46. Chapter 46
CHAPTER 46
Cassiel
T hat night, Cassiel couldn’t sleep. He was caught between waiting for Dyna's return and wondering if she ever would. His back was cold and stiff where he sat beneath the slit of a window, leaning over his bent legs as he watched the bars cast lined shadows on the floor.
There is a difference between justice and revenge. His uncle told him that once.
Perhaps he deserved to be here.
Cassiel circled the cell, testing that every bar was fused tight. It was recently built and made with enough space that it didn’t feel stifling. But how did she acquire Skath metal? How did she know where he would be and what he had been up to? Someone had been feeding her information.
Where was he? There was nothing in the old wine cellar but bland stone, a bed, a blanket, and a chamber pot for his shame.
The only window near the ceiling was no larger than a brick, and it provided no hint of his location. He could see nothing but grass and a patch of sky. There was no telling how long Dyna had kept him unconscious or how far she had taken him from Nazar. Evening light made its way in, leaving patterns on the floor for his only company with the thoughts that were loud in his head.
His boots scuffed the stone floor as he paced. Now he was trapped here while she could be killed at any moment. He kicked at the barred door, muttering a curse. That reminded him of the pins fastened into his boots. Cassiel yanked off his boot and felt around the gilded embellishments built into the counter above the heel, but he found nothing.
The pins were gone. Both of them.
Blinking down at the empty groves, half-manic laughter bubbled up his throat. He couldn’t help it. Cassiel ran his hands through his hair, pulling at his scalp until it stung. Clever girl.
He pitched his boot across the room, and it thudded violently against the wall across from him. Dyna knew him too well.
And she knew what this would do to him.
Clenching his shaking hands into fists, Cassiel forced himself to take a shallow breath. His chest felt too tight, and he was nauseous. It was an adequate punishment he told himself. If she left him in here to rot, who could blame her?
With a sigh, he leaned against the wall and slid down. His mind was a mess of memories from their past life and their present one. So many, some bright and some dark, some missing and so confusing, it made his head hurt.
He never did tell her the truth of who he was and why did this. Cassiel had thought he could erase it all by erasing them. But he should have known his stubborn, maddening, incredible mate would never let him get away with that.
He should have told her the truth. But he couldn’t because her answer would be the same answer Sheli gave.
He heard an echo of two voices melding together, both sets of green eyes looking at him with complete love. One was spoken in spring and the other in winter. “ Through the darkness and through the flame, I’m with you, kohav...”
He knew what waited at the end of that path. He couldn’t bear to witness the consequences again, so he had convinced himself leaving was the best thing for them.
The only thing he succeeded was making her hate him.
They all did. If Zev and Lucenna’s cold expressions were any indication.
None of them realized what danger she was in now. He had to get out of here. His Valkyrie had to be nearby. Yelrakel wouldn’t allow him to be taken, but the only one who could command her would be Dyna.
The Queen of Fire.
Never did she stop surprising him.
She was a marvel.
Her power had held up against him and Cassiel couldn’t help feeling awed. It also gave him hope that she really could defend herself against what was to come. But Sheli had also been powerful, and it didn’t stop her from falling to her death.
Cassiel winced at the horrid echo of the bond snapping in two. It was Kāhssiel’s pain, embedded so deep in his soul.
He couldn’t go through that again.
His entire body physically reacted at the thought. His stomach heaved, and his chest caved in as his vision darkened.
Cassiel pressed on his burning eyes.
He relieved their last day together as Dyna wept for him. He felt the shake in her hands, saw the shine in her wet eyes, pleading for not to leave her. Over and over his mind plagued him with the image of betrayal on her face when he rejected the bond.
He still felt that pain in his soul, like a wound that refused to heal. When he thought of her face that night, of all the cruel things he said, how much pain he caused her, it strangled him.
Cassiel’s legs buckled, and he slid down the wall with his back against it. At the time, he told himself he could live with her hate, but he had not been prepared to see it.
And it had brought him here.
