Page 34

Chapter 33

Cyrus

"D o it,” Scarlett demanded.

“No,” Sorin gritted back, folding his arms across his chest.

Her eyes moved to Cassius. “You do it,” she urged, holding a bow and quiver out to him. Cassius stared back at her, sternly shaking his head. “Cyrus?”

He took in that pleading look on her face and bit down on his laughter. Pushing off the wall of the arena he’d been standing against, he reached for the bow. “Fuck it. Why not?”

“No, Cyrus,” Sorin growled, stepping forward and snatching the bow and quiver full of arrows from her hands.

“Please, Sorin.”

And Cyrus didn’t hold back his laugh at the sound of Scarlett Aditya, Death’s Maiden, Princess of Avonleya, and Queen of the Western Courts, whining and begging.

Sorin stared back at her, unimpressed. “Even your elusive manners will not convince me of this.”

“I’m Avonleyan. My mother is a goddess. I should be able to catch an arrow in the air,” she said before tossing a hand in Cass’s direction. “So should he.”

Cassius was suddenly staring intently at the ground, and Scarlett’s eyes narrowed. “You didn’t,” she hissed in an eerie whisper.

Cassius turned his palms up helplessly. “It just happened, Seastar. We were training, and it came out of nowhere, and I just... sort of caught it.” He was scratching at the back of his head, refusing to meet her gaze.

Cyrus had seen a lot of ridiculous shit over the centuries, but this was nearing the top as one of the most inane things he’d ever seen. Speaking of which...

“And you say the Fae throw tantrums,” Cyrus mocked. “I think a godling takes the prize for that one.”

“Cyrus, I swear to—”

“Mommy dearest?”

Her eyes narrowed on him, but before she could respond, Cethin, Razik, and Kailia strolled in the training arena. They all paused as they observed the stand-off.

“Are we interrupting?” Cethin asked, eyes darting between Scarlett and the three males.

“I want to try catching an arrow out of the air, but none of them will shoot one at me,” Scarlett grumbled.

“I’ll do it,” Razik said, reaching for Kailia’s bow that was strung across her back.

The female spun so quickly, Cyrus almost missed it, an arrow nocked and aimed at Razik’s throat before he took his next breath.

Cethin sighed, reaching over and pushing her arm down without even looking at her. “Razik, you know not to touch her bow. It makes her exceptionally violent.”

Razik chuckled darkly. “I know. I’m in the mood for some violence.”

Scarlett turned to glare at Cyrus, Cassius, and Sorin, hands on her hips. “Are you happy now? The dragon prick is my new favorite person.”

Cyrus scoffed. “We all know Eliza is your favorite person.”

“Eliza would shoot an arrow at me if I asked,” she retorted. “She also enjoys violence.”

She had a point there.

Scarlett turned to Cethin. “What are you doing here anyway? I thought we weren’t training until later.”

“Training is going to be a little different today,” Cethin said. “Razik says Cassius is gaining more control over his power. You two need to train together. Learn to depend on one another.”

Cassius started to say something, but Scarlett cut him off. “You want Cassius and I to learn to ?ght together?”

Razik was already pulling his tunic over his head, presumably so he didn’t ruin yet another when his wings appeared. Cyrus had seen that happen more than once over the last week that he had been going with Cassius up to the Nightmist Arena to train. Razik was right. Cassius was getting better. It had taken him a few days to ?gure out how to summon his magic. Tybalt had been the one to instruct him on that, while Razik had been the one to talk him through isolating the Shift from the ?re. The male might be a dick, but he was unexpectedly patient with Cassius. Cyrus could admit he might have been able to help him gain control of his magic, but that Shift? It would have taken months they did not have.

Cassius picked up on things as quickly as Scarlett did once he ?gured out how to bring his magic to the surface, and while it still ?ared out of control often enough, he was mastering it more and more every day. The fact he was the grandson of Sargon obviously aided in that too.

“We know you can ?ght together, but it is different when your magic comes into play. Cassius needs to learn to not only protect you but also aid you, and you need to let him,” Cethin said with a knowing look.

