Page 119 of Lady of Starfire (Lady of Darkness #5)

His father looked like he wanted to reach for him, but he didn’t. “The Witches are very cautious about how they interfere with fate. They understand that changing one thing can cause a ripple effect—”

Cyrus sensed it a moment before it happened, and he lurched forward, clamping onto Cassius’s wrist as he Traveled from the gardens. He hadn’t gone far. Only back to Cyrus’s rooms inside the palace, likely because he didn’t really know the place well enough yet to go anywhere else.

He stood there. Still in the center of the room. Staring at nothing.

“Cass,” Cyrus said tentatively, still holding his wrist. He reached up, cupping his jaw and guiding his face to his own. Cassius seemed to look right through him. “Cassius, I need you to say something. Tell me what you need.”

“Say something?” Cassius repeated, his voice a harsh hiss. “What is there to say? She abandoned me to the mortal lands. It should be no surprise that she abandoned me again.”

Cyrus remained silent, letting him get this out. Nothing he said right now would change anything.

Cassius jerked his arm out of Cyrus’s grip, but he didn’t move, didn’t go anywhere. “She could have said something.”

“I know, Cass.”

“But she didn’t. She didn’t say a fucking thing. She just …” He lifted his other hand to drag through his hair, but the spell book was still in it. “She just handed me this. This.”

He held it up before throwing it across the room, and Cyrus winced. That spell book was old. As old as Gehenna’s, if he had to guess.

The book hit the floor with a thud, but something had fallen out during the turmoil, fluttering to Cassius’s feet. An envelope with his name scrawled across it in tight, elegant handwriting.

Cassius saw it at the same time Cyrus did, bending to retrieve it. His hands were shaking as he stared at it.

“You do not have to read it now, Cass,” Cyrus said after a moment. “You do not have to read it ever if you do not want to.”

Cassius was silent for another long moment before he said, “Why do I care, Cyrus? I spent my entire life without a mother. A father. Why do I care that she is gone when she was never there to begin with?”

“Cass,” Cyrus sighed. He reached out and clasped the back of his neck, pulling him into his chest and wrapping his other arm around him.

“She was still your mother, even if you only knew her for a short time. Maybe that shouldn’t matter, but it does.

It’s more than her. It’s everything that might have been.

It’s unanswered questions. It’s something you were still trying to decide if you wanted, but now the choice has been made for you. ”

Cyrus got him to move to the sofa where he kept an arm around him, Cass leaning into him and staring sightlessly out a nearby window. Cyrus let him be with his thoughts, knowing he’d speak when he was ready.

It didn’t take as long as he’d thought it would before Cass said, “I want to read it.”

“All right,” Cyrus answered, reaching for the envelope he’d set on the side table. “Do you want me to go or—”

“I never want you to go,” Cass murmured, taking the envelope from him and breaking the wax seal. To his credit, his fingers only shook a little as he unfolded the paper inside, and Cyrus read over his shoulder.

Cassius—

I do not know if you will ever read these words. I may have given you life, but I do not fault you for not bestowing me the honor of calling me ‘mother.’ I imagine my actions this day have only increased that disdain.

There is a Rite among the Witches. It is not known outside our bloodline.

We are secretive and untrustworthy by nature.

When a Witch has her first bleed, she is sent to see the Oracle in her land.

The Oracles have always had the purest relationship with Fate, which is why she gifts them glimpses of what could be.

But those glimpses are just that. What could be.

The Oracle told me I would live to see the world burn and power reborn, and that I would have a hand in it all.

It is also a Rite to go see the Oracle when a Witch learns she is carrying a child. I learned that day that the child I carried had the potential to save the world or bring it to ruin, but if it stayed among our own, the child would only know death.

When you were born, Eliné took you. I went to the Oracle within hours of bringing you into the world. You were gone, and my soul was empty. That is when she told me that one day one would come who would know you. On that day, you could return. I could see you again, but the time would be brief.

Tempting Fate is often a slippery slope.

We hear one thing and assume, painting a picture with our limited knowledge.

So many have lost hours, days, years trying to figure out Fate, but in the end, her secrets are never revealed.

The smallest action can cause the largest shift, and everything changes. The world changes. Fate changes.

The choice to save you was easy. The choice to leave you behind was agony.

