Cassiel collided against the wall with an awfulcrackand crumbled to the floor.
Chapter 44
Cassiel
The world had gone black. Cassiel’s skull throbbed like someone had cracked it open. A piercing ring filled his ears, muffling all sounds. The floor vibrated with heavy thuds. Dyna’s alarm and pain blared through the bond. Who was shouting? Someone patted his face, and he grimaced at the sharp sting it caused. The entire left side of his face throbbed as something wet leaked from the back of his head.
“Prince Cassiel, can you hear me?”
He groaned, his limbs twitching as feeling returned to his body. His jaw and the back of his head ached. With Rawn’s help, he sat and his vision swam.”
“How dare you take her virtue!” a voice roared so loud it made him recoil.
Cassiel met Zev’s feral yellow eyes. “What?”
“I trusted you, and you took advantage of her innocence.”
Cassiel stared at him, dumbfounded. What was he talking about? Slowly, his thoughts cleared. He and Dyna had spent the night together. This looked bad. Dyna laid on the floor by the bed where Lucenna was helping her up. She winced, holding her cheek. Gods, she must have felt the blow.
“I did nothing to her,” Cassiel grated, lest Zev thought to hit him again. The skin on the left side of his face tingled as it went through the stages of healing.
Rawn tried to hold Zev back. “Cease this at once.”
Zev snarled, ready to tear through him. “Step aside. I’m going to kill him.”
“You will not,” Rawn ordered. “Cassiel has denied these allegations, and I have a mind to believe him.”
Dyna cut in front of Zev, trying and failing to shove him back. “You best calm yourself, Zev Astron. Nothing untoward has happened here, and I assure you I’m quite capable of deciding the bounds of my own propriety. Now take a breath.”
She was so small compared to her cousin. If Zev wanted to get to him, he surely could. The others must have thought the same, because Rawn shifted closer and Lucenna formed another glowing leash between her hands.
But Zev forced himself to inhale a deep breath. He blinked in surprise, and his nostrils flared as he sniffed the air again.
Dyna crossed her arms. “Do I smell mated?”
Zev grimaced sheepishly, and his yellow eyes bled back to green. “No … But I should like to know what’s going on.”
“I should like to know the same,” Cassiel grated, rising to his feet. The last of the ache faded from his cheek.
“Why were you in the same room together?”
“You accuse me of something I will not dignify with words.”
A menacing growl rumbled in Zev’s throat. “I demand an explanation.”
“The tavern keeper mistook us as married, and there wasn’t a moment to explain,” Dyna said. “Cassiel tried searching for you, but it was impossible in the crowd, and we didn’t know which rooms you lodged in for the night. Would you have preferred for him to abandon me to sleep in the lounge alone in the dark?”
At that, his hardened expression faltered.
“I believe he’s innocent, Zev, but if you would like, I could place him under a truth spell to quell any further doubt,” Lucenna offered, letting her glamor spell fall away.
Speaking through his teeth, Cassiel said, “Elyonas my witness, her honor is undefiled. What reason could you have to condemn me to such shame and reproach? Do you truly esteem me so little?”
Zev released a heavy exhale and rubbed his face. “Forgive me, Cassiel. It was a mistake.”
“Mistake? If I had been human, that blow would have killed me.”
“What else was I to think with your constant coquetry.”
