Page 150 of Obsidian and Frost

Nor could I convey that I already knew the source of this threat.

I’d planned to revisit the Blood Trace thing with him tonight after we’d had dinner together with Velra, on our walk back to his dorm room, but all of that had been shot to hell by Cassius’ unceremonious appearance on campus—and my rage explosion.

I believed the results of the Blood Trace would assist with this threat. In a way that would further bolster Lazriel and generate answers that we didn’t currently have. Answers beyond the whispers that Charlie had given me. If my theory concerning Lazriel’s parentage was correct, then it would bring a great deal to light and serve to protect both him and Velra from what was rising.

I couldn’t do the Blood Trace now anyway, not until the Celestial blood was out of his system. With it being so potent and there beingsomuch he’d ingested, it would impact the spell significantly. And with him on this high I couldn’t even broach the subject now either.

As much as it nagged at me that I knew what I did about this threat—a threat that impacted both of them—I couldn’t simply reveal it when I didn’t have enough information to give them in order for us to develop a plan to counter it.

If I told them now, all they’d have was the negative of a force coming at them with no fucking solutions to fight back with. Just the fear of being hunted.

Velra had already lived through that with her brother andPuritasas a whole. It had almost broken her, and it still impacted her to this day.

And Lazriel had experienced something similar when his vampiric nature had been outed and his pack had responded brutally, the whole thing upturning his world completely.

“Nite nite.”

His voice pulled me back to the immediate moment and I felt more of his weight against me as he started to fall asleep on me even as we were standing.

“Don’t go, okay?”

“I won’t,” I assured him as I eased him over to his bed.

I pulled the covers aside, then helped him in, and he flopped down immediately, turned his head, then he was out instantly.

Well, then.

A soft knock at the door startled me and I hurried over to open it, not wanting it to sound again in case it woke him.

I opened the door to find Velra on the doorstep.

“Is he doing okay?”

I stepped back and she walked in, following my gaze toward the bed where Lazriel was now sleeping away.

She blew out a breath of relief. “Good. Sleep is best right now. For both of them.”

It hit me then and I eyed her. “You took Cassius to bed? His apartment or here?”

“My dorm room.”

I ground my jaw. “I see.”

“Sylas—”

“The fact you’re allowing him to stay—in your room, in yourbed—indicates that you’ve made peace between you. After his abrupt and brutal abandonment of you, him shutting down completely, while also watching you, essentially stalking you and keeping you in the dark about it all.”

She flinched at the hard realities I was laying down.

“Stalking?”

“He’s been watching you here at the Academy. I caught him looking into Lazriel and surveilling him at Graverun. He even asked me for intel on him, to see if he was dangerous to you.”

“That makes sense with how Cassius is.”

“That’s it? It’s all wicked away as an unsavory personality trait?”

“Of course not. But you’re also aware that he doesn’t understand emotions and boundaries the way we do. He’s still learning. His actions were from a place of protection and his belief that he was doing the right thing for me. As misguided as they were. I’ve discussed it with him and he’s not only relented, he’s agreed and apologized. And he also un-muted himself and opened the Soul Brand to me again.”