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“Harm me, and you can say goodbye to the treaty you’ve worked so hard to finalise. Althea, Elinor, Gyah – everyone back in the hall knows where I am.” It was my turn to smile, knowing that I’d gotten Cassial into a corner.

I stepped in closer to the saw, testing him. Cassial knew, just as I had worked out in the wanting glint in his eyes, that if he harmed me, it would start a war. We had found ourselves at a stand-off neither one of us wanted.

“What will it be then, Robin? Will we take the path that threatens the peace we have cultivated in the months since Rafaela’s betrayal?” Cassial straightened. “Or the one which leads to contentions neither party will survive?”

“You keep talking about this treaty as if I would ever sign it knowing what you are capable of,” I said, reminding him of the fact. “Not to mention Althea. Do you really think she will go ahead with a wedding if she knows what you have done with Rafaela? She will burn this fucking castle down. Cassial, Durmain would burn.”

“And threaten the relations between our kinds?” Cassial slowly lowered the saw. “Althea is a woman of measure and thought. There is no future in which she would act against the Nephilim overoneperson. Not like you, however. How selfish you truly are, Robin Icethorn.”

“If helping my friend is selfish, then I wear that crown with pride.”

Cassial’s eyes narrowed on me, the disdain in them palpable. “You knowexactlywhat I mean. You dare intervene in the Creator’s will, over and over. First destroying the keys, and now you wish to put a thorn in our own beliefs and processes. Do you truly believe you are aboveHisword?”

I looked around the pit, unable to stop the sharp-tongued sarcasm from coming out of me. “I don’t see the Creator anywhere here. If this… despicable action was something he wanted, he’d be here. Instead, you’re the one standing before me.”

“I am His–”

“Shield,” I spat. “Protector ofHisword. Not avenger or punisher!”

I risked a glance to Rafaela, who was slumped over, balled on the floor with the bleeding stumps pumping fresh blood out onto the stone floor. “Leave, Cassial. Do not make matters any worse than they already need to be.”

“What’s done is done.” Cassial looked as though he was seconds from taking matters into his own hands, again. I had to stop him. “There is no moving past this, we both know that.”

A plan formulated in my mind, one I could use to manipulate Cassial into giving me what I wanted. And now, I didn’t only need Rafaela for Duncan’s sake, but her own.

“Actually, there is something,” I said. “If you are willing to listen.”

I saw the moment of hope that passed behind Cassial’s eyes. If there was one thing clear, besides his vile tendencies, it was that he wanted his well-thought-out plans to proceed. “A proposal?”

“You could say that. I will keep yourdirtyfucking secret,” I spat. “No one else needs to know about what you are doing here. But for that, I will need to go back and tell my friends that I have found Rafaela, and she is well, considering each and every one of them know I am here.”

Cassial blanched, panic seeping across his expression. “You told them?”

“That you previously lied, yes. I did. But I suppose it was only an accusation until proven, so what news I take back to them will certainly affect how the fragile hours to follow will proceed.”

“And you would happily lie to your friends on my behalf?” Cassial asked, head cocked slightly to the side, the very same gesture Duncan used. The rawness of it caught my breath.

“Yes, I would lie to them if it meant protecting them.”

It pained me to say it, but it was the truth. In fact, lying to them about Rafaela was no different to what other mistruths had left my mouth.

I needed Cassial to think rationally, and for that I wouldn’t tell anyone. If I told anyone else about what I’d found, it would bring an end to the wedding and start a conflict between the fey and Nephilim, thus dividing the world further than it already had been.

My goal was tosavethe world from Duwar. Starting a civil war was counterproductive. And for my plan, I needed Rafaela.

“Not so selfish as you thought, am I?” I asked, the hateful bite in my tone only getting worse.

“Yourwordmeans little to me.” Cassial glowered, large hands balled into fists, wings still out and ready to use against me. “We invite you into our home, host your celebrations, work to unify the world your kind failed many years ago. And here you come, looking in places that do not belong to you. Why would you think I would believe you now?”

I held his stare, ensuring he not only heard my honest emotion but saw it reflected in my dark eyes. “My word is all I have. But I promise, on my life, on Icethorn–”

Cassial smirked. “I will need a vow with more weight, Robin Icethorn.”

I swallowed hard. It didn’t take a scholar to understand what he was suggesting. “Then I swear it, on Duncan’s life, that no one will know of Rafaela. I will play along, but only if you give her to me. See that the only person to touch her is a healer. Going forwards, Rafaela will belong to me. If you believe punishment is justified, let it be the Creator who hands it out. Not you, or anyone else for that matter.”

Cassial winced, clearly pained by my reminder that he was no god. Cassial, no matter his angelic proportions, was mortal enough to be affected by an ego. And if I was to win this battle, I had to use that against him.

“Rafaela is Nephilim, we have our ways–”