She scowled back at him, but he made a damn good point. Scarlett was always concerned about everyone else. It was why she’d wanted Callan to stay below deck when the seraphs attacked. And, yeah, that was the smartest move for various reasons, but even she had known she would be distracted by making sure he was safe. Sorin nearly dying already split her focus when he was ?ghting beside her. And there was no denying that Cassius might be her Guardian, but she would gladly hurl herself in front of danger to save him.

“I am not going to try to drain you. Not this time,” Cethin was saying. “We just want you two to spar with us. Kailia will keep your twin ?ame busy if necessary.”

The Avonleyan Queen was circling Cyrus and Sorin, and Cyrus wondered if she ever wore shoes. She left ashes in her wake every time she took a step. Rayner did not do that, even barefoot. Kailia caught him studying her, and the little smirk that tilted on her lips told him she knew exactly what he was thinking about. How were she and Rayner the same and yet different?

“Use your shadows today, Scarlett,” Cethin said, drawing Cyrus’s attention back to the match that was about to take place. “You will need them. When we start attacking each other, Raz and Cassius are going to be driven to defend their Wards. It is going to get messy.”

Scarlett nodded, her and Cassius exchanging some weapons before falling into positions beside each other so easily. It was clear this was not the ?rst time they had done this. Cyrus had been watching the male before him train for the last week. He knew he’d trained Scarlett. He could see it in how similarly they moved, even if Scarlett’s own training had progressed when Sorin showed up on the scene and then more so when she had come to the Fire Court. Cassius had laid the foundations for her. They had been ?ghting beside each other since Scarlett could pick up a sword, and to see how they had grown now? Yeah, Cyrus was eager to witness it.

“Ready?” Cethin asked.

Scarlett’s answer was a burst of star?re from her palm directly at her brother, which in turn had Razik snarling and shoving Cethin to the side. Cethin and Scarlett were both godsdamn laughing while Cassius and Razik were staring each other down. And by the gods, the King of Avonleya and the Queen of the Western Courts were more alike in that moment than Cyrus had ever witnessed.

Cassius had shifted, his wings appearing and eyes glowing amber-red while his cousin’s glowed bright blue. When Scarlett sent star?re at Cethin again, Razik had had enough. Twin short swords appeared in his hands amid ?ares of black ?ames, and he was advancing on Scarlett, while her shadows tangled with Cethin’s darkness. Then Cassius was stepping into his path, sword in hand, and black ?ames ?aring to life in his other palm. It was seamless, and Cyrus couldn’t help but smile at how comfortable he was becoming with his gifts.

Razik and Cassius leapt for each other. They sparred in the air while their Wards dueled it out on the dirt below. Cyrus saw what was going to happen a second before it did. Scarlett glanced up, checking in on Cass, and Cethin capitalized, his inky darkness winding around her and yanking her to the ground. She coughed, rolling onto her hands and knees, the wind having been knocked out of her when she’d landed on her back.

“No, no, Fire Prince.”

Cyrus turned to ?nd Kailia with an arrow aimed at Sorin’s back. He was so tense, he was visibly trembling, ?re ?ickering in his palm. Kailia circled around to his front, her head tilting as her arrow remained trained on him.

“They’re sparring, Sorin,” Cyrus said, reaching over and clamping a hand down on his shoulder, squeezing tightly. “She’s not in real danger.”

“I would not go that far,” Kailia said thoughtfully.

“Not helping,” Cyrus ground out when Sorin somehow managed to go even more rigid.

Kailia just shrugged her shoulders in apathy.

“Trust him to defend himself,” Cethin was saying to Scarlett as she stalked towards him, star?re ?aring down her spirit sword.

The ground shuddered when Cassius landed beside her, Razik hitting the ground beside Cethin at the same moment.

“Fight together,” Cethin ordered. He threw a hand out, shadows swirling around Razik, and Scarlett glanced between them before understanding seemed to cross her face. She did the same, shadows and ?re surrounding Cassius that were thick enough to shield him to some effect, but still gave him plenty of space to move.

