Page 24

Chapter 23

Cyrus

H e was lying in bed in the room he’d been given in the manor. His shirt was off, one hand propped behind his head resting on a couple of stacked pillows. He was tossing a ball of ?ames in the air and catching it with the other hand. A few more hours.

A few more hours and the sun would rise, and he could ?nd something to do that didn’t involve sitting in a quiet room by himself with only his memories to keep him company.

There was a knock on the door, and he looked at it, the ?ames ?ickering in his palm, as he wondered who would be knocking on his door at this hour.

“Yeah?” he called out.

The door pushed open, Cassius standing on the other side. Still fully dressed, Cyrus could tell he hadn’t slept a wink in the two hours since they’d all gone to their own rooms.

“I need you.”

“What?” Cyrus asked, sitting upright, the ?ames in his palm extinguishing. “What’s wrong?”

Cassius ran his hand through his hair. “I need your help,” he amended, his gaze darting around the room. “Being here, my magic is... It feels different. It’s unsettling. I do not want to wake up Scarlett, and I ?gured you were awake, cursing the night, so I thought... ” He trailed off, his eyes settling on Cyrus’s.

And holy shit. They were both glowing the way Scarlett’s did, only his were a deep amber-red color. Both his pupils were more vertical than circular and wasn’t that interesting? That his injured eye responded to his magic just as his good eye did. It had been beneath the patch on the ship. They wouldn’t have known.

Cyrus was already on his feet, reaching for the tunic he’d tossed across the desk chair nearby. He turned back to Cass, and he just looked so damn helpless. Cyrus had never seen him so out of sorts. Even when everything would go to shit, Cassius was the calm in the storm. Not only for Scarlett, but for everyone.

He was still shrugging into the tunic when he reached Cassius’s side, and he rested a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be ?ne. You just need to siphon off some of your magic. You haven’t touched it since that battle with the seraphs and that was a while ago. And now, being here, it’s getting anxious. It’s energy that needs to be released, Cass.”

“I can’t here,” he argued, shaking his head. “I do not have control over it.”

“We will ?nd some place,” Cyrus replied, pulling his door shut behind him. “At home I would take you to the Courtyards, but we will ?nd some place here.”

Cassius nodded, falling into step beside him. They made their way down one of the winding grand staircases, moving to the front doors when the small female from earlier appeared.

“Can I get you two something?” she asked, kindness and warmth radiating from her.

“We just need to get some air,” Cyrus said quickly. He glanced at Cassius before he added, “Preferably somewhere not ?ammable.”

Understanding ?ashed across the female’s face, and her gaze ?itted over Cassius. “I can summon Lord Razik,” she said carefully. “He would know the best space for such a thing.”

“That is not necessary,” Cyrus said. “Just an open area nearby?”

She nodded, gesturing for them to follow her. “There is a path that goes through the courtyard and leads to the base of the mountains. It is a little bit of a walk. Unless you would like someone to Travel you there?”

“Can everyone here Travel?” Cassius asked.

The female looked over her shoulder at them. “Most with magic can. The mortals, of course, cannot.”

“There are mortals here?” Cyrus asked.

She laughed lightly. “Of course there are mortals here.”

“Mortals, but not Fae?” Cassius asked as they followed her through a set of doors and out into the night once more.

She paused, holding a door open for them, her warm eyes darkening some. “Not since the Wards went up.” She nodded to the dark. “Follow the path. You will know when you leave the estate. The wards will alert the Lords to your departure and return.”

“Lords? As in more than one?” Cassius asked.

She smiled again, nodding. “The Commander and his son.”

“No one told us of his son. He will not mind us being here?”

Her smile faltered somewhat, as though she were confused. “No. He does not mind.”

“Let’s go,” Cyrus said, bumping his shoulder against Cassius’s.

They were silent as they made their way down the path, and he could feel the tension radiating off of Cassius beside him.

“Breathe, Cass,” he said reassuringly. “You will learn to control it. This will all be ?ne.”

Cassius nodded, his pace seeming to quicken. Cyrus increased his steps to keep up. It took a good twenty minutes before he felt the estate’s wards pressing against his skin as they crossed them. Cassius didn’t even seem to notice. Maybe it was his Witch blood.

