Chapter 29
CIARAN
The second Rowan disappears through the pavilion doors, every instinct I have tries to follow him.
I make it three steps before Dad’s hand closes around my arm like a fucking shackle.
“Don’t.”
I turn on him. “Let go.”
Every second I stand here is another second Rowan is facing whatever comes next without me.
“Ciaran.”
“I said let go.”
Across the pavilion, the Marrow guards still have weapons half-drawn beneath their jackets, while our own men hold formation around Mom and the Noctis. Nobody fires. Nobody dares to even move.
Half of Sero’s elite are still trapped inside the pavilion watching us, and nobody is reckless enough to start a bloodbath beneath Caervast chandeliers.
That makes it worse somehow, all that violence waiting politely beneath gold light and shattered music.
Rowan is gone, and the absence of him hits so hard it almost feels physical after weeks of barely spending a single hour apart.
My little mouse is somewhere out there terrified while I’m still standing inside this fucking pavilion doing nothing.
Every second he stays out of my sight makes it harder to breathe.
Why didn’t he tell me who his sister was? What proof was he waiting for before trusting me with that? And what the hell did Mom mean about the sequence?
Fuck if I understand a damn thing that’s happening anymore.
“Bring him back,” I snap at the closest guard.
Dad’s grip tightens. “Nobody leaves until I know what the hell just walked into my event.”
Sola Ashford, Aster Marrow, whatever the fuck she calls herself now, doesn’t even flinch. She stands near the entrance with Cassian beside her, a son of one of the largest rival families on Sero, looking far too calm for someone who just walked armed men into a Virel event.
Cassian stands at her shoulder, dark-haired and unreadably calm, like he’s the only person in the room who still believes this conversation can end without bloodshed.
Lucian Marrow has withdrawn to the entrance with his men. Heads of families don’t negotiate in rooms they don’t control. He leaves the talking to his younger brother.
“I told you. I came to take my little brother home.”
“The fuck you are,” I growl. “You’ve disturbed a private event.”
They disturbed Rowan’s concert.
I turn to where Mom sits on the stage, the Noctis Rowan left behind still resting between her legs, bow in hand, her unseeing eyes staring into the void.
“Christian.” Cassian folds his hands behind his back. “If we came here for a fight, we wouldn’t still be standing here talking.”
“And you believe we should talk after you barged into my house, uninvited and armed to the teeth?” Dad puffs out a breath and turns toward Mom.
When she gives a small nod, his shoulders sag before he lowers himself into a chair.
“I can’t for the life of me remember the last time our families sat down in private and spoke.
Not when your father was still alive. But if you insist... ” His gaze settles on Sola. “Talk.”
I huff, throwing my hands into the air. “Wait, what? Fucking talk? Rowan is out there in the fucking forest, alone, and you want to talk?”
She shakes her head. “Trust me. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t have to be, but time is not on our side. And before you start snapping again, Cassian’s people are already out there searching for him.”
“That’s not good enough.”
Outside, the academy grounds are little more than darkness beyond the pavilion glass. Forest. Ravines. Kilometers of old Caervast property disappearing into the night.
Mom lifts her chin toward me. “Virel guards are already searching as well.”
“Then let me go.”
“No.”
“Mom—”
“Rowan Ashford is not walking out of our territory tonight, Cassian. Neither are you. Until I understand exactly what happened in this room, everyone stays where I can see them.”
Sola doesn’t react. Neither does Cassian.
I grit my teeth. Mom doesn’t bluff. If she says Rowan is protected, then nobody will get near him without going through a small army first. Still, it feels wrong standing here while he’s out there alone.
“Excellent.” Dad slowly turns my way, and the look he gives me is far too knowing. “Then we can return to the matter of whatever the hell just happened in my pavilion. If I’m not mistaken, you told me he was innocent.”
Damn it. That isn’t the look Dad gives an employee who screwed up an assignment. It doesn’t stop me from tipping up my chin to him in defiance. “Rowan was never supposed to have anything to do with any of this.”
Sola takes a glass from an outstretched tray and lowers herself into a chair across from Dad. Up close, the resemblance feels impossible to miss beneath the chandelier light. They have the same green eyes and pale freckles, the same warm golden hair. Rowan really was telling the truth.
