People came and went, chatter and laughter spilling from the door. The chaos made him long for his bedchamber. A gentle fire crackling in the hearth. The sip of a warm cup of lemon tea. He could pretend he came and did not find the young god when Mavros inquired about it.
Despite the appeal, it would be irresponsible and only make the situation more troublesome at the upcoming Council meeting. Once learning of it, they would expect Cassian to have handled it. It was unlike him not to do so. Allowing loose ends to spiral gradually out of control and create bigger messes was unacceptable, both for the Council’s standards and for his own.
Cassian topped the steps to the tavern and reached for the door. It flew open before he could grab onto the handle and a man staggered out, belligerently singing and swaying as if gravity had abandoned him.
The horrid stench of liquor stung Cassian’s nose. He held his breath, leaning a bit to the right to avoid bumping into the drunk mortal, and slipped inside before the door closed.
Cassian sauntered through the cloud of smoke to the bar and sat on a stool at the end, refraining from resting his arms on the bar top. The streaked, amber globs along the glossy surface looked to be quite sticky.
He joined his hands in his lap and observed his surroundings.
“You got your two pints. Now piss off. I’ve got others to keep,” the barkeeper chided two taller gentlemen while drying glasses.
A slender, hairy man with arms the density of toothpicks laughed, downing his beer as he strolled off.
“Nobody fuckin’ talks to me like that, ya hear?” The other with short, brunette strands slurred the words, slamming his pint down on the surface of the bar, his outcry barely coherent. The frothy liquid splashed across the bar top, spraying those sitting in its vicinity.
“Oh, fuck off!” someone crooned from the other end of the bar.
Those sitting nearby shot the man glares, while others dismissed him and carried on with their drink and conversation.
The barkeeper stopped drying the glasses and stepped up to the edge of the bar. “You start something, and I’ll finish it. Ya hear?”
A wave of tense silence passed between them. The barkeeper’s threat seemed to hold some leverage, because the man backed away on his heel, his balance swaying a little.
He lifted his pint up to scowling lips, turning away from the barkeeper.
The barkeeper cocked his eyebrows with a twitch to his lips that said,smart choice,and continued to work.
The man joined a table of people in a dark corner. A playful yelp came from a woman sitting on a different gentleman’s lap. Another pair relaxed across from them, drinking and smoking rolled paper stuffed with tobacco leaves.
The vices of mortals were often dull and uncreative, and Cassian grew bored—even slightly annoyed—by the stimulation of the noise and smells congregating beneath the small roof of the tavern. The sooner he located Finnian and cursed him, the sooner he could return to his realm and revel in sweet silence.
“Sir,” the barkeeper said with a loud clap to it.
Cassian snapped his attention to the mortal in front of him.
“What will it be?” The barkeeper had a stocky frame with a round face and expressive eyes, their color warm andwelcoming, but the folded skin around them showcased his exhaustion.
“Bourbon,” Cassian answered. “Neat.”
The bartender pulled a bottle out from underneath the counter and poured the bronze liquid into a glass. He slid it across the bar top to Cassian and gave a curt nod. “There ya go, mate.”
Cassian bowed his chin in gratitude and brought the glass to his nose. The sharp aroma of alcohol was a welcome distraction from the body odor and tobacco stench amalgamating in the air around him.
He sloshed the contents around the glass, subtly glancing at those sitting beside him. Finnian was more than likely under disguise. After Cassian’s random visit to the apothecary, Finnian would’ve been foolish not to?—
“Bitch. Don’t ignore me.Aye!”
Cassian spun around in his stool to find the unmannered man from earlier standing in between two tables, his face contorted, gripping a young woman by the wrist.
She gaped up, shocked by his sudden touch, flicking her eyes all over his angry expression. Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out.
“I gave ya a compliment, and ya just fuckin’ ignore me.” He jerked her closer towards his face, the force of it jostling her dark hair over her cheek.
She shook her head frantically, eyes wide like a frightened animal.
At the sign of her fear, the tension in the mortal’s shoulders loosened, and he laughed, the sound slimy and vile. “Ya owe me now, don’tcha agree?”