Another twenty minutes later, they stepped through a dark mist to ?nd rocky ground beginning to incline. The base of a mountain. Cassius seemed predisposed to simply keep going and climb the damn thing.

Cyrus reached out, gripping his forearm. “You can’t outrun this,” he said with a smirk.

Cassius didn’t return the sentiment.

Cyrus looked around them, tossing a ?ame in the air to illuminate their surroundings. Rocky bare ground, a few sparse trees. Not the Courtyards, but it would certainly do.

“You do not have to worry about burning anything down here,” he said. “If you lose control, it will be ?ne.”

Cassius seemed to tense even more.

“Take a deep breath and let it go. It shouldn’t take much to tap into your magic if it’s causing you this much trouble,” Cyrus continued, watching him carefully, ready to intervene if necessary. He wasn’t entirely sure he’d be able to do much against the ?ames Cassius had, but a shield should at least protect him.

“It is not that easy,” Cassius grumbled.

“I know it’s not,” Cyrus said. “But seriously, Cass, your eyes have already shifted. You just need to let it go. There is nothing out here you can harm.”

“You are out here.”

“And I can make a shield.”

“You don’t know that it will hold against... whatever it is I can do,” he argued, echoing his thoughts.

“I’m pretty fast,” Cyrus said with a wink. “I’ll manage to get out of the way if needed.”

“This isn’t something to joke about,” Cassius snapped, dragging both hands through his hair this time. “Gods, you and Scarlett turn everything into a godsdamn joke. This is serious.”

“Hey, hey,” Cyrus said, frowning at the words. “Where is that coming from? We both care. You know that.”

Cassius’s hands went through his hair again, ?ngers tightening in the strands. Cyrus had never seen him like this. Unsettled wasn’t a strong enough word to describe him.

Cassius was rattled about whatever this was.

Cyrus reached out and gripped his arm again. “Come on, Cass. Talk to me.”

“It is this place,” he muttered. “I cannot... I do not like how this feels. This magic beneath my skin, screaming to get out. Uncontrollable and frenzied.”

“So let it out,” Cyrus said. “We’re away from everyone else. It’s just me and you.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t.”

“You need to, Cass. Or eventually your magic will take over and take what you refuse to give it.” Cassius just shook his head again, and Cyrus was grabbing his face, forcing him to look at him. His pupils were fully vertical now, glowing brighter than before. If he didn’t let this out soon, it would force its way out just like he’d said. “Sorin told me that Scarlett’s magic would take over, breaking through her tonic.” Cassius nodded, swallowing hard. “That is what will happen, Cassius. When we don’t use our magic, we lose control of it.”

“I don’t know how to not be in control,” Cassius said, his voice hoarse and full of agony. “I have always been in control. The few times I have lost it... ”

Understanding washed through Cyrus, a sense of relief with it. He could work with this. He could talk him through this.

“Okay,” he said, inhaling deeply. “Okay. Cass, look at me.” When those amber-red eyes were back on his, he said, “I’m going to use my ?ames to guide yours, all right?” It wouldn’t be quite the same as sharing with a twin ?ame, but their magic would still be drawn to each other, especially if his was trying to break free. “If you can’t trust your magic right now, then trust me, okay? Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” he replied thickly. “Yeah, I can do that.”

“Good.” Cyrus called his ?ames up, bands of ?re twining around Cassius’s arms. “Breathe, Cassius. Let your magic do what it was created to do. It’s part of you. It’s not the enemy. It doesn’t want to work against you.”

He could feel it, Cass’s magic struggling beneath his skin. Cyrus’s own ?re seemed to ?are with anticipation at this unknown power. It was hot and ?erce, and, gods , Cass was powerful. He’d only felt power like this from the Fae Royals. But Cass still wasn’t letting it out.

“Cass, let it go.”

“I can’t.”

Fuck. This was about to get brutal.

“Cassius, if you do not let your magic out right now, it will go wild. It will claw its way out of your being. And when that happens? I will not be able to help. I cannot promise you I will not get hurt. I cannot promise that something drastic will not happen. But right now? Right now, if you trust me, I can help. But I can feel your power, Cass. You don’t have much time left before it takes over.” He could feel Cassius trembling beneath his hands, his eyes still ?xed on him. “Come on, Cass,” he encouraged, bordering on begging. He brought his brow to his. “You can do this. You always catch everyone else. Let me catch you. This one time.”

