Chapter 19
Chapter nineteen
Cassia
Late morning was usually Cassia’s favorite time to visit the library. The sun struck the stained-glass windows just right, scattering color across the tables. Today, though, if she found one more book cataloging the flowers of the Elder Woods, she was going to hurl it through the nearest window.
Not that shattering a centuries-old pane of stained glass would help. If anything, it would just invite the smoke and bruised clouds still clinging to the city inside, turning the library into another place she couldn’t breathe… let alone read.
An ache traveled up her neck. She’d barely slept, unable to stop replaying the night in her head.
Every time she closed her eyes, she felt the heat of the explosion.
Saw Castor’s bleeding face above her. Watched a monstrous beast climb the city wall.
She knew she should be out helping with the clean-up…
or maybe even checking in with her father, not that he would spare the time to assess the situation with her.
Still, spending hours looking for the origins of a book shouldn’t be high on her priority list.
Cassia glanced at the book again. The one she called for when she’d pulled on Castor’s magic. It’s dirty, burgundy cover had no title. The pages were filled with a language and sketches she didn’t understand. But she couldn’t help but obsess over it. Why this book?
And why did it almost spark underneath her fingertips every time she touched it?
Climbing up another ladder, she compared the spines of books on the extremely dusty top shelf to the one sitting on the table below. None of them matched. Growling, she grabbed a particularly heavy one and slammed it toward the ground. It hit the marble floor with an ear-splitting thud.
“I hope it’s nothing I did.”
Nearly falling off the ladder at the unexpected intrusion, Cassia swiveled her head to meet Castor’s amused gaze a few feet below her. “You have to stop sneaking up on me.”
“I promise I don’t mean to,” he said, holding out a hand to help her climb down.
Cassia ignored it, too afraid that his touch might make her pull from him again.
It had been different with him than with Cade.
She’d brought Castor to his knees… she’d weakened him.
That was the last thing she wanted to do.
When she put a good distance between them, Castor frowned. “What are you doing?”
Cassia held up the mysterious book. She tried to ignore the buzzing that went up her arm. “I’m trying to figure out where this book came from. It’s the one from the other day.”
That she used him to get. She wondered if Castor’s heard her unspoken words. When he took the book from her hands, it didn’t seem to affect him like her. The longer he flipped through the pages, the more the crease between his eyes deepened. “What is this? Do you know which language this is?”
“I have no idea.” Cassia sighed. “So you see my predicament. I figured it came from here. It can’t be the only one like it, right? There’s a I on the spine.”
Wordlessly, he shut the book and traced the numeral with his finger.
Cassia crossed her arms when the silence between became stifling.
She wished he would say something or have some brilliant idea about what the book was about like he usually did.
Instead, she had no idea what he was thinking. It bothered her more than it should.
Castor caught her watching him. His dark eyes roamed over her face. “Did you sleep?”
A traitorous heat filled her cheeks. Cassia resisted the urge to fluff her hair or pat away the purple under her eyes just so he would stop looking so closely.
He took a step toward her.
She took a step back.
“Cassia…” Castor sighed, a hint of frustration layered in his words.
“Maybe this book will be useful for something,” Cassia blurted. Lack of sleep had the truth spilling from her lips. “I didn’t do anything earlier. I just stood there… Like a coward.”
She couldn’t help but wince. It’s what she’d been told she was her entire life. The tiny little word shouldn’t make her want to crawl up in a hole and die.
“It’s fine,” Castor said. “And it’s not like you did nothing. You helped those people trapped in their apartments, didn’t you?”
Cassia let out a strangled laugh. “Barely. That idiotic Warlock did most of the work. I have these powers. Apparently. I could have used them.”
She had — for a moment. Long enough to save Cade. But the shock on his face after had made her too scared to even try again. What if she’d accidentally drained him like she had Castor? Astraeus could have ended up in ashes.
“You don’t know how. Which is why—”
Cutting off his excuses, she snapped, “That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
Castor was in front of her now, too close, for comfort. She could almost feel his breath on her face. Why did he have to make her feel like the world was upside down every time he got near? Clearing her throat, she argued, “Bridget didn’t have any trouble throwing herself into danger to save Cade.”
