“I’m so happy for you. This is what Regalis would have wanted.” She pulled back, tears flowingdown her face. Fiona was beautiful, a fierce redhead who knew how to survive. She did whatever it took to feed her large family of cousins and uncles, even if it was illegal. She hated the Elites.
I lowered my voice. “I’m so sorry,” I told her. “Cassian told me everything.”
She nodded. “We married in secret two months ago. He said the only way his family would accept it was if I had magic, if I won the trial.”
They married!It was unheard of. Frowned upon. You couldn’t raise your class through marriage, so the higher class always had to lower themselves. If she didn’t win the trial and he wanted to stay with her, he would have had to be stripped of his title and move here, to the Dregs.
I frowned. “I think someone found out and they killed him over it. I caught him in his last moments. He gave me a message for you, only I didn’t know it was for you at the time.”
She leaned closer to me, hanging on my words.
I wondered now what his message might have meant, especially if they’d been secretly married for two months.
“He said,tell her I love her more than anything, and to name him after her father. I had no idea what he was talking about.”
Fiona’s hand went to her belly, and I gasped.
“You’re pregnant?”
She nodded, tears overflowing. “It could be a girl, but he swore it was a boy.” She was smiling now as if lost in a memory.
I pulled her in for a longer hug this time, joy spreading throughout my limbs for my sweet friend.
“I’m so happy for you. You’ll be a great mom.”
Fiona took no crap from anyone. She was a much better choice for the trial than me.
When we pulled away, she gave me a fierce look. “Make us all proud, Brynn. Show those pompous bastards that just because we don’t have money or magic doesn’t mean we are weak.” She growled the last part, and I nodded. “This was what Reggie died for: to see magic rise up out of the Dregs. Don’t let the love of my life have died in vain.”
Her words imprinted on me like a tattoo. I had to try not just for my own family, but for Fiona, for Regalis.
I had to win this.
Cheers went up around me, and I spun, confused, when I saw Cassian had returned with three others who looked like servants of his house. They were all lugging canvas bags overflowing with loaves of bread and handing them out to people.
“Creator bless you,” people would tell him as they took the bread from him.
After hugging Fiona goodbye, I ran over to Cassian, grabbed some bread loaves, and helped him hand them out.
“Where did you get all this?” I asked.
“Bakery,” he told me, smiling as he handed out loaf after loaf. It was still warm! And soft. This wasn’t the stale bread that got thrown out after days of sitting in the display case.
“It’s fresh.” I was confused.
Did he steal it?
Cassian nodded. “They shouldn’t have to eat leftovers. I bought out the entire bakery. Tomorrow morning it will be empty.”
Surprise rushed through me at that. He went to the bakery after hours while the baker was likely making items for the morning and bought everything?
“Will you get in trouble?”
What if word spread that he did this, and they investigated?
He peered at me then, holding my gaze. “I don’t care anymore, Brynn. I just don’t care. This is wrong.”
My throat tightened with emotion, and I had to blink back tears. I nodded. Cassian was a good guy, someone I could trust, which was rare in an Elite.