And then there were black ?ames ?aring around them. Cyrus quickly threw a shield around himself, pulling it close to his body, but he refused to break contact with Cassius. Not when he’d ?nally gotten through to him.

“Just let it burn,” he murmured, feeling the tension drain from Cassius with each passing second.

The black ?ames were swirling around them, a whirlwind of writhing, intense heat. He’d expected Cassius to shift more, for those wings to appear at least, but nothing else on him changed. His eyes continued to glow as he kept them pinned to Cyrus’s, his breathing measured and focused.

It was several minutes later when the black ?ames around them started to lessen. Cyrus sent his magic to weave among the black ?ames, calming them and slowly coaxing them to go out. Cassius sucked in a sharp breath.

“That feels... different.”

“I know,” Cyrus said, adamantly ignoring the feeling of their powers mingling together. “But it’s the only way I can put your ?ames out right now.”

It was another few minutes before he had them all out.

“Better?” Cyrus asked, taking a measured step back from -Cassius.

“Yeah,” Cassius said. He sounded utterly exhausted.

“How do your reserves feel? Do you need blood after that?”

“No,” Cassius said quickly. At Cyrus’s skeptical look, he added, “I want them to be... not full right now. It is harder to control when my reserves are full.”

“Now that we are off the ship, you can start training with them. You can practice with them and learn to control them. It will get easier.”

Cassius nodded, looking towards the path they’d come down. “Ready to head back?”

Cyrus watched him for a long moment before he ventured, “Before we go, maybe you should try calling your power forth now. When it’s not so intense.”

“Why would I want to do that?”

“So you can practice controlling it. Maybe it will be easier to control when your reserves aren’t full?”

Cassius ran his thumb and fore?nger along his brow. “I do not want to deal with this right now.”

“Obviously,” Cyrus drawled, and Cassius glared at him. “Whether you want to or not, your magic is going to demand it.”

Cassius shoved his hands deep into his pockets, tipping his face to the sky that was beginning to show the barest traces of the coming dawn. “Can I admit something to you?”

“Of course,” Cyrus answered with a slight frown.

“I often wish Scarlett had never awoken my gifts.”

He clamped down on the immediate response of wanting to refute that statement. His magic was a gift as much as any of theirs were, but he clearly viewed it as anything but at the moment. Instead he said, “I can see why you feel that way.”

Cassius slowly slid his gaze to him. “Scarlett would try to tell me I just need to learn to control them, that I will feel differently when I do.”

Cyrus shrugged. “I’m not Scarlett.”

“No,” Cassius agreed. “You are not.”

“Do I think you will eventually feel differently about your gifts? Yes. But can I promise that? Not really,” Cyrus added. “Do you need to learn to control them whether you like them or not? Yes.”

“I know,” Cassius sighed into the waning night. “I thought it might be easier when we got here, but I was not prepared for... that. Scarlett let her shadows free on the ship, and she... Gods, it was like her shadows knew they were home. It was like she knew she was home. I thought... ”

“You thought you would feel that way when you got here too, but you don’t,” Cyrus supplied.

“Something like that.”

“You know better than anyone she was not always like... Well, like she is now. If this had all been happening a year ago, before she found Sorin and faced her darkness, I suspect she would have felt the same.”

“Maybe,” Cassius muttered.

“She struggled with her magic too, you know. She was so frustrated it didn’t come naturally to her, and gods, she could be so insufferable during that time. She was just so lost and angry. I don’t know how many weeks Sorin took her to the Courtyards and nothing would happen. Well, nothing with her magic anyway. But...” He trailed off, not entirely sure how Cassius was going to receive what he needed to say. He waited until Cassius looked at him again before he said, “Our magic is tied to our emotions and our mental state. It is why it can explode when we are angry. It is why it reacts when we sense danger. And when Scarlett was working through all of her trauma, it was hard to access her magic. It was buried beneath everything she was trying to shove down. You come to understand your magic, and it comes to understand you. Your magic tends to recognize when you are dealing with hard truths. ”

“What exactly are you trying to say, Cyrus?” Cassius asked, turning to face him fully. His eyes were still amber-red, although they weren’t glowing quite as intensely. They were more muted now.

