Page 20

Chapter 20

Family Ties

Xavier

Cassius had stunned the room with his admission.

“Uncle?” Blake repeated. Not even his best friend had known this fact.

“Yes…” Cassius looked down at the half-eaten pizza crust on his plate.

“How did you not recognize him during the attack at the White House?” Blake asked.

“The last time I saw him, I was a kid. He and my dad had a huge falling-out. I don’t think I ever saw him in his wolf form, much less in that fucked-up half-wolf, half-human face he had on. He’s twisted now. Different. He’s changed. But the second I heard his name, his real name, it all clicked. Especially because he loved woodworking when I was a kid. He called himself ‘the carpenter’ back then. It’s him. For sure.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. How had we been traveling with a direct family member of the man we were hunting down without even knowing it? And what did this mean for our mission?

“Do you know if he and your father have communicated at all?” Damien asked. Robby sat next to him like a statue, eyes trained on Cassius. Dawn exchanged a glance with Claire, who was spinning her bracelet around her wrist as if she wanted to tighten a screw.

“I don’t think they have.” Cassius shook his head.

This was big. The biggest break we’d gotten in our case for the missing dagger. And unfortunately, it had been laid directly at the feet of Blake’s best friend. This was likely a lot to process, but we didn’t have much time. “Do you know how to contact him?” I asked. “Where we can find him?”

Cassius remained quiet. He shut his eyes, wincing as if he were in physical pain. Blake reached over and rubbed his friend’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, Cass. We can figure this out together,” Blake reassured him.

“I can ask my dad,” he finally answered. “He might know where it is we can find him. Maybe he’s kept tabs on his brother.”

“He wasn’t in the room during the attack, was he?” Caleb asked. He was a detective with an agency called Stonewall Investigations, so his expertise was welcome right now. Maybe he should have been the one to take the helm on this. I was clearly proving to be more and more out of my league. If I hadn’t fought off that Dragonsbane, Blake could have been seriously injured or worse, all while we lost an innocent life and weren’t even able to extract a location from the Time Turners.

All my insecurities rose to the surface of my psyche. Childhood memories of seeing my siblings master their powers early while I could barely create a handful of sand, much less turn back time. My mother would spend hours with me, day after day, trying to teach me how to work my magic. She was a golden dragon just like me, but her powers seemed like an infinite well stored inside her, while mine felt like a shallow puddle slowly drying up in the hot summer heat. If it wasn’t for her, that puddle may have evaporated completely. She pushed me to grow, to learn, to believe in myself.

The belief was slowly waning, flickering like a candle underneath a cold draft.

“No,” Cass answered Caleb’s question. “I don’t think so, at least. He said he had left right before the attack happened. He was rushed somewhere safe.”

Caleb cocked his head. He pursed his lips. “But how did they know to rush him to safety?”

“It was a large attack—they probably got some kind of word it would be happening,” Cassius said. I noticed there was a bristle in his tone. The stress of this must have been getting to him.

A question popped into my head. For a second, I wasn’t going to ask it, the doubt clamping an invisible hand around my mouth. But I spoke anyway. “Does your uncle have any strong relationships with other people in your family?”

With a deep breath, Cassius said, “Yes. I have a cousin, his only daughter. I think they still talk. I keep in touch with her, but we aren’t close. And her mom passed away around the same time mine did. That made it difficult for us; we were just constant reminders of what we lost to each other.”

“Wow, so both your father and his brother lost their wives?” Dawn said. “I’m sorry. That must have been a very difficult time.”

“It was. And it’s what pulled my father and uncle apart too. They were never really close, but things got really bad. They started to fight a lot. It got fucked. My dad said to me one day that he’s never speaking to Simon again, and after that, I didn’t see him.”

“Are you comfortable with talking to your dad about this?” Blake asked. He clearly cared about his friend’s mental health, which must have been taking a beating through this.

“Yeah, yeah. I just need a minute.” Cassius stood, the heavy chair sliding back across the polished hardwood floor. “Is it alright if I go for a walk?”

“Of course,” Damien answered.

“We’ll be here,” Dawn said.

Blake reached over and squeezed his friend’s elbow. “It’s going to be fine. Okay?”

“I know. I just need some fresh air. Maybe I’ll call my dad.”

“Let us know how that goes,” I said. Cassius left the dining room. Bambi hopped off a windowsill and sauntered behind him, likely thinking she could get some lap sits in. She had a habit of following whoever was feeling the most stressed or anxious, as if she knew that a few head scratches and a heavy stream of purrs could cure anyone’s problems.

