Cassarah #3
“What are you gonna do, Zan? Three others have already tossed in their hand. You think you have what it takes to beat me?” Cole taunted, tapping his card on the table.
Ezzu hissed in response before Zan tossed in a few coins. “I’ll see your bet. I don’t think you have the hand you’re making it out to be.”
Smiling at seeing them all spending time together, I walked over to Becka so I didn’t disturb them. “What are you working on so diligently?”
Becka’s head snapped up, her eyes wide with surprise. “Oh, when did you get back?”
“Just now,” I answered, sitting in the chair opposite her. “Why aren’t you playing with the others? I’ve seen your skill at taking their money. Did they ban you from the game?”
She set the quill down, watching me with her observant green eyes. This woman knew me better than anyone else alive, so when she smiled and leaned back in my chair, I knew what came next would be something less than glowing.
“So, the dragon gave you a good tongue lashing then. It’s about damn time. You needed someone to knock you off your high horse, and the only one you’d listen to is him,” Becka stated, a haughty look in her eye.
Instead of giving her pointless words, I nodded and smoothed out my dress skirt. “I thought tonight might be nice for us all to have dinner together here. Also, I informed the staff they were not to bother us unless there was something pressing.”
“It’s a good start. Lucky for you those men love you to the point of insanity.
Not every day a man jumps off a cliff after his woman, and he’s not the only one who would have done it either,” Becka pointed out.
“Are May and I invited to this dinner, or are you planning on apologizing in a more personal way?”
My cheeks heated at her suggestion. While I might find myself fully enjoying the perks of having so many lovers, I wasn’t sure I was ready to put myself on quite that large of a display.
“I’d planned on you two being there since you both are my guardians as well as sisters to me.
I owe you both as much of an apology as I do to them. ”
“Delightful,” Becka cheered, clapping her hands together. “Now tell me, is Vasin healing well?”
“He said he needs a few more days, but yes, he is healing amazingly fast in my opinion,” I answered, then gestured toward the paper before her. “Are you going to tell me what you’re working on?”
“Promise not to be upset with me?” Becka pleaded, sitting up straighter.
“Do I have the right to be upset with you after the past few days?” I countered.
She cocked her head to the side and thought about that for a moment. “No, but this might fall into a different category.”
Frowning, I held my hand out, and she gave over the paper.
Glancing over the words, I paused, my breath catching in my chest as my eyes snapped back to hers.
“Did you plan on telling me you were contacting my parents? Moreover, you aren’t just reaching out to them, you’re offering them a place of refuge here with me. ”
“Cassarah—”
“No,” I snapped, cutting her off and slamming the paper on the desk. “They were willing to let me die to save their own pride. Why should they see what I’ve made of myself despite them?”
“Hear me out,” Becka asked, reaching out to cover my hand with hers.
“You are right, they don’t deserve to be offered this chance, but could you live with yourself if they died in this war when you had the chance to save them?
The only reason I even considered sending this is so you don’t have to suffer that possibility.
Once the war is over, if you want to kick them out and never see them again, so be it.
They might not even take the offer. They would have to leave everything behind, hoping it would be there when they returned. ”
I narrowed my eyes at her, trying to think of some reason to prove she was wrong in her logic.
“Fine, send the letter with two dragon riders. Have them drop down out of the sky at their doorstep to give them the letter. Once they read it, I will give them an hour to make their choice, letting them only keep the clothes on their backs. If they are going to be here in my home, they will be at my mercy just like I was my whole life with them.”
“You might not see it now, Cassarah, but you will thank me later for letting me do this. In the back of your mind, I know you’ll always wonder if you should have offered it.
If they turn it down, then you are freed from all obligations to them,” Becka reasoned, handing me the quill to sign my name and place my seal.
How can it be that one of the first documents I sign and seal is a letter to my parents—the two people who wronged me most in my life, and I’m offering them shelter?
Then Vasin’s words echoed through my head.
The fates didn’t pick you because you were just like him, they picked you because you were the opposite.
” If Henry were in my shoes, he would have killed his parents before ever thinking of saving them.
Knowing I was doing something he never would told me I was making the right choice, no matter how much I disliked it.