“If you’ll excuse me, sire, I bid you good evening.” He gave a quick bow and walked out of the study, leaving the heavy door to slam shut behind him.
* * *
The corridor of the south wing may as well have been a pitch-black cave. It had no windows, and the servants hadn’t come to light the torches. They never bothered to come to this part of the castle.
Blind but not lost, Cassiel ran his fingers along the wall, absentmindedly counting the gilded moldings as he had many times before. It was quiet, the faint swish of his footsteps on the cold floor keeping him company.
He battled against his will to not sprint back to the study, wrench the journal away from Dyna, and destroy it.
Or keep it for himself.
He had spent needless years studying every book on Mount Ida in the castle library, searching for a clue on its location only to learn tonight that his father had hidden books from him.
Cassiel’s fingers landed on the familiar embellished designs on a door, and he pushed it open to enter his dark chambers. He shivered at the brisk change in temperature. The sheer white curtains framing the open balcony floated in the breeze. Moonlight gleamed on the polished floors, casting enough light to distinguish the few pieces of furniture in the vast room. A massive four-poster bed stood at the far end, a lounge chair paired the wardrobe beside it—and two winged forms waiting for him in the dark.
One lunged forward and propelled him backward. The back of his head collided against the wall, and his flute clattered to the floor. Searing pain jolted through his wings lodged behind him. He was slow to make out the outline of Malakel’s sneer in the minimal light, but he had already guessed who pinned him.
“Release me.” Cassiel attempted to straighten, but Malakel slammed him into the wall again.
His left wing snapped beneath him. He bit down on his tongue until it bled so he wouldn’t cry out. He refused to give Malakel the satisfaction of hearing it. Blood coated the inside of his mouth before his injuries numbed, a sign he was healing.
“Your miscreant deeds brought a human and a beast to our door,” Malakel snarled in his face, “to sit at our table, to eat our food. You have sullied our halls with the stench of their presence.”
Tzuriel chuckled somewhere in the dark. “You have to admit, it is quite amusing, Mal. The servants have not stopped tittering about it. This is the most scandalous occurrence that has happened in Hilos since our dear little brother was born.”
“No, it’s repulsive. And so is he.” Malakel gave him another shove and stepped back, his lip curled in disgust. “You are an abomination, Cassiel. You should never have been allowed to live. If you were not the High King’s bastard, your mother would have been executed before she birthed you. That would have been a mercy.”
Cassiel straightened his robes, brushing off non-existent dust. It was best not to respond. This was nothing he hadn’t heard before.
“I want to know why he spared the human.” Tzuriel strode into view. Moonlight shimmered over the pearl sheen of his wings, the feather tips brushing the floor. “I’m curious.”
“No Celestial females will look your way so you’re itching for a filthy tryst with a human. Is that it?” Malakel demanded. “You’re besotted with her.”
“Spare me your assumptions.”
“Then why is she alive?”
“I do not answer to you.”
Malakel’s glare sharpened. “Do not be mistaken. History will not repeat itself. I will geld you myself before I allow you to spawn more half-breed bastards with the Soaraway name.”
Cassiel rolled his eyes. He had never considered doing anything of the sort.
Tzuriel chuckled and leaned his shoulder against the wall, crossing his feet at the ankles. “You needn’t be concerned, Mal. Father has repeatedly failed to acquire a life-mate for our dear little brother. Despite that marriage would provide his bride with the title, Princess Consort of Hilos.”
Cassiel stilled at the unexpected news. Why would his father do such a thing?
Malakel laughed at his confusion, misreading it as disappointment. “That’s right. Becoming a part of the royal family is not enough to bribe the nobles into giving their daughters to the likes of you. No one would ever form a Blood Bond with acreature.”
Composure unruffled, Cassiel flicked the twinge aside as he would a speck of dirt. He had long known it wasn’t possible to marry nor was he interested. It was for the best in any sense. If he took a life-mate, she would be reviled like his mother, and any children he sired would be subjected to the same censure he received. No, his soiled bloodline would end with him.
Dyna’s voice drifted in his mind,“To be of mixed lineage does not revoke one’s right to exist and their right to live.”
Malakel yanked Cassiel forward by his robes, tearing the delicate silk in his grasp. “Do you think your actions will be pardoned because Father spared your mother from the Watchers? You may have protected that human with immunity, but you’re not immune to the law. The Queen will have the court sanction you for this. If somehow you slither your way free, remember one day I will be High King, and my first command will be to exile you.”
Cassiel couldn’t help but release a snide remark. “Unless father exiles you first.”
He knew the blow was coming, but he wasn’t prepared for the loss of air leaving his lungs when Malakel’s fist smashed into his abdomen. He gasped and folded over his aching gut, his circlet clanging on the floor. His coughs turned into a chuckle, then full-blown laughter.