“Poor guy,” Warrick said. He picked up a half-eaten crust and took a bite.

“On the flip side, at least we have a solid lead,” Claire offered. “Maybe this can be how we figure out where the dagger is. We just need to keep you out of their hands in the meantime.” Her light eyes leapt to mine .

“How would that work anyway? They just need me to wield the dagger?” I asked.

Claire shrugged. “I know as much about it as you do. I’ll try and do some more research on it, but it looks like not much is known about the starlight dagger. It was found decades ago and has been held by the government ever since under their Crucial Artifacts Program.”

“Do you know anything about it?” I asked Blake.

“About the dagger, about CAP? Not really. My dad probably does, but I don’t have that kind of clearance.” Blake looked out the window. He looked stressed. His shoulders were held high as he gnawed on the inside of his cheek. I didn’t like seeing him like this. We’d already had such a long day; I didn’t want the night to hurt him too.

I reached over and put a hand on his. He didn’t move it away. “I think we can wrap this dinner up.”

Warrick stretched his arms over his head with a yawn. “Yeah, I’m going to bed.”

“Same,” Robby said, standing with Damien.

I squeezed Blake’s hand. “Come, let’s go to the Dragon’s Den. We can unwind a bit.” I stood from the table. Blake didn’t ask too many questions. He rose with me and followed me out of the dining room. The rest of my family dispersed as they talked about next steps with each other.

Things were going to get complicated—as if they already weren’t—so taking some time to ourselves right now sounded like the best option.

“You okay?” I asked as we walked through the hall, passing underneath the mural of our rainbow flight.

Blake craned his neck to look at it as he answered me. “Yeah, as okay as I can be with knowing the world might come to an end.”

“It’s not going to,” I reassured him. “We can stop them.”

“I hope so.”

“We will.”

I hope.

I walked us down a wide hallway and stopped in front of an alcove holding a dragon statue. It was perched on a stone column with its wings pulled against it, the head looking over and appearing to stare directly into my eyes. Blake’s brows drew together as he looked from the statue to me.

“You do the honors,” I told him. I leaned in and whispered the password in Blake’s ear.

He cocked his head. I motioned to the statue. I noticed his cheeks had flushed bright red. He was so cute when he got flustered. Had that been from my breath against his ear? Because if so, I had a feeling my breath against some other parts of him would cause a full-on meltdown.

And I was inclined to make it happen.

Blake turned to the statue. “Take flight,” he said, sounding slightly confused.

The statue gave a small shudder before it began to spread its smooth gray wings. Blake took a few steps back, surprised as the statue started to turn, sinking into a hole in the floor. The solid stone wall behind it began to split open, rock grinding against rock. Behind it was a room washed in a flickering orange glow, the light spilling out into the hallway and shining on Blake’s face. His cheeks were still rosy pink, his lips slightly parted.

Fuck, was Blake a sexy man. Somehow, it was even sexier that he didn’t really know just how good he looked. I could tell Blake lacked confidence in himself, which was a deep shame. He had the looks to be a model. Sharp cheekbones, plump lips, breathtaking amber eyes, soft and wavy brown hair, a defined jawline. Beyond his looks, he also had a personality that drew people in like a magnet. He was a little awkward but in a charming way, one that made me want to laugh with him and fuck him senseless at the same time.

But there was also an invisible wall there that held me back. I had been sexually attracted to him from the moment I stepped into that White House dining hall and met him for the first time, but I certainly wasn’t going to push myself onto him. Especially not since I was hired to be his bodyguard. While it wasn’t against any code of conduct, it also wouldn’t have been the smartest or most moral move to make.

And then that kiss happened. It was game over from there. My fantasies blossomed like one of Warrick’s rare rosebushes. Blake began to consume most of my thoughts, especially the dirty ones.

“Can I go in?” Blake asked.

“Of course. I didn’t bring you here to stand outside,” I said with a wink.

He stepped in and gave a surprised gasp.

The Dragon’s Den was our very own speakeasy, tucked away near the back of the castle. It was a secluded spot made for complete relaxation. The room was dim, lit by a series of gas lamps that were responsible for the soft orange glow, making the black bar top shine as if it were under the permanent rays of a setting sun. Behind it was a mirrored wall where rows and rows of expensive liquors were held in bottles that were as much art as containers. I led us over to the bar and stepped behind it while Blake hopped onto one of the purple velvet stools.

“What do you want to drink?” I asked.

“Can you make a tequila sunrise?”

“I can make you whatever you want,” I said with a grin that had him blushing again.