“It’s your responsibility, golden girl.” I kissed her hairline. “It won’t happen again unless you ask.”
“Can someone explain what is going on?” Cass asked, looking at us warily.
Quen’s body jerked as she tried to free herself from my hold. This wasn’t what she wanted to do tonight, and it wasn’t how she imagined delivering the news, but we found ourselves in yet another impossible situation.
“Tell him,” I coaxed her. “Trust him.”
“Duck,” Cass said, tentatively taking a step towards us.
“What if I wasn’t mortal?” she blurted out.
“But you are,” he replied matter-of-factly.
It fascinated me how not a single drop of common blood ran through their veins and yet they were the same person. A Scott would accept only pure facts.
“Duck, what are you saying? No riddles,” Cass demanded.
Utter silence filled the room and Quentin’s frame shook against mine. Her steel spine softened in front of the man she called her brother. Her fear of rejection rose to the surface and pulled her under until her knees buckled, but I kept her standing.
“I’m a demigoddess,” she whispered, words sounding thick as she fought against her anxiety.
“How?” Cass asked.
They were raised in a house of logic. Her family might have believed in the Gods, but they worked every day in fact and that was what Cassidy was chasing after. Observation and understanding.
“My mother—my biological mother—she was a Goddess. She fell in love and got pregnant by a mortal. They both died, and I ended up in the care system.” Cassidy opened his mouth to respond, but she rattled on. “I had no idea and then I went to Elysia and there’s this pool and it gifts you. Gray basically saved my life using the pool, but it realised it hadn’t gifted me and now—"
Slowly, her aura drifted into view and reached out towards her brother. Cassidy shot backwards, tripping over his feet and landing in the chair. Quen’s aura retracted quickly, floating around us.
“I won’t hurt you,” she whispered, voice breaking. “I’d never hurt you.”
“I think you need to leave,” I said, pushing a dark tendril out towards him.
“Gray, don’t.” Quentin wiggled out of my grip. “Cass, please don’t hate me. I’m still me. I’m still Quentin.”
He looked up slowly, the crease in his brow softening. “My duck. I always knew there was something special about you.”
The relief was palpable and a half-laugh, half-sob came out of Quentin. I watched Cassidy cautiously as his fingers cut through her aura.
“What are you in charge of?” he asked.
I pulled her back against me and kissed the back of her head before answering him. “Success, if you’d believe it.”
Cassidy laughed loudly. “In which case I won those games of monopoly for years because you’re a cheater.”
“I didn’t know!” she protested.
“It’s still cheating.”
“It doesn’t count!”
Cass got up from the chair, looking like he could burst with pride. “My little sister is a demigoddess.”
“I haven’t told anyone. James at work knows, but that was an accident. And the Gods, of course, but please, this can’t go any further. It’d be dangerous for both of us.”
“I won’t tell anyone.”
He opened his arms, and I released her so she could hug him. It was lucky for Cass that he was accepting because if it had gone any other way, I would have stripped his innards from his body and decorated the house.