Cethin nodded in approval before he and Razik attacked again. Razik’s dragon ?re tore through the makeshift shield, and Cassius grunted, having to summon his ?re to stop the attack.

“More,” Cethin demanded. “Maintain it while you ?ght me. Don’t look. Trust your magic, and trust him. When you face Alaric, you cannot have your focus split.”

Scarlett gritted her teeth, more shadows swirling around Cassius as the Sargon descendants took to the air once more.

“She will not be able to do this,” Sorin was muttering beside him. “She worries too much about everyone else.”

“I think that’s the point,” Cyrus replied. “What is she going to do when it’s you ?ghting beside her again? You think I haven’t noticed that she freezes when you are in danger? She can’t do that, and you know it. It’s only going to get worse as—”

“As I weaken,” Sorin ?nished for him. There was a thick silence before he said, “The only time I have ever seen her ?ght without worrying about anyone else is with Nuri and Juliette.”

“Because they were so in tune with each other,” Cyrus said. Sorin nodded. “Something like that only comes with time. We can’t force it.”

“But they’re obviously going to try,” Sorin said. “I know Cass trained her, but they rarely did missions together. It was always her and the Wraiths.”

Razik Traveled then, reappearing behind Scarlett. The shadows shielding him seemed to coil up, a dagger appearing, and Cyrus realized Cethin had sent him the weapon through the shadows. The dagger appeared at Scarlett’s throat, and even from where he stood, Cyrus could hear Razik growl, “We win.”

The four took measured steps back, all of them breathing hard. Razik disappeared, appearing again a minute later with four waterskins. While they all drank, Cethin said, “Your reserves are still plenty full. We go again in a minute.”

This went on for the next two hours, and Sorin was so on edge, Cyrus thought he was going to have to haul him out of there. Scarlett and Cassius were back-to-back, having started to share weapons the way Razik and Cethin did. They were picking up on the tricks they observed, but Sorin was right. This wasn’t going to happen overnight.

On top of that, Scarlett was getting frustrated. Cyrus could tell it in her movements. Frustration, coupled with the exhaustion she was surely beginning to feel, was causing her to make small mistakes that were only adding to her annoyance. And Cassius? He just looked ?at-out tired.

They hadn’t spoken of what had happened in this same training arena the day he’d met his father. Cassius was so exhausted after training all day, he ate dinner and was asleep before the sun had fully set. Scarlett was no different. Had it been a ?uke? Had the kiss happened just as a way for Cassius to ground himself ? Was it more than that? Did Cyrus want it to be more than that? The answer to those questions seemed to change with the wind. One moment, he wanted to track Cassius down and see if the kiss would be as intoxicating as the ?rst. The next moment, the thought of becoming something more, of becoming that involved with someone again, made him want to vomit.

“I think that is enough for today,” Cethin ?nally said when he’d knocked Scarlett’s sword from her hand. Cyrus was fairly certain she was about to try and drive said sword through his gut for real.

Sorin shoved past Kailia, already dragging a dagger down his forearm to re?ll Scarlett’s reserves. Cyrus watched as Scarlett held her palm up to him while she spoke with Cethin. If anyone should be ?ghting together, it should be Sorin and Scarlett. Those two would be able to communicate down their twin ?ame bond, sense each other’s presence. It’s why twin ?ames were so powerful.

Except they wouldn’t be twin ?ames much longer.

What was that going to look like? To be twin ?ames one moment and the next, nothing? Would it be like losing your twin ?ame to death? Soul-consuming mania and grief? Or would it simply feel like something was missing? Like they would never quite be whole again?

Sorin cut her palm, guiding it to the Source Mark, and the minute their blood mixed, her gaze snapped to his as their power merged. She stepped into him, his arm wrapping around her waist.

“Thank you, tiny ?end,” Cethin said, dropping a kiss to the top of his wife’s head as Razik and Cassius made their way over too.

Kailia looked up at him, stowing the arrow away in her quiver. “Do not forget your promise,” she said, eyes narrowing.

