Chapter Nineteen
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Olline was not avoiding Casimir. Nope, definitely not. She was just busy.
That was, mostly, not a lie actually, so that was a pleasant surprise.
With the last of the files in the transfer queue, she needed to assemble the new server. It didn’t matter anymore, the new server, but pretenses were vital at this stage. Moreso after the plethora of threatening messages Karter had sent about her not logging out when she left, of falling dangerously behind on the quota system. The excuse of staying home and using her magic to make the hardware was the only thing that kept him from sending someone like Brayden to her home and dragging her back to the office. Regardless, she did like using her magic on hardware components, so it was win-win. Well, except if she were to walk away from all of this corruption, they would strip her wages, take away her home, and she would be jailed if she couldn’t pay the bonus back, making her an easy target for Etzel to scoop up once again.
Minor details.
Olline’s chest tightened with guilt about not going to the office. She would miss out on lunch with Briallea, but hopefully the woman would be forgiving. Of course, it was possible Briallea was part of Etzel’s schemes, but she really hoped not.
Taking a deep breath, Olline sunk down to the floor of her living room to work. She needed to focus on the task at hand, and that meant pretending that everything was normal and fine. It was tricky, convincing the elements to do what she wanted, and not what nature made them. Moreso when she was drained from using her magic at Refractory, and distracted by the bleak reality of her and Casimir’s situation. Which meant, Olline decided, that she could not see or speak to Casimir. She couldn’t, not if she wanted to have any hope of doing her job. With all her communication devices switched to privacy mode, one holo-tablet set to the live conference feed to monitor Etzel in the background, she attempted to sink into a creative hole.
She had hoped that her focus would become sharper as time put a healthy distance between her and the . . . act Casimir had performed at Refractory. By the next afternoon, however, a whole thirty-six hours and some change later, her focus was no better, even if she had forgotten to switch her devices off privacy mode.
Olline could still feel the pressure of his hips, the phantom caresses of his hands and fingers, the sharp scrape of his teeth against her skin. If she let her mind wander, her day would be spent in bed, curled around the fantasy with her hand between her legs.
Whenever that urge hit, and it was embarrassingly often over that day and a half, she switched gears. If she couldn’t avoid thinking of him, she might as well be practical about it. She set her mind and magic to working on a secret gift. When she would give it to him, she didn’t know. That partially depended on when she finished with its creation (she was pretty much done, but she liked being positive about such things first), and partially on their circumstances. For now, it stayed hidden in her room where she could work on it in spurts of activity when her imagination and the memory of the club got to be too overwhelming.
Which was a totally normal reaction to have. And she would tell herself that, repeatedly, until she believed it. It wasn’t working yet, but she was optimistic.
The jade and lime green philodendron and moss and emerald pothos around her apartment rustled as if rolling eyes they did not have. Olline glared at the verdant vines. “Hush,” she snapped. “I refuse to be judged by things I created.”
With the last of the passwords cracked, outside of Casimir’s, Olline could start disabling the chips and move the files she had access to, to a safe location. But she didn’t know what to do with those files once they had them all. Or, Olline didn’t, more aptly. Casimir still brought up the possibility of using the documents for himself, in order to take Etzel’s influence and use it for good. But that wasn’t an actual option for Olline. She didn’t want to risk transferring and spoofing the chips and their attached folders until they had that part of the plan established.
She needed to get her priorities straight, but she couldn’t. Not when it came to Casimir. Much like her contract, Casimir seemed too good to be true. Yet that didn’t stop her from wondering what would happen next. If there could be an after for them. Because, with a sinking clarity that had her body buzzing, Olline knew she wanted to be more than friends.
As she began connecting the wires for the new server, she went back to their first meeting. How he had been outside her office door not long after the chip had stopped receiving a signal. Then there was what Bode said, too. Something about it itched at the back of her mind, and she tried to remember exactly what he had said, and Casimir’s response. Perhaps it was finally time to ask Casimir more about Bode. Without looking, Olline took her devices off privacy mode . . .
Buzz! Buzz!
She glanced at her wrist-comm, expecting it to be Casimir, but it wasn’t, though she noted the alarmingly high number of missed calls and messages. It was her father trying to reach her. Olline winced. She never responded to him after she promised she would enjoy Antal and not spend all her time tied to her job.
Her stomach twisted into knots, guilt clawing at her ribs. Olline closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and answered.
