Cade didn’t live far from his childhood home, but the journey took longer than usual due to lack of daylight. This wouldn’t be the first time he’d been back since he moved out, but that didn’t do much to stop the memories that assaulted him of his last night there as he approached the eroded steps of the Council lodge.
The door flew open.
Cade was startled out of his sleep. Blinking rapidly, he looked up to see his father storming around his bedroom, leaving only destruction in his wake. Flipping chairs, emptying drawers, even pulling the very blankets from Cade’s half-alert body.
“Father,” he called carefully, slowly standing as if confronting a wild animal.
“Where is it?” His father didn’t even look at him as he continued his search.
“Where is what?” Cade asked, on edge.
“Your coin,” he spat as he lifted the corner of the mattress. Cade stiffened. “And don’t lie to me, boy! You were gone throughout the day so you better have something to show for it.”
Cade took a steadying breath. “It’s mine,” he said, just loud enough to be heard in the silence of the dark room. His words hung in the air for several seconds before his father finally paused his search and turned to him, staring deep into his soul with a look that would make lesser men quiver.
“What was that?” he said in an undertone.
“It’s mine,” Cade repeated, louder this time. “I earned it…” He had barely finished his sentence when his head snapped to the side with a brutal blow. Cade had just about recovered when a second blow hit his ribs, sending him to the ground, clutching his stomach.
“Who do you think allows you to live in this lodge?!”
A kick to the side.
“Huh? What have you earned?”
A knee to the head.
“You haven’t even earned the clothes on your back and you want to clutch your coin and sleep soundly in my home?” he hissed bitterly.
That wasn’t true. As hits and kicks rained down on him, Cade realized that he hadn’t ever slept a peaceful night in the lodge. Especially not since his mother passed.
Cade closed his eyes and traveled far away in his mind. To his quiet place. It almost brought him peace when his father would get like this. Walking on eggshells around him was far more painful than the beatings. This, he could take. The sweet serenity of falling as opposed to the chilling anticipation of walking along the edge of the cliff. Despite the pain, it nearly felt good. It felt like letting go.
He didn’t fear his father, not any more. At sixteen he grew well past six feet, surpassing his father, but still to this day, two years later, he had never raised a hand against him. Not that he’d never wanted to.
Finally, the room went still and the silence stretched for what felt like years. Long after the final blow, Cade stood shakily, though his body screamed at him to stay down. He just wanted this to be over, and if that meant that his father would beat him to death this time, then so be it.
So with his last strand of defiance left, he looked into his father’s eyes and wiped his bloody nose on his sleeve. Something deep down told him that this would be the last time.
“CADE!”
Cade flinched at the pained screech and subtly leaned sideways to peer around his father and out of his window.
Lia.
At the front gate of the lodge being held back by two men attempting to stop her entry. For her to come at this time in the night, Cade knew that she must’ve had a vision. A vision of what had just happened.
He was grateful for her presence, he always had been, but he prayed that she hadn’t seen too much. He didn’t want her worrying about him on top of her own problems.
“Let me in! Cade!” she yelled, her anger warring with concern.
Not waiting to see how his father would react to Lia’s arrival, Cade turned and began picking up his clothes that were strewn about the place, grimacing as he felt that familiar ache in his muscles. Picking up two satchels, he filled them with anything he could grab, acting as if his father wasn’t even in the room. Once satisfied, he staggered past his father to reach his chest of drawers. Locking eyes with him, Cade glared silently as he placed both palms on the edge. He grunted as he pushed it out and to the side. He never let his gaze fall as he bent and retrieved the bag of coins strapped to the back.
His father’s face soured even further, but Cade paid him no mind as he started out of the room, down the stairs and through the door, ignoring the griping from behind him.
“Oh my Gods, Cade!”
Finally free of the men holding her, Lia ran and embraced Cade only stepping back an inch when he winced from the contact with his bruises.
His father walked down the steps and right over to him, completely ignoring Lia’s existence. He eyed the bag in Cade’s hands, knowing that he couldn’t make a scene in front of his men.
“Tomorrow, if you have nothing to show for a day’s work, do not return,” his father gritted out.
So he didn’t.
“Cade, are we going in or not?” Lia drew him from his thoughts, one foot on the steps, looking back towards him.
Cade shook his head and cleared his throat. “Yeah, I’m coming.”
Knock, knock.
“Head Councilman Alden! Cade Alden and Eulalia Sambor have come to see you,” called out his father’s second-in-command.
Cade held back an eye-roll at Young’s use of his full name. As if his father wouldn’t know it was him.
While he and Lia waited with Councilman Young, he allowed his eyes to drift down the corridor toward his old bedroom. His brother’s room was only one door down from his and he wondered if he had been awake that night eight years ago, wondered if Cassian had heard what occurred the night he left. Regardless of his relationship with his brother, he hoped not.
He didn’t have much time to wonder though as his father called out from behind the door in his gruff voice: “Enter.”
Young opened the door and then there Cade stood, only a few feet from his father.
Drake Alden.
Giving him a quick once-over, Cade attempted to gauge what kind of mood he was in. By the look on his face and the annoyance radiating from him, he wasn’t hopeful.
While he quietly shuffled into the room, Lia strutted in, barely sparing the Head Councilman a glance as she took a seat at the round table without being asked. Cade simply shook his head and sank into the seat beside her, briefly flicking his eyes to his father, who stared at them expectantly. Tension quickly filled the room.
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Drake asked, bored.
He would’ve thought that his father would at least pretend to be interested in his well-being considering his standing in the community and the fact that Cade had not visited his childhood home in months. Drake was nothing if not a showman but evidently, he was less than willing to extend their meeting with pleasantries tonight.