“Do I ever?” he countered.

A small smile played on her lips. “Not once.” She reached up, tracing a Mark along his chest with her nail. He’d lost his tunic at some point during the sparring session.

“Is there a particular reason you have not taken a Source yet?” Razik asked.

Cyrus and Scarlett both whirled to face him. Cassius’s face was hard, an empty waterskin hanging from his ?st.

“I was not sure if I needed one,” Cassius replied tightly.

“Why would you not need one?” Razik asked.

“Because I am only half-Avonleyan.”

“Do you not re?ll your reserves by drinking the blood of a Fae?”

“Yes.”

“Then you need a Source.”

Cassius crossed his arms over his bare chest. “This seems to be working just ?ne.”

“I’ve tried to tell you it’s not the same,” Scarlett cut in quietly, her eyes on the ground, boot toeing the dirt.

“You asked him to bring this up?” Cassius demanded.

She met his gaze. “I asked him if you needed one the other night.”

“Why?”

Scarlett’s palm was still pressed to the Source Mark, but she took a small step towards Cass. “Because it is important, Cassius. I understand the hesitation with it. I promise, I do, but—”

“This is nothing like you and Sorin, Scarlett. Nothing ,” Cassius snarled.

Well, that answered the question about the kiss last week.

“Cassius, it is not nothing and you know it,” Scarlett insisted, obviously not backing down on this subject today.

“You drink Fae blood daily, yes?” Cethin cut in.

“Yes,” Cassius gritted out.

“The same amount? Every day?”

“Since we have come here, yes.”

Cethin stared back at him, appearing to wait for something. When Cassius didn’t speak, he said, “I can feel your reserves, -Cassius.”

Scarlett stepped fully away from Sorin at that. There was a thread of panic in her voice when she asked, “What does that mean?” She spun back to Cassius. “Are your reserves getting smaller like Sorin’s?”

“No, Seastar,” Cassius said, his tone instantly softening at her dread. “That is not what is happening.”

“Then explain,” Cyrus said shortly.

“There is a reason the Legacy take Sources instead of continuing to drink like the Night Children,” Cethin said. “Eventually, a Legacy needs more and more of it to fully replenish their power reserves.”

“You are saying Cassius hasn’t been ?lling his reserves fully?” Scarlett asked.

Cethin nodded, and Cyrus rounded on Cass. “Why the fuck haven’t you said anything?”

“It has been ?ne. I have been training and doing everything else just ?ne. Nothing has to change,” he said defensively.

“By the gods, you are as stubborn as your Ward,” Cyrus snapped, dragging a hand down his face.

“It may be ?ne now, but eventually, it will not be,” Cethin said. “Eventually, your magic will grow restless and seek out more sustenance. The thirst of the Night Children? That is what will happen if you do not take a Source, Cassius.”

“Cassius—” Scarlett started.

But Cass turned to her, snapping, “You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?”

Then he was gone, disappearing into the air.

Scarlett dragged her hand through her hair, ?ngers tangling in her plait, and Sorin reached over to pull the tie from the end. He gently unwound the strands, and from the look on Scarlett’s face, Cyrus could tell he was speaking through their bond.

He turned to Cethin. “How full have his reserves been?”

“In the mornings, before he goes to train with Razik, they are just over half-full.”

Cyrus felt his mouth fall open. “He’s been training that intensely with half-full reserves?”

Cethin nodded.

“I’ll go talk to him,” Scarlett said.

“He’s pretty upset with you right now, Darling,” Cyrus said, shaking his head. “I’ll go.”

“We don’t even know where he went,” Sorin said.

“His room,” Cyrus and Scarlett said in unison.

His room. His space. Some place he had complete control over.

Scarlett bit her bottom lip, but nodded in agreement, reaching out to take his hand and Travel him back to the Greybane estate. She took them to the foyer, and before she released his hand, she looked up at him. Her eyes were a pale silvery-blue, clearly not fully replenished after the short draw from Sorin.

