Cassian looked over then, eyes shining with a sentiment lost on him. “I?—”
Abruptly, his attention shifted as he tilted his head down, dropping his gaze from Finnian to the ground.
Finnian assumed the interruption was a summoning. Not that he had much experience with the unexpected disruption—thanks to Mira wrecking his ear. Apparently, his impairment blocked all connections to hearing summons.
A beat passed.
Cassian twisted around, handing the ball off to a Doberman. “Keep them in line, Lucy.”
He disappeared and reappeared a few yards to Finnian’s right, beneath a wisteria where his suit jacket hung on a short branch jutting out from the trunk. He dusted off the wool material and slipped it on.
Clasping the center button of the jacket, he took a step and materialized in front of Finnian. A gust of citrus and spice lightly swept across his face. “You are wrong about something.”
“I doubt so,” Finnian said in a snide manner.
“Mira’s word is not absolute.” Cassian pushed back his windswept strands, completing his immaculate look. “Mine is.”
Finnian’s pulse fired at the mention of his mother. “I take it you are going somewhere, then?”
He flashed Finnian a sly look, his lips slanting, as he held out his hand between them. “Come along, Little Nightmare. It seems a middle goddess has challenged your mother for her title.”
15
THE SUMMONING
Cassian
The Past
In all ofCassian’s eternal life, five years had never felt more like a trek across a desert landscape, agonizing over when the end would come in sight. His thirst felt like the sides of his throat had dried together, parched with a self-doubt of how much further the distance would stretch on.
A year to a deity was as fleeting as a day. And yet, each passing one squeezed Cassian’s insides like a fist. An ache tormenting him, each excruciating second.
What was Finnian doing? Did he remain in the cemetery, or had he moved on to another location? Another village perhaps, or a city? Was he well?
Not knowing ate at Cassian little by little. The unknown forced him to bite into his tongue each time Mavros appeared to keep from ordering his attendant to find the answer to these incessant questions.
He’d supplied Mira with a list of souls to match the amount Finnian stole. Five years and that number had climbed up to nearly one thousand.
Over eight hundred souls, so far, had met their end by Malik.
An act of karma for the crimes they’d committed in their mortal lives—killing, raping, raiding homes and lands. Cassian always judged a soul with an open mind. He understood nothing was black and white, but he could not excuse these souls when they had chance after chance at life on Mortal Land.
These tainted souls proved to be ignorant and even disrupted the peace of the Lavender Fields within their first day of arrival.
One fled the Fields and stormed into the Pomegranate Orchard. Their intention was to eat the fruit without Cassian’s permission. The serpents guarding the orchard quickly devoured them.
Another dove into the River of Eden and tried to escape Death. The High God of the River caught them and tossed them back onto dry land. The Errai roaming the Fields restrained them and escorted them to Moros.
Within the jagged mountains and desolated territory were a series of tunnels and multi-story labyrinths. All built around the volcanic fire spitting out a relentless surge from Acacius’s realm of Chaos. Cassian took pride in his design of the hellscape as he made his routine rounds.
A set of executioners flanked him as he strode down the ever-changing corridors. Smoke and ash rippled at his feet, the particles knowing better than to stick to his suit.
The souls who disobeyed Death’s law were sentenced to time in Moros—a grace period Cassian often gave before tossing them into the Serpentine Forest.
He’d relieved Shivani of her duty and took over their torturing. Only a few had a change of heart and graduated fromMoros to the Lavender Fields. The executioners distributed the others as meals to the Achlys.
Cassian obeyed Finnian’s wishes and stayed away. It was the best, for both of their sakes, regardless of the feelings that Cassian was now aware he had towards the young god.
