As Cassian signaled to the bartender for another drink, his mind drifted back to his father’s words, spoken only a few hours ago at the last council meeting.
“My guy says that their Prima Ball is coming up in a month.” Drake pointed his finger to the side of the Dome on the plans laid out on the table. “Barely anyone will be in the streets and there’ll be a witch waiting for us right here to make an opening.”
At that, Young cringed. “But are you sure we can trust a witch? Those demons don’t owe us any loyalty. What if it’s a trap?”
“At the moment, it’s all we’ve got, and my guy hasn’t failed us yet. For months, he’s given us the trading routes and the times the officials would be there. He hates that bitch just as much as we do. Trust me, he wouldn’t go this far just to trap us.”
Something didn’t feel right. Cassian couldn’t put his finger on it but escalating these plans only days after his brother’s death felt wrong.
Of course, he was angry. He wanted to burn the Dome to the ground for taking his older brother but did he have much standing? After all, he had watched those enforcers take Cade right in front of him while he stayed silent. He’d let his brother die for his own mistake. He’d been scared of the consequences of his own actions. But in the end, thanks to Cade, he didn’t have to worry about that.
“Cassian!” Drake’s shrill exclamation drew him out of his thoughts.
“Yes, dad,” he responded, shaking his head.
“Are you even listening? You’ll do well to remember that those were your friends that they dragged out from their homes like dogs. Do you want to avenge them? Or will you let their deaths go unanswered?” Drake fixed him with a disapproving stare.
Cassian took particular notice of the fact that his father only spoke of avenging Theo and Bron. Not his brother, not his father’s own son. He couldn’t even begin to process the twisted nature of that thought but still found himself nodding.
“Of course,” he muttered, under his breath, placating his father.
“That’s my boy.”
If he was honest, Theo and Bron’s deaths didn’t bother him as much as he thought they would. His only association with them was a result of their shared interest in bringing down the Dome. But now, as he thought of his brother’s reluctance to support their father before his untimely death, he didn’t know if he was really interested after all.
What Cassian did know though was that he was quickly losing interest in blindly supporting his father.
Lia
Lia burst into the Tavern, fuming.
She’d been in the middle of cleaning out her traps when the owner’s son came knocking at her and Cade’s door.
Well, just hers now.
The young boy had looked at her as if she was a monster. He knocked and retreated several steps from the door before he gave her the message, but she was used to reactions like that. Her kind were not common in the outer sectors and the fear and closed-mindedness of the western sector in particular was nothing new.
Why me? she thought as she scanned the room for the one responsible for interrupting her night.
Walking up beside his bar stool, she woke Cassian with a fist slamming down onto the bar next to his head. He jumped half out of his seat and whipped his head from left to right before his eyes landed on her.
She had never hated him more than she did in this moment.
The owner had the wrong idea calling her to pick him up.
“What are you doing here?” he slurred, narrowing his eyes as he wiped the drool from the side of his mouth.
Lia didn’t bother responding. She just grabbed him by his collar and began dragging him out of the tavern and into the night’s rain.
“What are you doing? Let go of me!” Cassian yelled, stumbling and slipping behind her.
Only once they were outside and several feet away did she release him. She whirled on him, her drenched curls whipping water across his face.
“You selfish bastard!” she seethed. “For the past two days, I have consistently been this close to beating your ass and then you go and pull this shit!”
Cassian didn’t say anything and Lia watched as his eyes left her face to look at the ground, some of his anger fading into guilt.
“No! Don’t you dare start with the self-pity!”
“I don’t pity myself,” he said through clenched teeth, anger resurfacing.
“Then what the fuck do you call this?!” she screamed. She was so angry but she was so tired. Cassian didn’t respond so she took the opportunity to tell him about himself. “You stood there, and said nothing! You did nothing, and now he’s gone. And then you come out here,” she threw her arms out. “Sulking? Getting blackout drunk as if you even have a reason to be upset. You didn’t seem to care before, so why now?” She took a breath, blinking away the tears that sprung in her eyes. “He was all I had,” she whispered. “You may already know this but I don’t have many fans around here and I have never cared because I always had him and you took that from me! Not the Queen, or the enforcers, or the Dome. YOU!” Lia couldn’t help it as she started shaking. Not because of the cold, but from sheer rage. “And after everything, his last words to me were a request for me to take care of you. Not a ‘goodbye’ or an ‘I love you’. He just wanted me to look after your sorry ass.” She shook her head with disbelief.
“I don’t need you to take care of me,” Cassian said, stumbling over his words, still not meeting her eyes.
She quickly advanced on him and shoved at his chest, momentarily knocking him off balance.
“Shut up! Shut your damn mouth! He is the only reason you are still alive right now and I’m not talking about him sacrificing himself for you.” Her voice became scarily hoarse. “I mean that if he didn’t ask that of me… I would’ve killed you myself.” She meant every word. “You need to grow the fuck up, Cassian.”
They stood still and stared at each other for several moments.
Drained, both physically and emotionally, Lia shook her head and mumbled, “Come on. You can’t go home like that.”
She could have taken him back to the Council lodge but she knew that the Head Councilman wouldn’t take kindly to Cassian’s state. Though she hadn’t responded when he asked, she couldn’t live with herself if she didn’t grant Cade his final wish.
