The tart breeze brushed through his hair as he dropped in between rows of pomegranate trees. Serpents scattered at his presence, coiling up the bark and slithering into the shadows.
Cassian’s eyes flitted around the silhouettes of the branches. Sitting around and doing nothing would only make him go insane.
Find the bird.
Find the bird and this can all end.
Lifting his fingers to his lips, he did his best to mimic Finnian’s call to summon Alke. It hadn’t worked yet, but Cassian didn’t know what else to do.
The whistle traveled across the orchard.
Cassian waited, concentrating on the dark sky for any signs of movement.
Nothing.
Finnian’s scream went on and on, trapped, as if it were stuck in a vase.
Cassian slumped down into a crouch. His hands scraped through his hair and over his ears as a sob broke in his throat.
He folded in on himself, weeping.
Perhaps this is my own curse.
27
COME BACK TO ME
Cassian’s stomachturned to the strong stench of heat and metal coating the air.
He stood before Finnian, slumped in the chains, watching the pink of his organs mend back together. Blood streaked his skin; it puddled at his feet; a current of it flowed across the floor and dripped into the flaming vortex at the room’s center.
The inferno came from Acacius’s realm. It split through Moros and raged Chaos.
“He’s a stubborn little shit,” Shivani said from beside Cassian. She mindlessly twirled one of her knives between her fingers. “I torture him and then let the executioners have their way with him. He still refuses to talk.”
Cassian’s jaw pulsed at the visual. He clenched his hands into fists inside his pockets.
How did he tell someone the weakness of the one he loved, knowing full well they would exploit those weaknesses to hurt them? Those treasured pearls were guarded in his hand. From the moment Finnian opened up to him, he vowed to never do anything to abuse Finnian’s vulnerability. His trust and comfortability meant everything to Cassian.
I cannot afford to hold back any longer.
Alke had not been found, and the longer time went without the blood, Cassian feared Ruelle would do something to proclaim her threat. He had no way of protecting Finnian from her.
A sickness clumped in Cassian’s throat. “When you torture him, target his left ear. Any injury to it will make him anxious. He cannot hear out of his right one due to an injury he received during a fight with his mother.” Cassian swallowed thickly. “Cut his hair off. It will trigger him, as he values being autonomous.”
Shivani glanced at him. Not once had she pulled for information from Cassian. He knew she was doing everything she could to learn the things that would set Finnian off herself, rather than involve him anymore than he already was.
Time was running out, though.
A paralysis pricked in his chest and down his arms as he turned to leave.
Make this work. You have to get through to him.
He stopped at the door and added, “His biggest fear is to be powerless against another. Put him in a situation that reminds him of how helpless he is.”
Shivani remained quiet for a moment, as if she were giving Cassian a respectable second to hold himself together.
“I understand, my lord.”