“This needs to happen, Cyrus,” she said earnestly. “For so many reasons... He needs this, but we need this too. With Sorin getting weaker... ” She swallowed thickly, looking away from him. When she met his gaze again, tears glimmered in his eyes. “I don’t know how any of this will turn out, Cyrus.” Her voice was a whisper, and it trembled as she spoke. “I don’t know what will happen, but if we can get him to accept a Source, at least he will be taken care of. At least this one thing can go right, even if nothing else does.”

Cyrus reached over, thumbing away the lone tear that was sliding down her cheek. “You and Cassius,” he murmured. “Always so worried about taking care of each other, you forget there are other people who want to take care of you too.” She closed her eyes for a brief moment, and Cyrus said, “Go see your twin ?ame, Scarlett. Trust me to take care of him and to take care of this for you.”

She nodded, disappearing a moment later, and Cyrus turned to the stairs, climbing slowly to the ?oor they were staying on. He stopped outside Cassius’s door, directly across from his. Taking a deep breath, he rapped his knuckles against the wood a few times.

“Cass?” When there was no answer, he added, “I know you’re in there, Cassius.”

A few seconds later, the door opened a crack, but when Cyrus pushed it open further, Cassius was already walking back to the desk across the room. He didn’t say a word. Just sat down and pulled a book towards himself, picking up a piece of charcoal.

Cyrus leaned back against the closed door, crossing his arms. Apparently Cassius was taking a page from the dragon handbook and doing the whole silent-and-broody thing.

“Why didn’t you say anything about your reserves?” Cyrus asked, his voice tense with restrained fury.

“It was ?ne,” he muttered. “I was doing ?ne in training. It wasn’t affecting anything.”

“Except it would have eventually and likely already was.”

“I did not know. Now I do. I will make adjustments accordingly.” He wrote something down on some parchment before focusing on the pages again.

“Make adjustments,” Cyrus repeated.

“Yes.”

“Like getting a Source?”

Cassius’s shoulders tensed, and Cyrus knew the motion. He was ?ghting the Shift, his emotions making it hard to control his magic. Cyrus had watched him struggle with this for days during training. He knew where wings would appear between his shoulder blades. He knew his pupils were likely vertical, eyes on the verge of glowing an amber-red.

Cyrus dropped his arms, taking a tentative step into the room. “I would have given you more blood if you’d have asked. You know that, right? All you needed to do was say something.”

“Of course I know that,” he barked, the piece of charcoal slamming down onto the desk. “You would give your life if it would be more convenient for someone else.”

“This isn’t about me,” Cyrus argued.

“It’s not?” Cassius asked, ?nally twisting to look at him from the chair. Cyrus had been right. Vertical pupils bored into him. Cassius stood then, leaning back against the desk, his hands gripping the edge behind him. “You are not about to suggest to me, yet again, that you should be my Source?”

“You need one, Cass. For all the reasons Cethin said and more. Scarlett is worried. We’re all worried. If you don’t want it to be me, ?ne, but we need to ?nd you one.”

Cassius ran a hand down his face. “Can we talk about this later? I just need some time to think.”

“So think with me,” Cyrus said, moving to the small sofa against the wall and sinking down onto it.

Cassius sighed, settling back down at the desk without another word. But he didn’t tell Cyrus to leave, which meant he’d eventually say something. Cyrus just needed to wait for it.

When he ?nally did speak a half-hour later, it’s certainly not what he was expecting him to say.

“You know you deserve more than being someone’s Source of power, right?”

Cyrus had been absent-mindedly tossing a ball of ?re into the air and catching it. At Cassius’s words, he dropped the damn thing, singeing the rug beneath his feet before he could put it out. He cursed under his breath.

“We all deserve more than what we’ve been dealt,” he replied, prodding at the burn mark with the toe of his boot. “We all deserved parents who stuck around. Sorin didn’t deserve to watch his parents killed in front of his eyes. Neither did Callan. Eliza didn’t deserve to be cursed by her father or to lose Nakoa. Scarlett didn’t deserve to have so much placed on her shoulders, and you don’t deserve to be forced into doing something you clearly don’t want. But we don’t get to choose what we deserve. We only get to make the best out of what the Fates decide we get.”

