you first arrived,” he continued. “But you refused to see me, or even speak to me.”
“I see.”
“So, I’ll save you the trouble, dear sister. I’ve decided that I will retract my non-guilty plea, and will agree to a reduced sentence. I hope when it’s all said and done, that I can prove that I am reformed enough that they will let me stay.” He smiled. “That should make your job much easier.”
“You’re going to stay?” she asked hoarsely, her mind elsewhere.
“Fenris is rotten, Cassi. To the very core, it has become corrupt. An apple withering away at the end of the branch. Its time will come soon, though I suspect it won’t go down easily.”
Garviel stared at her.
“You’ve learned this too, I suspect. You always were quicker on the uptake than I am with things like this. How did you come to learn the truth?”
Her eyes rose from the floor slowly to meet his, and Garviel saw the truth.
“Oh no. Cassi. You fell for someone, didn’t you?”
Despite herself, she nodded. “What do I do?” she asked helplessly, no longer the strong Frost Dragon that society expected her to be. Instead she was simply a younger sister looking up to her brother, seeking his advice.
“Is he a good man?”
“He’s a great man,” she whispered, tears springing to her eyes. “And the lies, the lies that Fenris taught me to tell, that I refused to reject, have sent him off in a different direction I fear.”
Garviel was silent for a moment. “There’s something else I’ve learned about most of these Cadians, sister.”
Cassi inhaled slowly, eyes closed. “What is that?’ she asked, wondering where he was going.
“They have a capacity to forgive that far surpasses anything we’ve ever experienced in Fenris. If this man is truly as important as your eyes say he is, then he will forgive you.”
“He walked away from me the last time I saw him, saying that he needed time to think. Alone.”
Garviel nodded. “He wants you to come to him, to make the effort to prove you’re sorry. He won’t seek you out any more, Cassi. You have to make the effort now.”
He sat back onto the bench in his cell, withdrawing from the bars.
“Go, Cassi. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Be true to yourself. Be true to your dragon.”
She didn’t move. It was too much. The astounding changes in her brother, the revelation that he saw things the way she did. The truth about Blaine.
“GO!” Garviel thundered, slamming himself into the bars as his voice pounded at her. “Don’t waste your opportunity like I did!”
Cassi was halfway to the stairs before she remembered something.
“Thank you!” she shouted back down the hallway.
Garviel simply chuckled, but she was gone before he could say anything more. Her feet carried her up the stairs three at a time. She blew past the guard desk and was outside in a flash, feet pounding the cobblestones as she took off in the dark for Blaine’s place. Above she could see thunderheads moving in swiftly, blocking out any last bits of gloom from the long-set sun.
Blaine. She had to find Blaine.
Chapter Fifteen
Blaine
His mind was bouncing all over the place as he strode through the calm streets. The sun was setting already, disappearing fast over the mountains, and people were heading home. Above the clouds were darkening. A storm was coming in with the night.
He turned a corner onto his street, heading for home. The gust of wind that hit him caught him off guard, forcing Blaine to angle his body forward so he could push through it.
The storm wasn’t going to wait. Overhead the thick black clouds rushed in toward the mountain, where they began to pile up. Even as he watched, lightning began to flicker deep within. They were perhaps minutes away from a powerful storm unleashing itself on them.
Up ahead a familiar figure walked somewhat unsteadily, buffeted by the increasing winds, brilliant white hair flying wild and making her easily identifiable to him.
He smiled as she swayed to one side in the wind, easily recovering herself and continuing on. Cassi was headed for his house as well. Perhaps she was coming to apologize.
Blaine’s anger had worn off by then. He’d needed some time to himself, to let it go and hope that she would come try to make things right. His dragon, and his heart, were certain that she was his mate. But they needed to be truthful with each other if they were going to go any further, and so far Cassi hadn’t been honest with him. Still, he was willing to give her one more chance.
The smile died as his eyes told him something was amiss.
Another flash of lighting in the sky behind Cassi illuminated much of the night sky.
Except for a very specifically shaped section of it.
“Get down!” he roared, charging forward suddenly, engaging the superhuman strength reserves in his legs to power himself through the wind like it was barely blowing.