Zachery Tavos’s face winked into view, a hazy holo-projection over her wrist-communicator. He blinked, orienting himself with where to look. When his gaze settled on her, his usually solemn face split into a wide grin, making his grey-blue eyes twinkle.
“Olline, sweetheart! There you are! I was starting to worry. How is everything? Are you ready to come back home yet?” He meant it good-naturedly; a typical joke fathers were supposed to make when their last child left the nest. But there was a genuine kernel of hope humming through his tone that he couldn’t completely mask.
Olline had to stifle a sigh before replying. “Everything’s good, Dad. I’m good, Antal’s great. I’ve only been here like a week. I’m still settling in.”
Saying it out loud, Olline had to suppress a shiver. They had three full days left before Etzel returned to the Government Plaza. Three days for Olline to crack Casimir’s file so she could finally see the blueprints of his old chip and could, theoretically, make it permanently inert, like her killware would do for the newer devices. It was possible they wouldn’t even have that time, if Etzel got what he wanted from the other board members early. She didn’t bother to mention any of that though, nor the details of her contract that made leaving and moving back home impossible, even if she had wanted to.
Even considering the danger, she didn’t want to leave. If Olline was being perfectly honest with herself, Casimir was a big part of that desire to stay, but not the entirety of it. She had made Antal into a place where she put herself first for once, and she wasn’t willing to sacrifice that. But she didn’t think she could tell her father that, or about Casimir yet. Not when she was still trying to make sense of her own feelings.
“Well, then, I hope that means you’ve at least taken my advice,” Zachery responded, unable to hide the slight huff in his voice. “I hope you’ve ventured beyond that posh apartment of yours and carved out more spare time for yourself. Time,” he added quickly, “spent on something besides fiddling with your little plants.”
This time, Olline did roll her eyes. “For the record,” she said in the bored tone that had become a habit each time he made an offhand comment about her plants, “working on my plants is important to me. I enjoy it. It makes me feel good, Dad. We’ve been over this.”
He waved her comment off and motioned for her to continue. She sighed, and carefully told him what she had done, what she had seen since the last time they spoke. She left out all mentions of Etzel to be on the safe side, and she absolutely did not mention a single word about the club she and Casimir went to almost two days ago.
She couldn’t avoid telling her father a little about the mysterious seerani she met, though. Of the magical places he had taken her to that were safe to share with her father, at least. She found that the longer she spoke, the more she shared, the more she smiled, the more her skin tingled, imagining Casimir’s arm around her waist.
She trailed off, lost in the memory of the artists’ club Casimir had taken her to, the one that looked so much like his tiny apartment. Her father’s low chuckle snapped her out of it. She blinked, slowly returning to the present, to see her father beaming back at her from the holo-projection.
“My little girl’s found someone. You truly like this boy, don’t you, Olline?” Zachery said, nothing but happiness in his words. “So, when do I get to meet him? And what’s his name again?”
Olline’s cheeks burned. She had purposely not told her father Casimir’s name.
She rubbed the back of her neck, gnawing on her lip as she thought. With a shrug she said, “He found me, is more like. But I don’t know if you’ll ever meet him, Dad. Things are . . . complicated, I guess.”
“Anything worthwhile is always a little complex, sweetheart,” Zachery said, his tone just shy of patronizing. She narrowed her eyes, and his shoulders slumped in response. “I merely mean that you shouldn’t question your heart when it comes to joy. I know from experience. My marriage with your brother’s mother no longer brought joy, had turned toxic.” Olline’s eyes widened to hear her father talk so candidly about his first wife, but he waved her surprise away. “I’ve made that no secret, especially to your brothers. It helped explain the pleasure I found in your mother and my decision to remarry. I think, anyway. But my relationship with your mother was complicated. How could it not be? I was the humani father of two infant seerani boys whose biological mother would outlive us by centuries. But what your mother and I had was special. She was worth all the . . . complicated days and feelings we had over the next few decades of our lives together. Even with your mother gone and at peace now, I love her still. She’s my joy.”
Her father trailed off, staring into the distance before he gave himself a shake and came back to the present. He smiled at her a little sadly and shrugged. “My point, sweetheart, is this person has brought you happiness through these excursions. If he’s found a way to connect to your soul through the things you enjoy most, then perhaps he’s worth all the difficulties he comes with?”
