Page 37 of Lux

This one must be freshly freed. One of Cassius’s. Some long lost sister from years ago whose name he erased from our memory.

With a sigh I stalk toward her, leaving Poppy behind. What a foolish distraction. What a silly, stupid fool.

She isn’t even feeding. Just playing. She turns to face me, her eyes blank, her expression dazed and empty.

But…

No. That isn’t right. Her face isn’t right—like how I remember. A mocking smile, eyes like scarlet. Like mine. Long white hair that kissed the curve of her lower back.

We spoke the same, in our own unique cadence. It was the only way to set ourselves apart. The only way to separate from him.

Me and my Cassiopeia. My dear heart. My other half. My sister in name if not by blood.

I missed her so fucking much. So much he had to smother it out of me. He nearly smothered my soul to do it.

But I remember.

I see her and I remember how badly I failed her.

The Boney prison,she told me.I’ll cause a ruckus, and they’ll send me there. You’ll come for me. You’ll free yourself from him and come for me. Caspian! You must come for me!

But I never did.

I failed her.

I failed her.

I failed her.

And she bares her teeth at me angrily. Life slowly begins to creep into those haunted, dull eyes as the children around her scream and scatter. She sees me, my dear one, and she curls her lips back from her teeth.

“I waited for you!” she wails at me. “I waited and waited! Where were you?”

I was here.

And nowhere.

She and our devious, twisted rebellion plans had slipped my mind.

The day he took her from me, part of my soul was lost. Getting it back isn’t a painless melding of two shorn halves. It hurts. It fucking burns. As I run to her with no regard for anyone, I am rendered boneless and stumbling.

Pulling her into my arms, I hold her so tight. “I’m sorry,” I say. I’m sobbing the words into her neck, gripping her body to the point of cracking bones. “I’m so sorry.”

“Where were you?” she demands, her voice broken and hoarse. “Caspian… I needed you. Where were you?”

I owe her more than just an answer.

Such a betrayal requires atonement. Retribution.

She sacrificed her soul for me.

I owe her far more than mine in return.

CHAPTER 16

Niamh

Preparation for a show begins with blood and sweat. Hours upon hours of practice. There is more to it than meets the eye. Balance is required on what Minchae calls a trapeze. So much strength is necessary to sustain the required movements. So much grace.