Chapter 61
CASSIUS
“How do we even proceed now?” I asked Eris as we stood in the dining hall, waiting for the others.
“What do you mean?”
“He’s a god, Eris,” I quickly reminded him. “Not just any god, mind you. He’s Ryuk’s son.”
“And?”
I threw my head back in annoyance. “If he wants the throne, it’s his.”
“It was never about the throne, Cassius; you know that. The whole seven weeks was just a charade—”
“But it is now!” I whisper-shouted.
Naaz looked our way with one eyebrow cocked at us from my outburst.
Tristan being here changed everything. He could claim the throne and rule Andonia with the snap of his finger.
He was untouchable, and that should have been a frightening fact to everyone.
He had made us see our greatest fears in the Netherworld, no one else.
He was a god. Andonia didn’t need a god right now, especially one that would tear down the very king they had put their trust into.
“How do we even explain his existence? You think he’ll allow Ryuk’s lies to stand? He’ll make sure everyone knows the truth, clearing his mother’s name, and then what happens?” I asked Eris quietly.
“And then we deal with it,” Naaz answered from across the room.
He approached us with a wine glass in one hand, sipping from it casually like none of this bothered him.
“Ryuk wanted him dead. A child. Regardless of what he is, we’ve spent the last three hundred years erasing the history of a goddess who did nothing more than fight for her son.
And we supported the man who damned him to begin with. ”
My shoulders slumped a little as I thought about it—really thought about it. “How do we know we can trust him? I whispered. “What if he’s just like his father?”
As if on cue, the doors to the dining hall opened, and Dez, Kaiden, and Morrigan walked in.
Behind them followed the god and his man-wolf.
I was even more surprised that Kaiden hadn’t completely ripped his head off yet.
He was so damned attached to Morrigan; I didn’t understand how he could be okay with any of this.
But here he was, standing mere feet away from the man soul bonded to the love of his life.
His brother. Kaiden was a fucking half-god.
“Cassius, Eris, Naaz.” I turned to find Morrigan already standing beside us with a smile on her face that almost resembled the very first one she had ever graced me with. “I haven’t seen you guys all week.”
It seems we all took turns avoiding her these past few days. I couldn’t get the taste of the foul blood from my mouth since that nightmare. Too much guilt seemed trapped inside of me to even enjoy the slight happiness I could see on her face, something I had wanted to see for quite some time now.
“I didn’t think you’d want to see us,” Eris answered honestly. “I thought it was best to give you some time.”
Morrigan tilted her head. “I know we left things on… not very good terms. But, things are different now. I’m different.”
“I can see that,” I answered faster than I could stop myself. But it was true. The thin, white line in her eyes was all the proof anyone needed. Morrigan did die. Her heart had stopped beating. And when she came back… “Does this mean you’re one of them now?”
She shrugged, forcing a smile on her pink lips. “Maybe. I don’t really know what I am right now.” Taking a step forward, she stopped in the center of our little circle. “What I do know is that I missed you. All of you.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat as she gazed up at me, and I almost felt more guilty from the lack of anger in her eyes. Why was she so calm? I betrayed her trust. I bonded with her first. I kissed her. I—
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you. I’m sorry I kept it from you. When you were gone, I thought I would never see you—”
“I forgive you,” she said before I could finish. “All of you. I mean it. We have a lot of work to do with Tristan here now. This isn’t a time for fighting—for grudges. I want to know that I can trust you guys.”
“And the bonds?” Naaz asked. “Do you plan to break all of them now?”
“Do you want me to?” She turned her head toward him curiously. The question was a genuine one.
“What if we don’t?” Eris chimed.
Morrigan’s smile was bright as a blush crept along her cheeks. Then, she lifted her wrist to Naaz. “You should all drink a little. Everything that’s happened… It couldn’t have been easy. Let me lift some of the burden.”
Naaz had a shocked expression as he stepped forward, taking her wrist in his hand and eyeing her for approval.
After she nodded, he lowered his lips and pierced her skin delicately, moving as slow as he could.
Morrigan’s lashes fluttered a little, and for a second, it seemed like she might have been enjoying it.
Naaz only took a little before releasing his grip and moving to lick the wound, but a white light shone from the two small holes, stitching itself together again.
I’m not going to get used to that.