“I’m saying you might ?nd it hard to work with your magic until you ?gure out all this stuff with your father and the High Witch,” Cyrus said bluntly. “It is something you do not have control over, who your parents are, and you like control. I think things have always come easily to you, like they did for Scarlett, and magic is entirely different from ?ghting and darting through the night. Your power isn’t about control so much as it is about the give-and-take.”

Cassius exhaled another harsh breath. “I think that is about as much introspection as I can take for the night.”

“Fair enough. It is dawn,” Cyrus conceded, nodding towards the slowly brightening sky.

Cassius rolled his eyes, starting towards the path they’d followed up here, and Cyrus fell into step beside him once more.

“So when your eyes are shifted like that, can you see out of both of them?” Cyrus asked after a few minutes of comfortable silence.

“Actually yeah. It is really strange,” Cassius answered. “Adjusting to randomly seeing with both eyes again is odd.”

“I imagine it is,” Cyrus said. “Can you shift them back?”

“No.”

“Have you tried?”

“Have I... Of course, I have tried, Cyrus. What do you think I was doing in my room before I came to get you?”

“... sleeping? Like everyone else?” Cyrus guessed. Then he smirked to himself when he heard Cassius muttering about a “smart ass” under his breath. “But in all seriousness, Cass.” He reached out, tugging him to a stop. “Your power reserves should be full. We don’t know who and what we’ll be facing today. If not for you, then for Scarlett,” Cyrus rushed on when Cassius started to protest.

“Guilt as a motivator,” Cassius quipped with a soft huff. “You are not as clever as you think you are.”

“I’m exactly as clever as I think I am.”

They stepped back across the wards as the sun crested the horizon, bathing the courtyard around them in soft light. There were low stone walls along the path, ivy and ?owers nearly obscuring the stones from view. Various paths branched off as they walked, and at one point, Cyrus was sure he saw movement in the shadows of one of those paths. He’d slowed, studying the darkened walkway that led deeper into the courtyard, but then Cassius had said, “Fine, I will re?ll them to be prepared for today,” and they’d continued on to the manor.

The house was obnoxiously large but somehow tasteful at the same time. They hadn’t seen much of the kingdom, having arrived in the dark, but the streets they’d traveled along had seemed clean and taken care of. Homes appeared in good condition and were inviting. Even the docks by the sea had been relatively neat. As neat as docks could be anyway. He could still smell the sea from here, but it was faint enough that he could breathe deep and not feel like he was choking on memories.

The female from earlier met them at the doors with her warm smile in place.

“Welcome back.”

“Thank you,” Cassius answered, and Cyrus let him take the lead in conversing with her. He was the one who’d spent the last decade in a noble’s household, had essentially been raised in one. “It is Magdalena, yes?”

She nodded with another smile. “Would you two like some breakfast? I have several options already prepared and waiting in the dining room,” she said, closing the doors behind them.

“That would be great. Then we could rest before the lunch meeting later today,” Cassius answered, following her down a hallway.

She led them to a large dining room, a long table within that was laden with place settings and various breakfast foods. Eliza and Auberon were already at the table, the latter sipping from a silver goblet. Cyrus assumed Eliza’s blood ?lled it.

Eliza glanced up from the book she was reading, annoyance ?ickering across her features.

“Eliza, dear,” Cyrus drawled, dropping into a chair across from her. “There is still time to get some more sleep if it will make you more pleasant today.”

Auberon snickered into his cup.

“If only more sleep would make you less of a pain in my ass,” she returned, her eyes already back on her book.

“Seriously, why are you so cranky this morning? There’s food right in front of you if you’re hungry,” Cyrus said, reaching for a plate of bacon. Eliza didn’t exactly have a cheery personality on a normal day, but she seemed especially irritable for this early in the morning.

“I am not hungry, you prick,” she sniped at him.

Cyrus had a retort on the tip of his tongue, but Auberon cut in before he could speak.

“She is upset because that male from last night just left,” the Night Child said, a smirk lifting his lips.

“I am not upset because he left,” Eliza snarled, her book snapping shut. “I was glad he ?nally took his leave.”

Auberon was obviously trying to keep the mirth from his face, but was failing miserably.

“So... what happened?” Cassius asked before he took a bite of toast covered in raspberry jam.

