Their jobs were to chase away the souls who did not have permission to enter. Only Cassian could grant a soul the right to eat from his fruit.
The serpents remained idle in Finnian’s presence, and he grinned half-heartedly to himself. He felt like a king as they glided across his path out of his way, prideful of his place alongside Cassian.
Three years was the rush of a breath to a deity, and yet, Finnian caught himself hanging onto every second, committing each of his moments with Cassian to memory. Something he’d been too young and foolish to ever think of doing with Father or Naia, back when he was too self-righteous to believe that time did not yield to deities.
Finnian tucked his hands in his pockets, the gesture creating an odd sense of closeness to Cassian, as if he were there walking alongside him. Cassian retreated his hands into his pockets when he was anxious, or to combat the tension gripping in his shoulders. These little things about him had made themselves a home in Finnian’s mind.
He knew if he asked Cassian to tell him about his past with Ruelle, he would oblige without hesitation. Yet, Finnian had avoided doing so, because a part of him didn’t wish to know. He wished to remain suspended in the blissful existence of life with Cassian.
The twinge in his gut told him they were on borrowed time. He could sense the dark clouds of a storm swelling over their heads. A shortness of breath that felt perpetually caught in his lungs, like he could hyperventilate at a hair trigger’s mercy.
He knew two things: something conspired between Ruelle and Cassian long ago, and Ruelle sought revenge on Cassian because of it.
She’d targeted Saoirse and meddled with the fates of those who directly impacted her and her title. Finnian knew little ofthe High Goddess, but evidently, Ruelle had hit Saoirse where it hurt.
Finnian thought of everything and everyone he loved. Ruelle could take it all away so easily, but it wouldn’t be enough to push Finnian to break things off with Cassian. Nothing would. So then, what?
If I were the High Goddess of Fate, what would I do to hurt Cassian?
Something squished underneath Finnian’s boot, pulling him from his thoughts.
He stopped and lifted his foot. Sticky globs of the rotted arils stuck to the sole of his shoe. The pomegranate was split and smashed into the soil, oozing bright red and gleaming underneath the arching sunrise that exploded over the jagged peaks of Moros in the distance. A scape of periwinkle, rosewood streaks smeared across what remained of the twilight sky.
Finnian crouched down and examined the shiny red skin and the blackened heart of the fruit.
A savage smile split his lips as he plucked one of the withered arils up and crushed it between his fingertips.
Ruelle could take everything from Finnian, but he would never let go of Cassian.
However, Cassian was more selfless than he was. Cassian wasgood. He did not have the heart to stand by and allow Finnian’s life to crumble, all because of him.
Ruelle was well aware of this.
I would make him bleed.
24
UNRAVEL
Cassian
The Past
As the ruler of death,it was a peculiar thing to celebrate the life of another. A refreshing change of color in the monotonous landscape of his days.
He’d spent hours in a crowded waiting room with Finnian, pacing the lengths of its walls. Members of Finnian’s organizations filled the space.
Eleanor, for once in her life, sat next to Cassian, quietly biting on her nails. It made him rather anxious and drove him to attempt conversation with her about the new cat she’d recently adopted or the foiled stitching along her trousers that she’d done herself. By hand, not with a spell—a fact that had caught Cassian by surprise. After five years in a city full of mages, he’d learned to assume they did everything with magic.
The wails of a newborn child reached past the door that everyone circled and paced around, freezing them in their tracks.
Cassian had never witnessed such a bewildered look on Finnian’s face as when he held Isla’s child for the first time. Breaking from his indifferent character, tears glistened in his eyes as he cradled the tiny mortal bundled in blankets.
It brought a smile to Cassian, seeing Finnian experience something new that evoked such emotion.
The smile lasted only a few seconds before dread sank into his stomach.
Their future crept in the back of his thoughts, obsessing over the fact that Finnian would one day have a nephew. A nephew Cassian planned on stealing to use for his own gain.
