- NINETEEN
Jasper
See, even with not spending much time in The Green over the years, some things were inescapable.
Like knowing who the major players were, who ran the Courts, who sat on the fucking thrones.
The Light was having a crisis of no successor and had been for almost two decades since Dany, short for Danburite, lost her shit.
There were high hopes for her. She was the most powerful Light fae in several generations.
But she went crazy and her mother was left in power, wondering what the hell she would do when she got too old to manage it anymore.
On the other end of the spectrum, there was Cass.
Cass was short for Cassiterite and he was a fucking prodigy of ruthlessness from his father's coat tails.
The most promising Dark fae ruler in history.
He ran things with no attempt at empathy, civility, or the idea of second chances.
You fucked around with him or his, you generally made the decision to off yourself before he got his hands on you.
So, yeah, I knew Cass.
I also knew all about Cece's nightmare memories where his redcaps scared the life out of her and cut her up.
He really earned the fucking father of the century award.
"You've got to be kidding me," Cece snapped, surprising me.
"I assure you, I'm not," Cass said, arms tucked behind his back while his redcaps started their chanting shit beneath their breaths.
"Oh, shut the hell up!" she hissed at the redcaps, making Cass' brow raise and getting my attention. Powers stunted, I could only sense her overwhelming confusion and frustration, and maybe a hint of something that was akin to betrayal. "I think we've all had enough of you," she added.
Cass raised a hand and a silence fell. "They've just been keeping an eye on you."
"Oh, that's what we're calling it? Were they just keeping an eye on me when they cut me up as a baby? When they starved me and left me on a cold floor? Were they keeping an eye on me when they chased me out of The Green?"
"I always knew you would be drawn back into the Dark realm. The urge would have been too hard to resist over time."
"The only urge I had was to save my best friend from your work camps," Cece snapped, her body so tense beside me, I would have sworn she was seconds from fracturing from the pressure.
"I didn't know The Green existed and I never wanted to go anywhere near the woods.
I had absolutely no urge to get to know the kind of man who would torture a baby. "
"Well, my dear, I'm afraid you have no choice," he said with a shrug, making my blood go cold. "You will be coming with me so we can... what is the phrase you use here? Catch up?"
"Fuck you. I'm not going anywhere."
"Cece," I tried to reason, drawing Cass' attention.
"Winters, aren't you? You have the look of your mother. I knew that story about you two dying in a draca incident was bullshit. But your parents..."
"Made a deal with the devil," I supplied, making his lips turn up slightly.
"Me being the devil in this scenario," he said with a shrug. "I've been hearing a lot about a blond empath tearing through The Green lately, creating chaos, killing guards, beating information out of my fae..."
"He was looking for me," Cece said, trying to pull me behind her slightly. For what purpose, I wasn't sure. But I didn't let her.
"And here you were all along. Go change," he demanded suddenly, looking impatient.
"Um, go fuck yourself, Dad."
I really, really wanted to both kiss the shit out of her for her spirit and slap a hand over her mouth and demand she shut the hell up already.
"Change your fucking clothes, Celestine," he snapped, voice low and vicious. "You will be coming with me."
Fuck.
"I'd like to see..." Cece started.
"Stop," I hissed, squeezing her hand hard enough to draw her attention. "Stop," I said again, a little more desperately.
"You should listen to your little empath.
He might not have much in the way of powers, but he seems to make up for it with some brains.
Which seems to be more than I can say for you.
Now go change your clothes. I won't tell you again.
I'll drag your ass in there and change them myself if you don't do it voluntarily. "
Cece stiffened, biting hard into her lip to keep herself from saying anything as she turned to go back into the train car, dragging me with her.
I expected outrage, confusion, anger, and fear.
All I got was what seemed to be grim determination as she ripped off her pants and slipped into cotton sweatpants in a godawful neon orange color.
She left on her sweatshirt and her boots which were leather and rubber, both mostly natural.
She would still be able to get into The Green.
When she turned back, I felt something clamp around my wrist hard. Before I could even look down, I heard another click and finally realized what she had done.