Cassiel stared down at his hands blankly. A petal of seraph flame wove through his fingers. Blue light glowed against the wall, making the shadow stretch. So many had fallen to his fire. That had been easy to sink into. He could still taste it on his tongue and feel it like a current on his skin. It surfaced from within, rising like a beast of flame that urged him to eradicate all who defied him.
Maybe he had reason to fear you...
The way Lord Jophiel looked at him after he had nearly burned his brother alive had been one of fear.
Cassiel had been so caught up in righting wrongs and not allowing anyone to step on him anymore, he had become the one who stepped on others.
Go on, Cassiel, Malakel had told him. Show them who you are.
And he certainly had.
Cassiel wrapped his arms around his knees and dropped his head over them. Like Kāhssiel, he had good intentions when he came to this world. He only wanted to do right, and to love who he was meant to love. But he had been deceived and lost too much. Was he wrong to try to prevent that from happening again?
This had all been for Dyna, and she put a stop to it. Easily. Flawlessly.
He had often wondered why one Celestial would be given a True Bond while others weren’t. It hadn’t made sense to him before. What was the purpose of splitting a soul in two? Elyōn worked in mysterious ways, and not everything could be understood.
But he understood now.
The one to control your flame is not you.
They were tied together, fused like steel. Then he cut himself in half. Half a man. Half a soul. Half a heart.
Without her to fill those places, what else would he become but a monster?
The tread of soft footfalls interrupted his thoughts, and shadows moved across the wall. He looked up at the tiny window with sudden hope.
“Little Prince.”
Disappointment settled in the pit of Cassiel’s stomach. “Sowmya.”
Of course, it wasn’t her . Dyna didn’t want to see him. She could barely stomach looking at him.
“How are you, sire?” Sowmya asked.
“Well, I am trapped in a cage, lieutenant. How do you suppose I am?” He narrowed his eyes at her silence. “It was you, wasn’t it? Your meddling brought Dyna to Nazar. You deliberately disobeyed a direct order. I commanded you to never show yourself!”
“You also commanded me to protect your mate at all costs, sire. It came to the point that exposing my presence required that.”
There was something in her tone that made him pause. “Explain.”
Taking a seat beside the small window, Sowmya told him of all she had witnessed while watching over Dyna since he left. Her nightmares. Her long, brutal days of training. Her spiral into depression and use of Witches’ Brew. He felt sick as he silently listened to every danger she put herself in from jumping through the Druid’s portal to nearly getting herself killed on Tarn’s ship.
“When did she break the compulsion?” Cassiel murmured.
“That very night.”
He shut his eyes. Three months of living without each other and neither of them had been spared the agony. He left so she could live, but Dyna hadn’t been living. She had been merely existing.
Like him.
He did this to them.
How could he possibly think it was right?
He didn’t save her.
“I have been sent to ask if you have had enough time in here,” Sowmya said.
Enough time to decide if he would let his uncle go. Cassiel didn’t know if Lord Jophiel was innocent, but Dyna was right. Sentencing required a trial. Honestly, he didn’t have it in him to argue anymore.
He only wanted to see her. He couldn’t do that while kept here.
Cassiel sighed. “Do it. Notify Asiel of his father’s location and send a squadron on the Pegasai to release him from the dungeons. My uncle can await my summons in Hilos.”
“Yes, sire.”
“Will she come?” he asked, trying not to sound too anxious.
“I have not spoken to Her Highness. It is the wolf who sends her message. I was told you would be freed as soon as she sees Lord Jophiel leave his cell.”
Sees? How would she see? Unless Zev meant when she received word. Even with the speed of the Pegasai, the flight from here to Hilos would take a few days.
Sowmya forced a small burlap sack through the window, and he caught it before it hit the floor. “Sustenance. To keep up your strength.”
That alone told him he would be in here for a while more.
“Thank you, lieutenant,” Cassiel said, though he had no appetite for it. Tell Zev I want to see her.”
“I will attempt it, sire. He isn’t exactly fond of me.”
“Then say it to her directly if you must.” If he could only speak to her.
There was little chance Dyna would even listen to what he had to say, but if he could at least convince her that she didn’t have to fear him, then it would be enough.
“Her Guardians keep her under guard. I am not permitted near the main estate.”
