Chapter 26 #2
“He has been helping us,” I said. “He found the bond’s frequency. He has been trying to weaken it. He may be the reason we have any chance at all.”
Cassian scoffed—a sharp, cold sound. “You’re defending him?”
“Yes,” I said flatly. “Despite his past, he is attempting to save her life. I do not particularly like the man, but he is useful. And right now, usefulness is all that matters.”
Cassian finally tore his gaze away from Ezra and looked at me—truly looked. The disbelief on his face was nearly comical.
I gave a short, humorless laugh. “Besides, you are hardly in a position to judge betrayers, brother.”
Cassian’s face fell. Guilt and the barest glimpse of shame flashed through his eyes before it vanished beneath centuries of arrogance.
The room went very still.
Ezra swallowed audibly.
“Holy shit,” Lena muttered.
Nadia sucked in a breath beside me.
Cassian’s jaw tightened. “I did what I thought I had to do. And I’ve regretted it ever since.”
“Yes,” I said. “And perhaps he”—I inclined my head toward Ezra—“is attempting to do the same.”
Cassian glared at Ezra again, but there was hesitation now. And fear. Fear that I was choosing someone else’s side over his.
Good. He needed to understand I wasn’t the monster they’d frozen anymore. I wasn’t his to manipulate. And I wasn’t alone.
Nadia had changed everything.
Ezra managed a choke, then nodded, eyes wide with terror. Cassian held him a heartbeat longer, then released him with clear reluctance. Ezra massaged his neck as he edged toward the table.
Lena moved closer to Nadia and touched her shoulder. Nadia didn’t seem to feel it. She stared at me, eyes unfocused, cheeks wet.
Cassian smoothed his cuffs. “The Sovereign Court are more desperate than you realize. Their life-sharing is failing. They have passed power around for centuries without restraint. Our bodies weaken. Our minds fray. The rot has reached our core.”
I frowned. “They always claimed the rite strengthened them.”
“It did,” he said. “Until it didn’t. They tampered too much. Tried to widen the pool. Let in vampires who drained more than they gave. Turned humans who could not sustain the current. Experimented too much. The balance broke. Now they need a conduit who can sustain the entire construct.”
“Me,” I said.
His smile did not reach his eyes. “You are the only one strong enough in this century. There are no other candidates who would not collapse the moment they stepped into the circle. When you woke, they saw an opportunity. A way to repair their mistake without admitting it. They will not let you go easily.”
Heat rose under my skin. “And you thought I did not need this information until now.”
He spread his hands. “Timing is everything, brother. You are paying attention now.”
He stepped back and surveyed us—Nadia pale and shaking, Lena bristling, Ezra clutching his throat, me standing in the center of the wreckage.
“What are you going to do?” he asked quietly.
I did not answer him.
My attention had gone entirely to Nadia.
She stood very still, edges blurred, as if the world had receded several steps away from her. The bond carried the hollow weight of her devastation straight into my chest.
“Nadia,” I said, softer than I meant to. “I am sorry. I never wanted you trapped. I never wanted this for you. I swear to you, I will do whatever it takes to free you.”
She met my eyes. For a moment, I thought she might speak. That she might spit rage or grief or both.
She didn’t.
She turned away, shoulders shaking, and walked down the hall without a word. Lena shot me a look that held more accusation than any speech, then hurried after her, blanket trailing behind her.
Ezra exhaled shakily, reached for the beer, cracked one open with trembling hands, and retreated to the kitchen.
Cassian watched him with visible irritation. “That one grates on my nerves.”
I sank down onto the nearest chair, suddenly exhausted in a way blood could not fix.
“Tell me about it,” I said.
As the house absorbed the echoes of Nadia’s retreat, one truth burned through everything else: If I could not break this bond soon, there would be nothing left of her to save.
Cassian took a seat beside me and spoke in a low voice, all theatrics gone. “I don’t know how to break the bond.”
I didn’t move. “Then why are we talking?”
“Because Hammond and Ambrosia do.”
A beat of silence passed between us. My pulse tightened from the inevitability of it.
“What’s the cost?” I asked.
Cassian huffed out something between a laugh and a scoff. “You already know.”
I dragged a hand across my jaw. “I tried bargaining with them. They refused. Claimed ignorance.”
“Because they want you to be desperate,” he said. “They want you to feel cornered. So you seek them out. So you kneel.”
My teeth clenched. “I will not kneel.”
“Not literally,” he said. “But they know you, brother. They know exactly where to press. They want you powerless enough that joining their circle feels like salvation instead of surrender.”
I stared out the window beyond him, the reflection of my own expression barely recognizable.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Cassian said, quieter now. “Don’t.”
“I might have to.”
Cassian’s eyes narrowed. “You would give in to them? After everything? After they poisoned you, bound you, buried you like a trophy?”
“For her,” I said simply.
His face sharpened. “You would do all of that for a human woman?”
I met his eyes, letting him see the truth. “Yes.”
Cassian blinked once. Twice. As if recalibrating. “Cristian—”
“I will not allow her to be chained to me,” I said, voice low, steady. “She did not choose this bond. She did not ask to wake me. I will not condemn her to immortality beside a creature she did not intend to love.”
A shadow danced across Cassian’s features. “So you… feel something for her.”
I exhaled. No more running from it. “I love her.”
The words settled in my chest with more certainty than anything I’d spoken in centuries.
Cassian’s expression shifted into one of shock, then something unreadable. Maybe pity. Maybe awe. Maybe fear of what it meant.
“And you’d let them take you for her freedom?” he asked.
“I owe her that much,” I said. “More than that. She gave me life when I had none. And I will not let her die because I am too proud to bend.”
Cassian studied me in silence. He didn’t mock. He didn’t sneer. For once, he didn’t perform. He simply looked at me as a brother. “Then we’d better find another way. Because if you join them, brother… you won’t come back. I know from experience.”
My jaw tightened. “I’ll do whatever it takes.”
He gave a slow nod.
Time was running out.