The only way I survived was by letting Eliné hide you, by having no knowledge of where you called home.

If I had known where you were, I would have come for you.

I came so close so many nights. I could have done it.

I could have found an enchantment to find you, so I forced Arantxa to charm my spell book.

I could not retrieve it until the day of my Fading. To pass it on to you.

You cannot rule the Witch Kingdoms. Only a female can do so. The title will pass to my niece and your cousin. It is for the best. Our ways are cruel and unforgivable. Everything you are not. Although perhaps a young queen and her sisters will free more than just one kingdom.

I have seen the world set on fire. I have seen power reborn.

And you, my son? You have saved the world.

If I had not let you go, you would have never met Scarlett at such a young age to form the bond you have.

You saved her, Cassius. Not her mother. Not her brother.

Not her twin flame. She would not have survived these years if you had not been there.

You are everything I am not, and because of that, you saved the world.

Because if I could have, I would have come for you.

I would have tempted Fate and let the world fall to ruin.

I can Fade knowing you have found love and family. That you know more than heartache and abandonment. Live well, Cassius.

But know that I would have come for you.

She did not sign it, and when Cass was ready, they climbed into bed.

Cyrus wrapped an arm around his waist, tugging him back against his chest, and whispered, “You break, and we clean it up together, Cass.”

Cyrus held him close all through the night.

When he woke the next morning, Cassius was still sleeping, and Scarlett was there, curled against Cassius’s chest. She wasn’t sleeping, though. Her eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, but there was a hardness there. A glint that told him she needed to work out some aggression. Or stab something.

With his arm still curled around Cassius’s waist from behind, he lifted his head looking for Sorin. He wasn’t there, but the movement stirred Cassius awake.

“Seastar?” he murmured, bringing a hand up to rub at his face.

“I just …needed to be with you,” she whispered. “I’m sorry, Cassius.”

“Shh,” Cass soothed, pulling her into his chest.

“I am supposed to be comforting you,” she cried softly.

“We comfort each other, Scarlett. Nothing has changed.”

Cyrus pressed a quick kiss into Cass’s neck before he eased from the bed and headed to his bathing room.

When he reemerged, the two were murmuring softly to each other.

Cassius wiped at her tears before she hugged him tightly once more, and Cyrus realized the High Witch was right. Cassius had saved her.

But she had saved him too.

“You two want some breakfast?” he asked, leaning against the doorjamb and crossing his arms.

Scarlett pushed to a sitting position, settling her silver gaze on him. “Actually, there is breakfast waiting. Ashtine and Briar are here.” She glanced down at Cassius. “We need to go see the Sorceress. If you’re not up for going—”

“I’m going,” Cass said, throwing back the blankets. Cyrus moved out of the way as Cass went into the bathing room, shutting the door behind him.

“How is he?” Scarlett asked, worrying her bottom lip.

Cyrus shrugged. “Like one would suspect, I suppose.”

She nodded, climbing off the bed and stretching her back. “Are you ready for this?”

“More than ready. You think it will really work?”

She smiled that wicked thing that made him wonder just how much of Arius’s traits had passed to her. “She will beg by the end.”

Cyrus strolled down the stairs to the Sorceress’s area of the prison. His hands were in his pockets, and he toyed with the Semiria ring, running a finger along the edges of the ruby. This was so godsdamn risky.

He took a deep breath as he neared the bottom of the stairs, sweat already beading on the back of his neck. She hadn’t trapped him in a memory lately which meant she was likely low on his blood. She wouldn’t let herself run out of it. It was too much leverage.

Forcing himself to keep his steps slow and casual, he sauntered into the passage outside her cell, meeting eyes of bright violet.

Her head tilted, that lank black hair shifting over a shoulder. “Fae of Fire.”

“Gehenna.”

She clucked her tongue. “I have missed your company, so I will let that be this time.”

“How generous of you.” He fidgeted with the items in his pocket as he said, “I have something for you.”

Her hands curled around the bars in eagerness as she pressed her face to them. “What is it?”

He withdrew a piece of paper folded into fourths and held it up.

Her face screwed up in disgust. “What do I want with that?”

“It’s something to remember me by.”

“I will not forget you, Pretty Fire Fae. Your demons taste divine.”