She then moved to Eris, and he took her other wrist. He fed quickly, then placed a kiss against her skin as it healed itself when he was finished.
Once she stopped in front of me, she didn’t lift her wrist as she had done for them. I was honestly worried that she would make me beg again. Instead, Morrigan moved her hair over her shoulder, revealing the bare skin in the crook of her neck.
“No more lies,” she said to me, a promise she needed me to make.
“No more lies.”
I took agonizingly slow steps toward her, wondering if she would change her mind at any second. When I reached her, I placed one hand on her waist, and the other tangled itself into her hair as I cupped her cheek. She tilted her head to the side for me and closed her eyes in anticipation.
Lowering my lips to her neck, I brushed my nose against her skin and took in her sweet scent that I missed so gods damned much. “I missed you,” I breathed against her.
When her hands lifted to my shirt, gripping the fabric, I let my canines slowly sink into her neck.
It took far too much effort for me to not groan at the taste of her.
Once her blood coated my tongue, gone was the foul, disease-infested blood I had been forced to drink in that nightmare.
In its wake was the sweetest wine I had ever tasted.
Morrigan was everything perfect in life.
I knew from the day after we bonded that I would never get enough of her taste.
It had nothing to do with the actual blood itself, but everything to do with her.
Maeryn spent almost her entire life trying to break Morrigan down. But every memory of Morrigan that I had was filled with smiles, laughter, and a strength that I could only ever strive to have in my life.
Only a woman with a heart as gracious as hers would find a place for each of us in it. I didn’t know how the fuck it would work, but with Morrigan there? I would die trying.
When I let go, I kissed her skin and pulled away, but Morrigan stopped me before I could take a step back. She quickly closed the distance between our lips and planted the softest kiss.
“I’m glad you were first, Cassius,” she whispered into my mouth, and kissed me once more before moving away.
When I turned, Dez stood beside Kaiden with his arms crossed. The look he gave me wasn’t one of bitterness, as it had been for the past couple of weeks. The smallest glint of a smile played in his eyes, and I prayed to the gods that it meant hope for normalcy again.
I missed my best friend.
Dormius arrived last, and he had an extremely nervous look in his eyes. He found Morrigan and quickly took the seat beside her, while she smiled at him with a newly-formed bond that was never actually there before. They had barely even spoken the entire time she was with us.
As dinner began, the room fell into a comfortable level of chatter, but I couldn’t stop watching Dormius’s nervous glances around the room. At some point, Morrigan whispered in his ear, and he cleared his throat before standing.
“T-There is something I need to tell you all,” he quietly announced to the room.
“Gods, Dormius,” Dez began to laugh. “There’s no need to yell.”
I stifled my smile at his teasing. Dormius literally never spoke up. So, I knew this was serious, and I didn’t know if that made me nervous or flat-out terrified.
“There’s… There’s something you should know about me. And… I don’t want to keep it from you any longer.” His words were shaky, but Morrigan placed a hand on his arm, and it seemed to calm his anxiety.
She really has this effect on everyone, doesn’t she? This natural presence that instantly lights every room that she walks into.
“I… I’m…” Dormius stuttered, continuously tripping over his words. “You see… I have a—”
“Oh, gods, this is torture,” Naaz groaned. “We know you like men, D.”
Morrigan spit out her water immediately and gaped at Naaz from across the table. Dormius’s eyes matched the same astonishment in hers.
“Y-You what?” Dormius asked.
“Come on, man,” I said, grabbing my own wine from in front of me. “We’ve known you for centuries. Is this why you’ve been acting so strange?”
“I don’t understand…”
“Okay, but now that it’s out in the open… I have to ask what everyone else has been dying to know,” Dez spoke up, leaning over the table.
Dormius looked at him with his brows pulled together, waiting.
“Top or bottom?”
“Dez!” Morrigan yelled, taking a piece of bread from the table and chucking it at him.
Everyone at the table broke out in laughter, and I could even see the tiniest smirk on Tristan’s face as he watched Morrigan and Dez bicker back and forth.
"Not a single one of us had that question," Naaz assured D.
The room continued like that with Morrigan scolding Dez, and Dormius staring in disbelief as he sat back down.
I could get used to this, I thought to myself.
It has always just been us for so long. But since the day Morrigan walked in, everything was different. And I had a feeling that a lot more change was yet to come.