“Estate?” Cassiel blinked up at the window. “Where are we?”
That should have been his first question. He looked around the wine cellar for any clues, but it was all stone and dusty barrels in the corner.
“Greenwood, sire. Sellav province. This appears to be the home of the elf.”
“Rawn…” His brow pinched with further confusion. Suddenly, Cassiel felt as if he held pieces of the story, and he was left to sort them through. “Why are they here? Tell me everything clearly.”
Cassiel listened in dismay as the lieutenant described the encounter with the Red Highland soldiers in Dwarf Shoe and Lord Norrlen’s capture. They had come here to notify his family, yet Dyna had been forced to step away from such a grave matter to deal with him .
As if he needed more reasons for her to despise him. Cassiel leaned against the wall, rubbing the tension at the center of his forehead. “Have you seen him?”
“Who, sire?”
Cassiel frowned. “Yelrakel must have told you about my spy. He goes by Netanel.”
Sowmya fell quiet, probably searching the sky or at the branches for any winged forms. “I see no one,” she whispered, lest someone hear.
“Netanel knows to remain out of sight, but he must be lurking somewhere about. If he comes, allow him through. I must speak to him.”
Another pause and then she said, “Sire, I...”
Cassiel wryly smiled. “Worried you will lose favor with the High Queen? I remember when you were once loyal to me.”
Sowmya’s boots shifted over the gravel as she stepped away. “I still am.”
Then he heard the soft swish of wings as she flew away.
Cassiel spent the rest of the day blankly staring the shadows, slowly climbing the walls as the sun lowered into the evening. He sat there for hours, repeating everything that had happened in that cell.
Her words. Her expressions. Her movements.
Around and around, his mind spun with Dyna’s face.
Never again.
He felt ill.
Maybe he needed to eat. Cassiel glanced at the small burlap sack with a sigh. Tugging it open, he found golden crumbles of manna bread wrapped in a cloth and a leather waterskin filled with rice milk. His favorites, yet he couldn’t swallow more than a few bites.
His only thought was the other half of his soul who had trapped him in a cage.
Dyna’s voice hummed his ear like the resonating ring of a bell. It’s no different than what you have done to me.
He was startled awake when a voice hissed his name. Cassiel jumped, finding the cellar dark and cold. He must have dozed off.
“Up here.”
He glanced up at the tiny window above his head and smirked. “I knew you were near.”
“I am the shadow at your side,” Netanel said. The small opening only offered a view of his boots in the moonlight. “You are having troubles with your queen, it would seem.”
Sighing, Cassiel rubbed his aching temples. “I am, for a lack of better words, in confinement due to misbehavior.”
Netanel chuckled. “It may serve you to apologize. That is all they truly want.”
He owed her far more than that. “You are the last person who should advise me on my marriage.”
“Perhaps you are right. Well, it wouldn’t take much to free you of the wine cellar. We would be gone before anyone noticed.”
Netanel could easily sneak in and pick the lock. But the moment Cassiel woke up in chains with his mate standing before him, he had already decided he was staying. “I have business here. I have another task for you.”
“Of course, whatever you need.”
Cassiel sighed. Logically, he should order Netanel to keep an eye on Nazar, primarily Akiel. But he had other priorities. “Dyna’s safety is your primary objective. Watch and listen for any others who may be coming after her. I need you to help me keep her safe.”
“It will be done.”
“What’s more, keep me informed on the situation with Lord Norrlen. I assume King Leif has the matter in hand, but I will lend my support if he needs it.”
Netanel hummed. “It has been sometime since Hilos and Greenwood have had any interaction. Since the reign of your grandfather, I believe.”
“It may be time to reestablish the Accords. Meanwhile, guard the High Queen and this estate. If anyone comes near, I want to know. But you will not show yourself to her. Do you understand? She cannot know about you.”
Dyna didn’t trust him, and he didn’t need to give her another reason not to.
“Worry not, she will never see me,” Netanel said as he stepped back. “However, I do not recommend keeping secrets from your wife, especially if you want to be with her again.”
Before Cassiel could reply, his spy left as quickly as he appeared.