“Bridget doesn’t think before she acts,” Castor replied tiredly. “It’s gotten her in trouble many, many times.”
“At least she knows what she wants,” Cassia mumbled, mostly to herself. But of course Castor didn’t miss it. He didn’t seem to miss anything.
“And you don’t?”
This time, she really did feel his breath on her cheek.
For a second, she let herself imagine the brief hint of longing in his gaze was real.
Shivers wracked through her body. Cassia couldn’t keep her eyes from the curve of his lips.
A tiny birthmark sat on the corner, only noticeable up close.
It was one of her favorite things about it.
So maybe she did know what she wanted. What she lacked was the guts to act on it.
“I know what I want.”
That damned Warlock’s voice carried like a grating siren to their spot in the library corner.
Suddenly feeling like she was suffocating, Cassia rushed backward.
Only to hit a table. The hard wood smacked into the back of her thigh, sending a slice of pain down her leg.
She gritted her teeth and pretended like it didn’t happen.
“A different room. You would think a palace would have thicker walls,” Archer said, appearing from around the corner with Finn.
“It was one night,” Finn replied. “Try living with them for a few months.”
“You’re always welcome to go back to the dungeon,” Cassia snapped, hoping she wasn’t as red as she felt.
Archer raised a brow. “You know, your ray of sunshine brother was a lot scarier when he…”
With a light cough, Finn elbowed him. “I think we interrupted something.”
Damn emotion reader.
“No,” she and Castor said at the same time. Cassia hated that his quick answer made her stomach twist. And since when had those two become so chummy? “What are you two doing in here?”
Finn gave her a knowing look. “We’re looking for—”
“Me.”
Echnav, or Stellan, or whatever the hell he was going by now, emerged by a far shelf.
Like an invisible veil had been cast off of him.
Cassia tightly rolled her lips together, remembering the same camouflage trick from when he’d been one of her tutors.
“What the hell,” she hissed. “How long have you been there?”
Stellan’s only answer was a slight upturn of his lips. Did every single one of her conversations with Castor have to be overheard or seen by someone in her vicinity?
Cassia glared at them all. “So what is this? Another secret meeting that I didn’t get an invitation to?”
“I summoned them to the library because you were already in here,” Stellan said. “The information we need to discuss is vital to you, too. It’s clear Vega knows she has a foothold. The Wraith could have only been created with her help. We’ve already wasted too much time.”
Well, Cassia couldn’t really argue with that. And at least this time, she wasn’t fighting to be included.
Archer sighed. “Yeah, can we stop with the head invasions? A note under the door would have sufficed.”
“A foothold?” Castor asked.
Stellan pinched the bridge of his nose. “Where’s Bridget and Cade?”
“I know… we’re late.”
Hand in hand, Cade and Bridget peeked around the far library shelf.
After a quick glance over his shoulder, her brother gently nudged Bridget forward, never once letting go of her hand.
For once, Bridget’s hair wasn’t pulled up and the sweater she wore, oversized and clearly from the human realm, was a faded navy with cracked white lettering that spelled out something Cassia couldn’t quite make out.
It clashed horribly with the elegance of the palace, but who was she to judge?
But her mouth almost fell open at the almost overnight transformation of her brother.
He looked so damned happy. Part of her was a little jealous.
She snuck a glance of Castor out of the corner of her eye.
He was now a few feet from her. Which was good, she told herself. That was the way it was supposed to be.
“Most of the guards are back on the grounds. We had to take the long way,” Cade muttered. “Could we have picked somewhere a little more inconspicuous?”
To Cassia’s surprise, Stellan glowered at him. With a flick of his head, he directed them toward the back shelf where she knew Cade’s favorite secret room was hidden. When the others followed him, she let herself fall to the end of line. That’s probably where they wanted her anyway.
“Someone’s looking perky this morning,” Archer said to Bridget.
Even though she couldn’t see it, Cassia knew Bridget rolled her eyes. “I actually slept without any dreams last night.”
Archer snorted. “That’s surprising. I didn’t think you’d slept at all based on the noises I heard around breakfast time.”
“We didn’t need to know that,” Finn muttered.
Cassia seconded his opinion.