“Maybe,” Cassius mused, and Cyrus heard him shift in his chair. “But there is something to be said for not settling and ?ghting for what you deserve.”

“I know you want to wait, but we’re running out of time, Cass,” Cyrus said. “Scarlett wants to push Cethin for answers on how to leave. She’s getting impatient and wants to go to the mortal kingdoms and take down the wards. We’re going to need everyone at their full power for that.”

“And what exactly is it you think I am waiting for, Cyrus?”

“I...” He still hadn’t looked at him, focusing on the scorch mark below his boot, but he looked up and met his eye now, his pupils having returned to normal. “I honestly don’t know, Cassius. Someone you won’t mind having by your side for the next few centuries? Someone who’s more than nothing when you kiss them?”

A heavy silence settled over the room, and Cyrus immediately regretted saying anything because this wasn’t about him. This wasn’t about the swirling thoughts in his head when it came to Merrik and Thia and Cassius. This was about making sure Cass was taken care of, and he needed a Source for that.

“I may not have meant to kiss you that day, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t want to,” Cassius said, a strange, low rasp to his tone. Cyrus swallowed thickly at the admission, but Cassius went on. “Everyone keeps telling me that I can be sel?sh. You. Scarlett. You keep calling me a self-sacri?cing martyr, but what about you?” He pushed back to his feet, crossing the room in a few long strides. He stood over him, forcing Cyrus to tilt his head back to look up at him. “You call me self-sacri?cing, but you? You willingly give up every part of you without question as to the cost because you think you are unworthy of anything more. You think it is all you are deserving of.”

“Stop.” He meant to say it with some bite behind the word, but it came out as more of a pained rasp.

Cassius bent down, bracing his hands on the back of the sofa on either side of Cyrus, bringing his face inches from his. “If you were anyone else, I would go to Scarlett right this second and ask her to give you the Source Mark. If you were anyone else, this would have been taken care of weeks ago. If you were anyone else, Cyrus, I would be sel?sh. But that’s the thing. I am being sel?sh. Because you aren’t nothing. You are everything . I don’t want this with anyone else, but I also don’t want you bound to me because you are worthy of so much more than being a Source. It is me who is not deserving of you, Cyrus. Not the other way around. And if you can’t value yourself enough to see that, then I will value you enough for both of us.”

His lips crashed into Cyrus’s, and Cyrus reached up to ?st his tunic and drag him closer, only to be met with hard muscle. Cassius was still shirtless from training, and a low growl came from Cassius at the touch.

Cassius broke the kiss after only a few seconds, both of them breathing hard. “I’ll take a Source when you go back to Aelyndee.”

“Why?” Cyrus asked, his ?ngers slipping from Cassius’s ?esh as Cassius pushed himself upright.

“Because that was the last place you felt truly deserving of something, and that was also the place where you began to believe you were unworthy of anything good. That it would eventually be taken from you. Losing Thia just solidi?ed that thinking,” Cassius replied, turning and striding back to the desk.

“Everything good in my life is eventually taken from me,” Cyrus snapped. “Sorin would have been next if it weren’t for Cethin and Scarlett. I know the Fates did not spare him because of me.”

“How deserving you must be to know the inner workings of the Fates.”

“Fuck off,” Cyrus snapped, getting to his feet. “I don’t know why you think this is your call to make.”

“I don’t know why everyone else thinks it’s their call to force me to take a Source,” Cassius countered, sitting back down at the desk.

“You need a Source, Cass!”

“And you need to be able to let me in completely before I can ask you to be that for me,” he retorted.

“You are as infuriating as your Ward,” Cyrus sneered. “Thinking you know what is best for everyone around you.”

“She is rarely wrong,” Cassius said with a shrug. “And you?”

Cassius shrugged again, turning back to the desk and pulling the book forward. “I’ll keep reminding you how deserving you are until you start to believe it.”