34. Casandra
Past
A soft, hesitant knock sounds at the heavy wooden door, pulling me from the suffocating spiral of my own thoughts.
My father straightens up, his demeanor instantly shifting from the tender, comforting parent to something more guarded and authoritative. “Come in,” he commands, his voice carrying effortlessly across the vast expanse of the room.
The door swings inward. I brace myself for another guard, or perhaps another ancient elder from this ridiculous, hidden world I apparently belong to.
Instead, all the air leaves my lungs in a sudden, sharp rush.
Stepping through the doorway is a ghost from a life that feels like it ended a century ago, rather than just yesterday.
He has the same tall, intensely strong build, the same messy dark hair that constantly looks like he just ran a hand through it, and those exact same dark, impossibly deep brown eyes.
Adrian.
I stare at him in absolute, paralyzed disbelief.
He was my classmate in high school back in Romania.
We spent years orbiting each other, trapped in a relentless, exhausting rivalry for the number one spot in our class.
If I scored a 9 on a history test, Adrian scored a 10.
If I won the debate tournament, he was named best speaker.
Beneath the layers of academic warfare, I had harbored a massive secret crush on him for years.
I used to think he was the most handsome guy in the world, a fact that thoroughly annoyed me when I was trying to hate him for ruining my grade curve.
But looking at him now, the past year we’ve been apart has somehow made him even better looking. He has filled out, his shoulders broader under a fitted black shirt, his jawline sharper, his presence vibrating with a quiet, undeniable confidence.
He catches me staring, and the corner of his mouth ticks upward into a familiar, infuriatingly charming smirk. He leans back against the frame of the door, completely at ease in this medieval fortress, and offers me a slow, deliberate wink.
“Hey, Cass,” he says, his voice a rich, smooth baritone that sends an involuntary shiver down my spine.
Beside me, my father lets out a low, disapproving huff. He narrows his eyes at Adrian, the look so intensely intimidating it would make a normal twenty-year-old boy burst into tears. Adrian just grins back, entirely unbothered.
“I’ll give you two a few minutes,” my father murmurs. He gives my shoulder one last squeeze before standing up and striding out of the room, brushing past Adrian with a stiff nod.
The heavy door clicks shut behind him, leaving us alone in the massive bedroom. The silence stretches, thick and electric. With my newly awakened senses, I can hear the steady, powerful thumping of Adrian’s heart. I can hear the faint sound of his breathing.
“What?” I finally manage to choke out, my voice cracking under the sheer weight of my confusion. “How?”
Adrian pushes off the doorframe and crosses the room. He moves with a fluid, predatory grace that I definitely don’t remember from high school. He stops at the edge of the mahogany bed and drops onto the mattress right next to me, the springs dipping under his weight.
“Well,” Adrian sighs, leaning back on his hands and looking at me with a teasing glint in his eye.
“I have to admit, when I heard the great Casandra Popescu was finally waking up to her true, undead nature, I expected a bit more... gloom and doom. Maybe some dramatic crying. But you look pretty good for a newborn bloodsucker.
Does this mean you’ll finally concede that I’m the smarter one between the two of us, or do I need to grab a wooden stake to settle this?”
The audacity of the joke cuts right through my panic. The familiar irritation he always managed to spark in me flares up, warm and grounding.
“I will literally strangle you,” I whisper, though there is absolutely zero heat behind it. I just glare at him, my mind still refusing to process that he is sitting here.
Adrian throws his head back and laughs, a bright, booming sound that fills the vaulted room.
“You could try, Cass. But honestly, it would be much more efficient if you just drained me of my blood. That way, you’d win the fight, and you’d be full for a while. Two birds, one stone. I know how much you love efficiency.”
“You are unbelievable,” I mutter, rubbing my temples. “I just found out my life is a lie, and you’re making blood-drinking jokes. Why are you here? How do you even know about all of this?”
Adrian’s grin softens into something slightly more gentle. He stands up and offers me his hand. “Come on. You’re not going to figure it all out sitting in bed. Let’s go for a stroll. Getting some fresh air will help.”
I hesitate, looking at his outstretched hand. But the truth is, the claustrophobia of the room is starting to press in on me. I ignore it, taking his hand. His skin is incredibly warm, practically radiating heat against my cooler fingers.
We step out of the bedroom and into a wide, sweeping corridor. As we walk, the sheer scale of the castle truly hits me. I had visited similar castles in Transylvania and the Carpathian Mountains growing up, but those were cold, hollowed-out museums designed for tourists.
This place is alive.
Rich, woven rugs line the stone floors, softening our footsteps.
The air smells of pine, woodsmoke, and something faintly floral.
Large arched windows line the hallway, letting in beams of pale morning sunlight that stretch across the stone.
Wait—sunlight. I flinch instinctively, expecting the agonizing burn I had felt in Sweden, but as the light hits my skin, there is no pain.
Just a gentle warmth. My human body had been rejecting the sun during the transition, but now, I seem to be fine.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Adrian asks, watching me take it all in.
“It’s massive,” I correct him, my eyes wide as we pass a pair of guards who bow their heads respectfully at me. “And completely insane. You still haven’t answered my question. How do you fit into this? Are you... are you one of us?”
Adrian chuckles, shaking his head. “No, Cass. I’m not a vampire.” He stops walking and turns to face me, a proud, slightly amused expression on his face. “I’m a wolf.”
I stare at him. “A werewolf.”
“Mhm.”
“You.” I point a finger at his chest. “The guy who complained about the cafeteria food every single day and fell asleep during English literature class is a werewolf.”