“What have you been doing on the western border?” Cade asked, just as plainly, ignoring his question.
His father’s eyes flashed to his with a hint of surprise before his expression settled.
“So, now you have an interest in the council’s business?” he returned. “Finally fallen off your high horse?”
This again. He was so tired of this false narrative.
“Is it so self-righteous to have a mind of my…” Cade cut himself off and sighed. He didn’t have time to entertain his father’s pathetic effort at deflection. Knowing the reaction with which his next words would be met, he sat straighter, steeling his spine. “Lia had a vision,” he murmured.
One would think his chair had caught fire with the speed that his father stood. “Get out!”
“Father…”
“No! Leave. You have disgraced this household for years and I have allowed it, but I will not have you bring your lies and witchcraft under my roof!” he spat, turning to look at Lia with only disgust in his eyes.
Allowed it?
As if Drake didn’t take every opportunity to remind him of how much of a disappointment he was. Cade was surprised that Lia had held her tongue this long, but she quickly stood at Drake’s derisive gaze.
“Hey! If you would just shut your mouth for two seconds and listen, you would see that he is trying to help you against his better judgment and my own advice.”
“Do you think that I’m stupid enough to believe anything out of the mouth of a seer?”
Lia let out a condescending laugh. “We have no reason to lie to you and quite frankly, I hope you don’t believe me. That way, when you don’t listen, you get your ass put in the ground by whoever is on their way here now.” She raised a hand when Drake tried to interrupt her. “But that’s just me. Cade, however, doesn’t want you dead for a reason that I am yet to figure out and I wouldn’t be here to help you if it weren’t for him. So, sit! Down!”
The look on Lia’s face was one that Cade had seen many times. She wasn’t necessarily quick to anger but when it came, it was never anything short of petrifying. The Head Councilman emanated pure rage, probably from the way he had just been spoken to, and a hint of fear at the potential repercussions of his arrogance. Still fuming, he sat.
Lia’s patronizing smile did nothing to settle Drake’s anger. “Thank you. Now, what have you been doing on the western border?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” he retorted.
Lia and Cade simultaneously rolled their eyes. Did his self-preservation not outweigh his pride?
“Is that so?” Lia cocked her head to the side. “Well, I think you would change your mind if I told you your son is about to be arrested and you won’t be able to do anything about it without my knowledge.”
Cade whipped his head to Lia. She hadn’t told him that part. He knew she wasn’t referring to him though. She’d never voluntarily refer to him as Drake’s son. His father cursed under his breath, closing his eyes, but he abruptly opened them once again as the door creaked.
In the doorway stood Cassian. His brother was only eleven years old when he left, but now as he stood in the doorway at nineteen, Cade couldn’t get past how different he looked. In appearance and demeanor. Cade could practically feel the arrogance coming off of his brother as he stared at him down.
While they were both quite tall, Cassian was more lean, like their father, whereas Cade was built and toned from his years of hard labor. Honestly, the most similar thing about them was the thick dark blonde hair, though Cassian’s was significantly shorter, that they both inherited from their mother, and while Cade had his mother’s forest-green eyes, his brother had Drake’s watery blue ones. Not that Cassian would remember much about their mother; he was so young back then.
Though irked by his brother’s next words, Cade was grateful when Cassian spoke up, stopping his thoughts from going down that dark road.
“What’s going on? Why are they here?” Cassian looked at the duo with contempt.
The room was silent, all of them seemed reluctant to tell him what he had just missed. It was his father that broke the silence. “Eulalia has had a vision…She thinks that you will be arrested tonight.”
Lia scoffed at the implication that she might be wrong. Cade was slightly startled by the fear, denial, and desperation wafting off of his brother. He had definitely done something. Something bad.
“And you believe her? Father, since when did you ever trust the words from the mouth of a seer?” Cassian exclaimed, defensively.
At this point, Cade stood too and took a step toward Cassian, growing angry at the remark towards his friend. He didn’t hold the same disdain for Cassian as he did for his father, but his brother’s incessant need to gain their father’s favor had caused a rift between them, even before he’d left the ‘family home’.
Drake took a deep breath. “It’s too close to be a coincidence,” he whispered, looking up at his youngest son with worry.
Curiosity getting the better of him, Cade looked intently at his brother and spoke slowly. “What can’t be a coincidence?”
Cassian kept his lips tight.
“Tell them,” Drake said, his face downcast.
Cassian’s eyes flicked back and forth between his father, brother, and Lia. Impatient as ever, she snapped her fingers in front of his face, startling him.
“Cassian! I don’t know how much time you have, only that it’ll happen soon and we can’t change what we don’t know. Start talking, if you want to sleep in your own bed tonight.”
Cassian conceded. Clearing his throat, he stared down at his feet.
“Two nights ago… we-uh, we were waiting in the trees. On a trading route. A-and the truck we’d been trailing… we managed to stop it with the blockade and we were going to just grab the weapons and get out, I swear,” he sputtered, looking at his father pleadingly.
Hearing the desperate tone in his brother’s voice had sympathy slipping into Cade’s body as Cassian continued.
“W-we were just going to sneak on while they were distracted, grab the guns and go, b-but when we were leaving they saw us and they just… we didn’t have time to…”
“Alden!” The door flew open as Young came stumbling into the room.
“What is it?” Drake responded in a defeated tone.
“Twelve enforcers at the gates. By order of the Queen.” Young panted as if he’d been running.
As Cade saw the blood drain from Cassian’s face, he looked to Lia and prayed to the Gods that his brother hadn’t just gotten himself killed.