She cuffed me to the bars of the train car.
"You've got to be..."
"I wrapped it in a scarf first so it won't burn you right away. I am going to leave you the key, but just far enough out of reach that you'll have to work for it and I'll already be long gone."
"Cece, you can't be serious right now," I said, my stomach seeming to take up residence in my throat.
"I have to go. There's no way out of that.
I know that and you know that. But I can't drag you into this.
He will torture you just to fuck with me if I don't cooperate.
I can't have that on my conscience. You have to stay here.
I know you're stubborn as hell, but if he's the Unseelie king, you aren't getting anywhere near the Court. You and I both know that."
"Cece, I just..." I just got her back. I literally fucking just got her back after months and she was walking away from me?
"I know," she said, swallowing a little hard as she reached for the black moonstone I had brought her. She stuffed it into her boot. "Can I bring iron into The Green or will it not let me go in?"
I sighed, knowing how fucked she was going to get herself if she thought she could go in there armed. "You can bring it, but it might slowly start to burn you."
"I'll deal," she said, slipping a few more bracelets on her wrists.
"Cece..." My voice was pleading, making her stop mid-stride.
She turned back and closed in on me, leaning into me, burying her face into my neck for a second. My free arm went around her, squeezing her tight because I knew what it was. It was goodbye. She pulled back and kissed me for a second.
"Take care of Jade and Doyle. I can take care of me," she promised. She dropped the key, turned away, then back. "I think I am really starting to love you, Jasper," she said, making my chest seize, then rushing toward the door and, before I could say anything back, threw herself outside.
The door slammed as I slumped slightly, my arm pulling against the bar it was connected to.
"I think I am really starting to love you too," I admitted though I knew she couldn't hear.
--
Cece
I wasn't exactly sure where the anger came from. The best guess I could come up with was the fear manifested it. I had been living in a constant state of terror for months because of him. I had been unable to sleep peacefully my entire life because of him.
And he was my father?
"That's what you wear?" Cass asked as I stepped outside.
"I'm closing in on thirty, it's too late to pull the 'you're not leaving the house dressed like that' card on me," I replied and, if I wasn't mistaken, his lips twitched the barest bit.
Being an Unseelie king, he had to have been used to being obeyed and kowtowed to, but I got the distinct impression that a part of him liked my defiance.
Maybe he thought it was a bit of himself in me, that I was headstrong and surly because of him.
And, hell, what did I know? Maybe I was.
Maybe being part Dark fae was why I had always been a little rough around the edges, a little cool and detached, just a little hard to love.
If so, fuck him again for making me that way.
"Let's go," he said, holding a hand out in invitation.
I walked past him, heading back toward town where the woods were.
He walked in line with me, but several feet away.
One of his redcaps moved in close enough to brush my shoulder and I whipped my head in his direction.
"Stay away from me or the second we cross in, I will grab your arm and give you something that will make a third degree burn feel like you just got a tad too much sun. "
"Yes, I heard about the situation in the market," Cass said, completely ignoring the threat to his man who had moved a respectable two feet to my side.
"He was torturing and auctioning something I loved."
"A barguest," Cass said, nodding. "Was that really worth it? They're fickle creatures."
"It's not fickle to take care of whichever woman needs you more."
"Yes, your friend who was working off her debt in the camps."
"She had no debt. She wandered in for the first time in like...
twenty years and your men snatched her, dragged her there, beat, and raped her for no fucking reason.
And don't even try to tell me you don't know that all this happens under your watch.
You don't strike me as stupid. Evil and arrogant, but not stupid. "
"Yes, well. No one is getting abused in a work camp now thanks to your little empath boyfriend and his friend."
"What's the matter?" I asked, sensing the tension in his words. "Pissed that a little empath and a nymph-mutt with little in the way of powers managed to tear down an organization that had been terrorizing Light and Dark fae for ages?"
"They certainly created a mess to clean up."
"I feel so sorry for you," I drawled.
"So tell me, Celestine, how is it possible you had no draw to the woods at all? All changelings find their way back into The Green at some time."