Through his ardor, he felt the distinct plush of her divine energy seeping into the room.
He pushed a hand through his hair, taking a moment to relax the corded muscles bulging in his neck before spinning around. “What do you want?”
Ruelle sat with one leg crossed over the other, the slit of her rose-lace dress riding up her thigh and over her hip. She was settled back in the chair with her elbow propped on the arm, gripping her chin. “I hear you have taken the young god into custody.”
Cassian glowered at her, longing to choke the life out of her sparkling gemstone gaze.
When he did not reply, she continued. “It appears he is in possession of the Himura demigod’s blood.”
Cassian had watched her carefully over the past century and a half. With Finnian’s memories altered and with him despising Cassian, their threads had been separated by their own volition.She could not meddle if there was nothing to meddle in. However, it seemed now that Finnian was back in Cassian’s realm, she was suspicious.
He obsessively turned over the fact in his mind as he stared at her.
His mouth went dry, and he swallowed, casually placing his hands inside his pockets. “It is a dangerous item for someone like him to possess.”
Ruelle tilted her head in a sanctimonious manner. “What is your plan once you have located it?”
“That will be something for the Council to decide as a whole.”
They were already nervous. Naia’s new title as a High Goddess of Eternity was one thing. The power to turn mortals into immortal beings was another. It would cause an uproar of prayers among the Mortal Land. Her power would only grow. And then there was the matter that she’d blessed eternal life to Ronin, a Himura witch, and then together, they had a demigod child whose blood could kill a deity. Gods were already conspiring against her. If she were to make Ash immortal, Cassian was sure there would be another deity war.
Ruelle gave a breathy laugh. “You have never been one to tell a lie and do it well, Cassian.”
“You can see the Fate of the child,” he said. “Why are you here pretending to play the fool?”
“You’ve thought it out. I am not like you or your siblings. I do not have a realm to uphold, and much like you and your deities of Death, I work with my own lineage as a collective. One of them could easily take my place.”
“Do you have a point in sight?” Cassian gritted out with forced restraint.
“You want me dead.” She stared at him for a moment, silently challenging him to tell another lie. “Isn’t that so?”
Despite the palpitating of his heart, Cassian's expression remained cavalier. “Desiring your death should not come as a surprise, Ruelle. Truly, after how long you have tormented me.”
He’d known it was only a matter of time until she figured out their plan once Finnian came back to him. Ruelle was many things, but she was no fool.
Ruelle raised off the chair and strutted towards him, her auburn strands gleaming like silk waves down her shoulders. “Did you not think I found it odd when yours and Finnian’s threads miraculously untethered?” She rounded behind him. “There is only one way this plays out, Cassian.”
His pulse throbbed in his skull.
He tightened his hands into fists inside of his pockets, reining in the monster within him that urged to devour her. “Do tell.”
Her small hands smoothed up his back and onto the tops of his shoulders. “Rest assured, while I cannot weave the threads of a deity, I have other ways of making one suffer. Why do you think I have involved Acacius in my scheme?” She lifted on her toes, her breath scratching Cassian’s nape. “You will find where Finnian is hiding the blood, and you will hand it over to me, or your precious beloved will know the true depths of torment and Ruin.”
The muscles in Cassian’s shoulders went taut under her palms.
Cassian did not miss the way she spoke of Ruin, insinuating his brother’s involvement. Whether Acacius knew her true intentions or not, he would do anything for Ruelle. Cassian did not doubt his brother’s love for him, but he did doubt his judgement. Ruelle had Acacius wrapped around her petite, smooth fingers. Manipulating his gullibility and desire for love would be Acacius’s downfall.
Cassian slowly turned and towered over her, the buzzing of his fury reverberating in his ears. “Am I to believe you would not use the blood on Finnian in the end? That is what this is about, Ruelle. What it’s always been about. You long to see me suffer for the heartache I caused you when I refused to resurrect Klaus.”
At the mention of Klaus, the cunning look in her eyes formed into malice. “I wish to inflict far worse upon you.” Her voice twisted. “To show you what it is like to experience true loss.” She smirked viciously, a backdrop of teeth behind red-stained lips. “In Death, you will lose your title as ruler, forced to spend eternal separation from your beloved—as I have.”
True misery.
He could see it. Nothing but a yearning soul in his own realm, drowning in reveries. Forever separated from Finnian.
A calm spread apart the tide of his anger, settling everything inside of him.
He had walked a little over a century with a bone-deep despair, just to one day be on the other side of Finnian’s eyes with their past reawakened in his mind. He could still revive Finnian’s memory. There was time. Find the blood and kill her before she could touch him.