Having nothing left to say and not even looking back to see if Cassian had followed her, she turned and started in the direction of home.
Not that it even felt like home any more.
Cassian
Cassian walked through the door behind Eulalia, scanning the room through blurry eyes.
He only then realized that he had never been there before. He’d never visited his brother’s own home, nor had he held a casual conversation with him since he moved out. And his exit wasn’t really an excuse either. They hadn’t been close even when Cade did live at the lodge.
“You can sleep on the couch,” Eulalia said over her shoulder as she left the room.
He nodded even though she couldn’t see him. Looking around, Cassian noticed a wooden trap on display in the corner of the room. He assumed it was Eulalia’s, and, taking a step closer to it, he was awed by the detail. It was odd that something only meant for practicality was so beautifully crafted. Running his hand along it, he took note of the smoothness of the oak under his fingertips. Picking it up for a closer look, he spotted a small E engraved into the base. He would recognize an engraving like that anywhere. Cade had made it for her.
A whole new wave of guilt washed over him but he reminded himself that no matter how much he was hurting, Eulalia had it worse.
That thought almost knocked him off balance. She’d been closer to Cade than his own brother.
On his seventh birthday, Cade had given him a hand-crafted truck replica made from the same oak with a C carved into the bottom. The only trucks he’d seen at that age were those that belonged to the trading officials who occasionally passed through the western sector. He’d always been so fascinated by them. He loved it and remembered the heartbreak he felt when his father had broken it right in front of him. That same night, Drake had even beaten Cade for giving him something that even remotely represented the Dome.
Cassian was well aware of his father’s dislike towards Cade but before, he’d always been blissfully ignorant and kept quiet in an effort to stay out of trouble. Even at the price of his relationship with his brother.
“Put that down.” Eulalia‘s voice was cold as ice.
Cassian sheepishly returned the trap to its place and turned around.
She had changed out of her wet clothes and her hair was in two messy braids as she stood at the edge of the living room, a blanket in her arms.
As Cassian opened his mouth to apologize, her eyes went white. Her head snapped in the direction of the ceiling and she began shaking stiffly, dropping the blankets.
Cassian jumped back, horrified. “What the…”
He must’ve been seeing things. She looked possessed. Was he really that drunk? As he rubbed his eyes and looked again, he was sure that she was still there.
“Eulalia…” he called out. “Eulalia!“ he called louder.
But she didn’t stop nor did she respond. In fact, she seemed to become even more distressed. Cassian watched, feeling helpless as she shook, sweating and gasping for breath. In the next second, she dropped to the ground startling him. Very slowly, he crept towards her.
“Eulalia?” he whispered.
Eulalia was breathing heavily, on hands and knees as she slowly lifted her head and met Cassian’s eyes. Thinking that tonight had been about as much as he could take, her next words threw that theory out of the window.
“Cade,” she whispered.
His heart twisted mercilessly. “No, it’s Cassian.”
She frowned at him before rolling her eyes. “No, it’s Cade. He’s alive…”
And just like that, he was sober.
“Cassian, he’s alive!” She stood on shaky legs.
“Eulalia, no…” Cassian shook his head slowly. He wasn’t sure what had just happened but he was dreading the thought of having to tell her that Cade was gone and watching her lose him all over again. He was still sporting the shiner she had given him the first time.
“No Cassian, he’s alive. But he’s in danger.” As she spoke, she began speed walking out of the room.
Huh? “I…Eulalia?”
She exited what must’ve been her bedroom with a bag slung over her shoulder.
“Listen to me, Cassian! He’s alive, I know it. I saw him…” Her voice grew quiet. “But someone was…hurting him. I’m not sure who it was but I know what I saw.”
Visions.
He’d heard about them before. He knew that Eulalia was a seer but in the moment, he didn’t know what to make of it. His knowledge on gifted people were the stigmas that he’d absent-mindedly adopted from his father and the people in his sector. They were enemies, not to be trusted. Eulalia’s conviction, however, had him second-guessing his beliefs.
She went to pick up a sheathed knife that had been sitting on the mantle.
“Why are you just standing there like an idiot? Are you coming or not?”
Cassian reared back. “Coming where?”
“The Dome, obviously,” she said as she unsheathed the knife and took off her boot.
This was going too far.
“Eulalia, listen to yourself. We saw him get taken,” he said, starting to feel grim. “You know what they do to outsiders in there. And even if he is alive, how the hell do you plan on getting inside the Dome?”
At first, she ignored him. He watched her as she placed the knife onto the sole inside the boot before securing it back on her foot. Then, Eulalia moved slowly, making him want to retreat into a corner with the way that she stalked toward him like a predator. She spoke very quietly.
“I do not know, and I do not care but if there is even a chance that he is still alive and I can help him stay that way, I’d be damned if I let a group of pretentious fuckers in a glorified tent stop me. I will not lose him again. Now, are you coming or not?”
Cassian didn’t know why, but he believed her. He believed her and given the chance to do right by his brother for once, he would take it.
It was the least he could do.
Lia must’ve seen his decision on his face.
“We’re going to the lodge. You need to pack.”