Olline chuckled dryly. “That’s a bit idealistic, Dad. And that’s saying a lot coming from me. It removes the weight of those so-called difficulties, ignores all the baggage and what that heaviness could do to any potential future.” She sighed, shaking her head. “It’s a pretty idea, Dad. But that’s all it is. It’s a fantasy. Unfortunately for me, I’m stuck in reality.”
Zachery frowned, his bushy brows pinching together, ready to argue, when there was a knock at Olline’s door. An actual knock. Not a buzz on her wrist-comm or on one of her tablets asking to be let into the building. But someone outside of her door. Right now .
Olline’s face went slack, her heart racing. “Olline?” Zachery asked, suddenly worried by her expression. “What’s the matter?”
She didn’t know. No one should have gotten to her front door without alerting her in some capacity first. So, whoever was there, whatever they wanted, it couldn’t be good. But Olline also didn’t want to worry her father.
“Nothing, Dad. It’s nothing. I’ve got to go. Work stuff.”
“Are you sure everything’s all right?” Zachery pressed.
The mystery person knocked again. Olline shook her head and forced a grin she prayed was enough to fool her father through the holo-projection. “Yup! All good. I’ll catch up with you later, Dad. Bye!” She disconnected before he could interrupt her again, before she had to lie to her father even more.
Olline stared at the door, hoping that maybe, just maybe, whoever was there got the wrong apartment and had learned their mistake by now and wandered off.
The knock came again, three loud taps, more insistent than before.
Trepidation coursed through her as she slowly got to her feet and padded toward the door, her magic prepped and humming beneath her skin. It had been over forty hours now since they left Refractory behind. Surely, if she had tripped some alarm, Etzel’s muscle would have come crashing down on her before now?
The purple passion plant by her door arched its jagged, spade shape leaves forward, the purple hairs hardening and ready to strike should Olline command it to. Swallowing the boulder in her throat, she flipped the opacity setting on her door, letting her see who was there without them seeing her in return. Her heart lurched into her throat, replacing the boulder, and her breath hitched in her chest.
Casimir was gripping her doorframe.
She disengaged the locks and threw her door open, staring at the seerani with wide eyes. “What? How?” Olline stuttered, quickly looking up and down the hallway, hoping no security drones or delivery bots noted Casimir. She grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. Kicking the door shut behind them, she prayed no one noticed the world-endingly attractive man hanging around outside her door, knocking of all the inane things. “Do you know how risky it is for you to be here? So soon after,” she trailed off, her skin scorching in the places he touched not even two days ago.
Casimir brushed past her, prowling through her apartment, movements jerky like he was looking for something. He went to the kitchen, sniffed at the old coffee in her antique coffee-maker, shifted one of the many cups around, rotated the jars with her gem-colored succulents, huffing and mumbling all the while. Finding nothing, he stalked back to her and gripped her shoulders, searching her face as if making sure she was truly there. Her chest heaved, unable to breathe through her confusion and rising anxiety around his sudden appearance.
He tilted his head to the side, his gaze sliding from her face to settle on her plants—which quivered in response to her agitation. Casimir inhaled deeply, his hands flexing on her shoulders, gripping her tightly before letting his hands slide away. Her plants calmed, the leaves gently swaying, and it wasn’t until everything settled down that Casimir diverted his attention away, rubbing his face with his trembling hands.
“Why weren’t you answering my messages?” Casimir bit out, voice dark with quivering anger.
She flinched. “Sorry, I had everything in privacy mode so I could focus. But you didn’t have to risk exposure coming here, Cas.”
“I was careful. But I couldn’t . . . I had to risk it to check on you, ” he said, voice tremulous.
Her breath hitched a little. She had never seen Casimir this unsettled before and she didn’t know what to do, or really understand it. She waved her hand at the devices on the floor. “Karter was acting suspicious, so I had to do work or else, well, it’s fine now. I didn’t mean to worry you.” Olline brushed invisible dust off her clothes, hoping that would remove the warmth she felt from him worrying over her safety. Casimir’s shoulders lowered as the tension bled away from him. Crisis averted; she narrowed her gaze at him. “How’d you even bypass the building’s security?”
He walked away, his movements becoming more graceful as he went. The manic energy from before was gone by the time he got to her living room, where he plopped down on her couch. Casimir lounged with his arms spread along the back, his body angled as if inviting her to curl up in the crook of his arm, sprawled against him.