“Hey, literature is boring when you actually lived through stuff that’s more exciting any of those books could ever be,” he defends himself, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “But yes. I’m a wolf. My family and your family have a... very long, very complicated history of alliances.”
“So, high school...” I trail off, the realization hitting me like a bucket of ice water. “You weren’t just randomly assigned to my class, were you?”
“Nope,” Adrian says, popping the ‘p’. He leans in closer, dropping his voice into a conspiratorial whisper. “Our parents requested it. I was enrolled to keep an eye on the hidden vampire princess. Make sure she didn’t get into trouble, make sure no rogues sniffed her out.”
I cross my arms over my chest, feeling a sudden, irrational flash of betrayal. “You were my bodyguard? All those times we competed, all those study sessions... it was just an assignment?”
Adrian’s eyes darken slightly, the playful teasing melting away into something much more intense. He steps into my personal space, his gaze dropping to my lips before snapping back up to my eyes.
“I wouldn’t call it just an assignment, Cass,” he murmurs, his voice a low, rough hum that makes my newly heightened senses short-circuit.
“Watching you furiously color-code your study notes, arguing with you until two in the morning, trying to see how flustered I could make you... I didn’t mind the job at all. In fact, it was entirely my pleasure.”
A rush of heat floods my cheeks. He is too close, smells too good—like cedarwood and rain—and the memory of my teenage crush suddenly doesn’t feel like a memory at all.
Before I can formulate a comeback, a sudden blur of motion rockets out from a nearby doorway.
“A-da-da!” a tiny, high-pitched voice shrieks.
A small toddler, barely two years old, lunges directly at Adrian’s legs.
Adrian’s reflexes are terrifyingly fast. Without even looking down, he scoops the boy up mid-lunge, spinning him around in the air as the toddler erupts into a fit of breathless, echoing giggles.
“Hey, little monster,” Adrian laughs, settling the boy onto his broad shoulders.
I blink, thoroughly derailed from our flirtatious moment, my brain rebooting for the millionth time today. I point at the child, who is currently trying to chew on Adrian’s hair.
“Do you..” I ask slowly. “Do you have a son?”
Adrian barks out a laugh. “What? No! Cass, this is my nephew, Darius.”
“Darius! I told you to stop running off!”
A new voice rings out, and a girl steps into the corridor, hurrying toward us.
She is stunning, with the same dark, wild hair as Adrian and the same deep brown eyes.
She is clearly related to him—his sister, if I had to guess based on the striking resemblance.
She is wearing a simple linen dress, her expression caught somewhere between exhaustion and exasperation.
She reaches us and immediately starts scolding the toddler. “Leave your uncle alone, Dar. He just got back, he doesn’t want to be used as a climbing frame.”
“I don’t mind, Ilinca, really,” Adrian says, grinning as Darius pats him aggressively on the forehead.
I stand off to the side, entirely overwhelmed, my eyes bouncing between the girl, Adrian, the toddler, and then back to the girl. I am trying to piece together the familial genetics, the werewolf hierarchy, and the absurdity of standing in a medieval hallway discussing toddlers.
Ilinca catches me staring. Her posture immediately stiffens. She shifts her weight, placing herself slightly between me and Adrian, her eyes narrowing into a sharp, hostile glare.
“What the hell are you looking at?” she snaps, her voice suddenly laced with a low, dangerous growl.
I flinch, instantly looking down at the stone floor. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to stare, I just—”
“Ilinca, stop,” Adrian’s voice cuts through the tension like a whip.
Gone is the playful, flirting boy from a moment ago.
His tone is hard, carrying an authoritative edge that demands immediate obedience.
“This is Cassie.” He pauses, letting the name hang in the air before adding, “Casandra. Corvin.”
The effect is instantaneous. Ilinca freezes, her eyes widening in absolute horror. All the color drains from her face as she looks back at me.
“Oh, Goddess,” she whispers, her hands flying to her mouth.
“I am so sorry. Your Highness, I didn’t—I didn’t know it was you. Please forgive me, I’m just... I’m very protective of Darius.”
She gestures frantically to the toddler.
“A lot of people here look down on him. They look down on us. Because he was born outside of a mate bond, people stare, and I just assumed...”
She trails off, looking entirely mortified.
I look up, completely lost. I glance at Adrian, who is watching me carefully, and then back at Ilinca.
“No worries,” I say gently, trying to project a calm I absolutely do not feel. “And I really am sorry I was staring. Also... I have absolutely no idea what a mate bond is.”
Ilinca stops rambling. She just stares at me, blinking slowly, as if I had just announced the sky was green.
Adrian lets out a heavy sigh, shifting Darius on his shoulders. “Ilinca, Casandra just learned about the existence of vampires and werewolves about five minutes ago. Remember? She was raised human.”
“Ohh,” Ilinca breathes, the realization dawning on her face.
“Right. The secret princess thing. Uhm, well, a mate bond is... how do I explain this?”
She frowns, searching for the right human equivalent.
“It’s kind of like being born outside of wedlock, but with a lot more supernatural, destined-by-the-Moon-Goddess weight to it. It’s considered a huge scandal.”
I process this for a second. I don’t understand half of what she just said but I think of my friends in Sweden, of modern society, and how ridiculously outdated and archaic that sounds.
“Oh,” I say, my tone entirely flat. “And someone actually cares about that?”
Ilinca stares at me for another long, silent moment. Then, a massive, brilliant grin breaks across her face, completely transforming her features. All her previous hostility vanishes, replaced by a radiant, fierce energy.
“Oh, my Goddess,” Ilinca laughs, stepping forward and linking her arm through mine as if we’ve known each other for years. “We are going to be best friends!”