Cassia
Late morning was usually Cassia’s favorite time to visit the library. The sun struck the stained-glass windows just right, scattering color across the tables. Today, though, if she found one more book cataloging the flowers of the Elder Woods, she was going to hurl it through the nearest window.
Not that shattering a centuries-old pane of stained glass would help. If anything, it would just invite the smoke and bruised clouds still clinging to the city inside, turning the library into another place she couldn’t breathe… let alone read.
An ache traveled up her neck. She’d barely slept, unable to stop replaying the night in her head. Every time she closed her eyes, she felt the heat of the explosion. Saw Castor’s bleeding face above her. Watched a monstrous beast climb the city wall. She knew she should be out helping with the clean-up… or maybe even checking in with her father, not that he would spare the time to assess the situation with her. Still, spending hours looking for the origins of a book shouldn’t be high on her priority list.
Cassia glanced at the book again. The one she called for when she’d pulled on Castor’s magic. It’s dirty, burgundy cover had no title. The pageswere filled with a language and sketches she didn’t understand. But she couldn’t help but obsess over it. Whythisbook?
And why did it almost spark underneath her fingertips every time she touched it?
Climbing up another ladder, she compared the spines of books on the extremely dusty top shelf to the one sitting on the table below. None of them matched. Growling, she grabbed a particularly heavy one and slammed it toward the ground. It hit the marble floor with an ear-splitting thud.
“I hope it’s nothing I did.”
Nearly falling off the ladder at the unexpected intrusion, Cassia swiveled her head to meet Castor’s amused gaze a few feet below her. “You have to stop sneaking up on me.”
“I promise I don’t mean to,” he said, holding out a hand to help her climb down. Cassia ignored it, too afraid that his touch might make her pull from him again. It had been different with him than with Cade. She’d brought Castor to his knees… she’d weakened him. That was the last thing she wanted to do. When she put a good distance between them, Castor frowned. “What are you doing?”
Cassia held up the mysterious book. She tried to ignore the buzzing that went up her arm. “I’m trying to figure out where this book came from. It’s the one from the other day.”
That she used him to get. She wondered if Castor’s heard her unspoken words. When he took the book from her hands, it didn’t seem to affect him like her. The longer he flipped through the pages, the more the crease between his eyes deepened. “What is this? Do you know which language this is?”
“I have no idea.” Cassia sighed. “So you see my predicament. I figured it came from here. It can’t be the only one like it, right? There’s a I on the spine.”
Wordlessly, he shut the book and traced the numeral with his finger. Cassia crossed her arms when the silence between became stifling. She wished he would say something or have some brilliant idea about what the book was about like he usually did. Instead, she had no idea what he was thinking. It bothered her more than it should.
Castor caught her watching him. His dark eyes roamed over her face. “Did you sleep?”
A traitorous heat filled her cheeks. Cassia resisted the urge to fluff her hair or pat away the purple under her eyes just so he would stop looking so closely.
He took a step toward her.
She took a step back.
“Cassia…” Castor sighed, a hint of frustration layered in his words.
“Maybe this book will be useful for something,” Cassia blurted. Lack of sleep had the truth spilling from her lips. “I didn’t do anything earlier. I just stood there… Like a coward.”
She couldn’t help but wince. It’s what she’d been told she was her entire life. The tiny little word shouldn’t make her want to crawl up in a hole and die.
“It’s fine,” Castor said. “And it’s not like you did nothing. You helped those people trapped in their apartments, didn’t you?”
Cassia let out a strangled laugh. “Barely. That idiotic Warlock did most of the work. I have these powers. Apparently. I could have used them.”
She had — for a moment. Long enough to save Cade. But the shock on his face after had made her too scared to even try again. What if she’d accidentally drained him like she had Castor? Astraeus could have ended up in ashes.
“You don’t know how. Which is why—”
Cutting off his excuses, she snapped, “That doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, it does.”
Castor was in front of her now, too close, for comfort. She could almost feel his breath on her face. Why did he have to make her feel like the world was upside down every time he got near? Clearing her throat, she argued, “Bridget didn’t have any trouble throwing herself into danger to save Cade.”
“Bridget doesn’t think before she acts,” Castor replied tiredly. “It’s gotten her in trouble many, many times.”
“At least she knows what she wants,” Cassia mumbled, mostly to herself. Butof courseCastor didn’t miss it. He didn’t seem to miss anything.