“The evening is over.” Dad’s gaze sweeps the pavilion as he folds his arms, gaze landing on Sola. “And you, explain yourself.”
The announcement travels through the room without needing to be repeated. Guests are guided toward the exits by Virel security while staff move seamlessly behind them, preserving the illusion that the evening has simply ended early.
By the time the last of them disappear through the doors, only family, guards, and a handful of trusted associates remain.
Sola exhales before leaning back in her chair, fingers tightening around the glass in her hand.
“Our family’s been drowning in bad luck for as long as I can remember.
Strange men outside our apartment. People following us home from the market.
Doors forced open in the middle of the night.
Ma pretended everything was fine, but Rowan stopped sleeping properly before he was even twelve. ”
Her gaze drops to the Noctis behind Mom before she continues. “He was always sick after the worst nights. Panic attacks. Heart episodes. Stress collapsed his system every time the pressure got too bad.” Her mouth pulls tight. “And no matter what I did, they kept watching him.”
“Watching him for what?” Lucan asks, the humor finally gone from his voice.
“I didn’t know why at first. I only knew people were circling our family, and every year Rowan looked more exhausted trying to survive it.
” Her fingers tighten around the glass again.
“So I started paying attention. Memorizing faces. Following people who thought nobody noticed them. Listening at doors I wasn’t supposed to be near.
Every time somebody looked at Rowan, I wanted to know why. ”
For the first time, something fierce flashes across her expression. “He was sixteen. I was his big sister. What was I supposed to do?”
“Why were they looking at him? And how did you think you could protect him?” I demand, because all I can picture now is Rowan shaking in my arms after another nightmare. Somebody watched him his entire fucking life from the shadows?
Cassian’s hand settles against the back of Sola’s chair. “By marrying me.”
Lucan drags a hand down his face, a disbelieving laugh breaking out of him. “You married into the fucking Marrows for him?”
“Not just for him.” Cassian glances toward Sola. “But he was part of it.”
Sola exhales and pushes herself back to her feet. “Düren isn’t Caervast. You grow up learning very quickly what kind of people survive there, and our parents would never have accepted me willingly walking into this world.”
Dad inclines his head. “So you vanished instead.”
She runs a hand through her golden hair, straightening the black jacket that fits her like a glove.
“Every year, it got worse. Rowan was already breaking under it. At the time, I thought all of it was my fault.” Her mouth tightens.
“The violence. The break-ins. Strange men showing up outside our apartment. Watching Mama and Papa fall apart every time somebody forced a door or tore the place apart looking for something.” She looks away for a moment.
“I’d spent years stealing things, getting into trouble, pushing my luck.
I convinced myself somebody had finally come to collect the bill. ”
Her gaze flicks toward Cassian. “Then an opportunity appeared. A contract. A way out. A chance to rewrite my life and remove the danger from my family’s doorstep.
So I took it. I thought if I disappeared, they’d stop looking at him.
” A humorless laugh escapes her. “Turns out, I was solving the wrong problem.”
Lucan blows out a slow breath. “So let me get this straight. The scholarship. That was you?”
Sola turns her gaze toward Mom, but it’s Cassian who drawls, “Since the Virel-Orlov conflict, the scholarship shouldn’t have existed anymore. My wife was determined to get her brother to Sero. So I contacted Halvern, from one older brother to another, and the Marrow family paid to reopen it.”
Dad’s gaze slides toward the edge of the room. “You knew?”
Halvern steps forward from where he was lingering near the windows. “I did.”
Dad’s expression darkens. “And you said nothing.”
“I respected the oath I gave.”
“The oath.” Dad gives a dry chuckle. “While I had my son investigate the scholarship student. You caused us a lot of work, Professor.”
“Rowan deserves it,” Sola says. “For as long as my brother could talk, he wanted the Noctis. And I wanted to give him the world.” Something soft flickers across her expression, and fuck it if I feel something that’s suspiciously close to sympathy.
“Then why not tell him it was you?” Dad asks.
“He would’ve stayed behind for everyone else,” I cut in.
He told me so himself.
That’s the problem with Rowan. He never puts himself first.
Dad’s gaze flicks toward me, and judging by the look on his face, I’m probably proving Sola’s point for her.