“You, my dear, put far too much faith in your front desk clerk. Really, one little smile, and the man probably would have gotten on his knees and sucked my cock if I’d asked. A few suggestive words and he let me come straight to you all on the sweet little lie that I wanted to surprise my darling Olline. Well, it wasn’t a lie, but I wasn’t going to clarify the specifics to him, now was I?”
Olline’s heart fluttered, but she forced it to settle lest it trigger her magic and make the plants react once again. Besides, he hadn’t really admitted to anything, just a sweet half-truth, like what he used to get up to her floor. Her eyebrows pinched together, her mouth set in a thoughtful line as she looked at him, still sprawled on her couch.
Olline refused to move closer. She refused to be the one to bring up all those gentle caresses, his erection against her back, the flirting and desire she saw that looked and felt too real to be part of a cover story. She figured that, if it truly meant more, he would say something.
She refused to acknowledge how badly she wanted him to say something .
He watched her in return for a moment before he sighed. “I did tell you that was one reason I was attractive to Etzel all those years ago, Olline. My charm has always been a part of me. But a century of using it for manipulating others . . . well, it’s second nature now.”
Olline’s heart cracked a bit at that, and she lowered her arms. She took a step closer, but stopped. That itchy feeling in the back of her mind returned, wanting her attention, for her to focus on something, though she couldn’t quite grasp exactly what. It was on the tip of her tongue—
“But, like I said, the reason I’m here right now,” Casimir drawled, interrupting her train of thought, “is you weren’t answering your wrist-comm. At best, you wished to avoid me, which would have crushed my ego but would be much preferable to one of Etzel’s goons visiting you instead.” His gaze became slightly pained again, softening the edges of his face. With a start, she realized it was relief she was seeing. It was only then she fully realized how worried not answering his messages had made him. Warmth was flooding his eyes even as he asked, “You are all right, aren’t you?”
She felt the tension unwinding from her body. Olline moved to the couch, perched on the edge, and resisted the urge to lay against his side. She put her hand on his knee. Even through his clothes, the feel of his muscles was electric, and she wondered if he felt it too as he sat up straight and faced her.
“I’m fine, Cas. I didn’t mean to worry you. I was just . . . busy.” She glanced again at the hardware strewn about her living room table and hoped he didn’t notice her hesitation.
His eyes flicked to the table briefly, a slight frown on his face. “I was worried I’d chased you away. That the other night was, well, it goes a bit without saying, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Olline said with a playful grin. “I think you could say it. Just for clarity.”
Casimir chuckled. “You need me to tell you what is painfully obvious, my dear?”
Heat crawled up her neck, her hands suddenly clammy as her heart lodged itself in her throat. “We’re still getting to know each other, Cas. I wasn’t going to assume anything.”
Her breathing was rushed, her ears impossibly hot, and she realized her hand was still on his leg. Could she remove it without it being awkward? He hadn’t exactly moved her away, he didn’t even seem to notice. The placement of her hand suddenly felt much safer to think about than what she had said.
Olline wasn’t ready to have this conversation. But maybe her father’s words had gotten under her skin more than she realized. Maybe she was no good at staying busy enough not to want the bliss that came from having someone at and on her side.
“I don’t want you to . . .” He trailed off, a flash of worry shooting through his deep ruby eyes. Olline leaned forward, hoping he would continue, a silent plea in her gaze.
Either Casimir didn’t notice her look, or he ignored it. He shook his head, running a hand through his silver-white hair, and the moment was gone. Olline’s heart sank, her lungs shriveling, mourning the loss of something that never even took its first breath. Slowly, she pulled her hand back into her lap.
“The other reason I was so insistent on speaking to you now, Tav,” he said, a forced levity to his voice that brought back that slight manic tinge, “is that I believe I’ve found the perfect person to take Etzel’s horde of corruption and use it to end his career.” The subject change left her numb, blinking in confusion.
This expression, Casimir did apparently notice, as he grinned at her, almost hopeful. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about giving me access to it instead?” Casimir suggested. Olline sucked in a ragged breath, ready to bring up her now old arguments once again, when he held up a hand, stalling her. “Fine. Well, I suppose this is a fine enough option.”
He sat up straighter; the twinkle returning to his eyes. “I believe she’ll be the perfect person to ensure my—and all my coworkers —freedom. Permanently.”