Cassi looked up and saw him coming.
And she did the one thing he didn’t want her to do.
She stopped.
Blaine pointed frantically to the sky, even as he reached inside himself, finding the ball of contained green power. He knew his eyes would be glowing jade dots in the onrushing darkness as he continued his headlong run toward Cassi.
She had finally picked up on his warning and was running forward.
If his hunch was correct, the dragon swooping down on them in a strafing run was a Fire Dragon like the first attack. Blaine’s power couldn’t stop the fire itself. He would have to try something else.
Summoning his mental strength, he trapped his dragon’s inner power and channeled it in front of him. A ball of green appeared between his hands, growing darker and more ugly as he exerted his willpower forcefully over his other half, taking what he needed, and giving nothing. Now was not the time to be nice. He had a precious moment for this to work, or else he and Cassi would be incinerated. There was no time to complete the change.
He focused on the raging ball of green fumes between his hands, and with a full-throated yell he hurled it into the path of the oncoming dragon, before turning and shielding Cassi with his own body.
The Fire Dragon’s strike lashed out, brilliant red-orange flame lighting the cobblestones in front of them as it drew nearer.
It wasn’t going to work, he could tell.
The green ball exploded into a huge sphere of toxic gas that the Fire Dragon flew straight through. The fire died out just before it struck him as the attacking dragon screamed in agony, the gas seeping in through its eyes, ears, mouth, and anywhere else it could touch, triggering all sorts of reactions.
On the ground, the superheated cobblestones exploded even as the fire died out, and the blast of that along with the force of heat from the abruptly cut off cone of fire reached out and battered Blaine, hurling him forward. Cassi fell to the ground with a cry even as he took the brunt of it, flying through the air until he landed hard on his shoulder, bouncing and rolling, unable to control his fall as he was stunned from the blast.
He reached the end of the street and flipped up in the air, through the glass window, and coming to an abrupt halt as he smashed into a metal-framed table that bowed inward under the blow of his body.
“Blaine!” he heard someone scream, and moments later an apparition appeared, covered in minor cuts and scrapes that all dripped blood to cover much of her skin.
Cassi was alive.
He thanked his stars it had worked, and then blacked out.
***
He came to an unknown amount of time later. The world bounced around him jarringly, forcing Blaine to screw his eyes shut for a moment as he tried to come to his senses.
It was at that point t
hat he took stock of his body, all limbs and digits accounted for, thankfully. He also became aware of two extremely strong arms wrapped around him, holding him in the air.
So that’s why the world is bouncing. Someone is running with me in their arms.
“I’m okay,” he said.
Or tried to say. It sounded to his ears like a mishmash of sounds, none of which sounded remotely like anything intelligible. He must be in worse shape than he thought. He tried to remember just how badly the blow had hurt him, but he couldn’t. It had happened too quickly.
Nothing felt broken, however, so it must just be a lot of bruising, cuts, and generally being shaken up from taking such a close blast of Dragonfire.
It had to be the exploding cobblestones that had done the worst of the damage to his skin. Flying through the window and into the table would account for the pain he felt in his back and a few other places.
“Ow,” he said as the pain began to register sharply. That came out clear enough, and suddenly Cassi’s face loomed over him as she looked down at him in concern.
Rain began to splash on his face. One droplet landed directly in his eye and Blaine thrashed his head back and forth violently in surprise. The motion caused stars to shoot across his eyes, almost blacking him out. Cassi cussed at him in a quite unladylike, although extremely impressive and variable, manner, telling him to remain still.
“Good idea,” he agreed weakly, the burst of pain draining him of much of his returning strength.
“That’s why I told you to do it, you blind fool,” she cursed. The bouncing intensified momentarily, and he realized they were climbing stairs.
They were at his place.
“What about the dragon?” he asked as Cassi fumbled with the lock.
His strength and senses were returning to him as his dragon powers took over. Blaine reached inside of himself and tapped into the wellspring of power that was there, letting a bit of his dragon infuse his body.
The world snapped into focus as energy coursed through his veins, blasting pain and exhaustion from him in a hurry. Muscles twitched with barely constrained fury as he stood on his feet, pulling her into a quick embrace, his lips covering hers.