“Do not say a word, you bloodsucker,” Eliza hissed, her ?nger pointed at Auberon. Warning laced every word, and Cyrus knew she would carry out the underlying threat.

Auberon apparently didn’t give a shit.

“He thought she was one of the queen’s Ladies-in-Wait.”

Fire was ?aring from Eliza’s palm right at the vampyre, who was ducking under the table with a curse amid his snigger.

Cyrus was ?ghting back his own laughter. Eliza must have wanted to gut the male.

“I assume that was Razik?” Cassius asked, a polite smile on his face.

“Yes, it was,” Eliza replied through clenched teeth.

“Oh, come on, Eliza. Maybe their females aren’t in the armies like they are back home,” Cyrus said, shoveling eggs into his mouth to keep the laughter from spilling out. “I’m sure it was an honest mistake.”

“Chew your food and then speak, Cyrus. You do not need to act like a buffoon all the godsdamn time,” she retorted.

“Sorry to offend your delicate sensibilities, milady,” he volleyed back after swallowing his eggs.

“I am going to take my boot, start it on ?re, and shove it so far up your—”

“Well, good morning,” Scarlett said loudly.

They all turned to ?nd the king and queen in the doorway. Sorin’s brow was furrowed as he observed his Court, while Scarlett looked amused and ready to join in the bantering.

“What are we shoving where and why exactly?” she asked, plopping down beside Cassius.

“Apparently the King’s Hand thought Eliza was— Fuck!” Cyrus yelled, dropping his fork as he lurched back from his plate of food that had gone up in ?ames, nearly singeing his face. He wouldn’t have felt the burn of the ?ames, but that didn’t mean his hair and godsdamn eyebrows wouldn’t have caught alight. “Eliza!” he growled, picking up the few eggs that had ?own from his fork and splattered across the table.

“Kindly remember we are guests here,” Sorin said, his voice rising to be heard over the top of his Second and general.

“Scarlett’s the princess. She outranks any Lord here,” Cyrus muttered, putting out Eliza’s ?ames and frowning at his now burnt food.

“Cyrus... ” Sorin said, already sounding exasperated.

“No, no. He’s right,” Scarlett cut in. “I say we let this play out. I can play the princess card if necessary.”

Cyrus’s head snapped up to ?nd her grinning like a cat that got the cream as she chewed on a pastry. Sorin was rubbing his brow in that way he always did when he felt like he was refereeing children. Cassius was placing bacon on her plate.

“Perhaps introductions should be a top priority at lunch,” -Cassius said, passing Scarlett the bowl of scrambled eggs next. “Lord Razik, apparently, did not realize that Eliza is part of your Inner Court.”

“I am sure Eliza took care of any misunderstandings,” Scarlett said carefully, reaching for the glass of juice Sorin had poured forher.

“ Lord Razik ,” Eliza grumbled under her breath. “He is not even the Lord of this house. He is the son of the Lord.”

“Wait,” Scarlett said, her glass landing back on the table with a faint clunk. “ He’s the son of the Avonleyan Commander of the armies?”

“Apparently,” Eliza said, looking put out by the fact. “When Magdalena asked him of Lord Tybalt, he said his father was doing well and would be stopping by later today.”

“What did you say?” Cassius demanded.

Cyrus turned to look at him, startled to ?nd both him and Scarlett frozen, eyes wide as they stared back at Eliza.

Eliza, confused as the rest of them, said slowly, “Razik said his father would stop by later today. To check in and take care of any pressing matters.”

“The Commander’s name,” Scarlett rasped. “What did you say his name was?”

“Tybalt. She called him Lord Tybalt,” Eliza answered.

The sound of a chair scraping had Cyrus’s attention going back to Cassius again, but he was already walking out of the dining room.

“Cassius!” Scarlett called after him, already halfway to the doorway.

“Cass?” Cyrus called at the same time, getting to his feet.

He came to a stop beside Scarlett, where she’d stilled outside the dining room.

“What was that about?” he asked, turning to face her fully.

She was staring down the hall in the direction Cassius had gone, worrying her bottom lip. When she met his stare, silver eyes full of concern stared back at him. “Hazel told us that his father’s name is Tybalt.”

“But that would mean...”

“The Avonleyan Commander is his father,” she ?nished for him, gaze drifting back down the hall. “But it also means that Razik is his brother.”