Page 87 of Into The Green

His arm flew up then sliced down and I heard a scream, knowing it came from me, as the blade ripped the head off the shoulders of the faun I had encountered months before. I fell to my knees beside his body as it crumpled, tears stinging my eyes, blood splattering my bright orange sweatpants. I wanted to look away, but couldn't seem to make myself, watching as the head, the very human-looking head, rolled toward me. The eyes were still open, his face completely free of fear because he had never seen it coming.

"Enough of that screaming," Cass snapped, sounding disgusted with me.

I looked up at him, my heart slamming so hard in my chest that I felt lightheaded. And he was calm. He had just decapitated someone he had already enslaved and beat and he was fucking calm. I flew to my feet, my hands slamming into his chest with every bit of strength in my admittedly weak body, making him stumble back a step. "What is wrong with you!" I shrieked, pushing him again, not completely unaware that every set of eyes in the courtyard were suddenly on us, likely wondering who the crazy woman was who was attacking their king.

"He would have taken my daughter as a sex slave? He deserved to die for even thinking that."

"He didn't know I was your daughter. No one knows. You can't punish him for breaking rules he didn't know existed."

"Well it's too late for that now," he said, shrugging. "Quit that crying, Celestine. Weakness isn't exactly a good thing to have on open display in this realm. Get yourself together," he demanded quietly, turning and walking toward the enormous open doorway.

I swallowed hard and wiped my eyes, refusing to look behind me, not wanting to see the faun again. My hands curled into fists and I knew they were starting to spark with fireworks judging by the heat I felt. I heard a few gasps as I turned and made my way toward the castle, soon to be my prison and torture camp. When I was climbing the first step, I could have sworn I saw a flash of another set of honey-brown eyes in a floor above me.

But the male figure was gone too soon for me to see if it might have truly been a sibling or if my imagination was running away with me. I walked into a foyer, seeing my father waiting beside the giant staircase. "Let's get you settled and changed into something more appropriate and less... blood-stained."

With that, he moved up the stairs, expecting me to follow. With a hoard of redcaps still at my six, I had little choice. "Why the pretense at civility, Cass?" I asked as I was led down a hallway. "Why not straight to the dungeons for experimentation?"

"Despite my better judgment," he said, stopping beside a round-top wooden door, "I have decided to get to know you a bit. I had figured the human realm might soften you, make you weak and wimpy. Aside from that pathetic misguided conscience of yours, I think I was too soon to make that judgment. You will stay in here with men outside at all times. Don't get any ideas of escaping. You will dress properly and you will act civilly. If you can manage that without pissing me off too much, you might just be able to keep your life," he said, opening the door for me.

"Gee, how generous of you," I drawled as I stepped inside.

Again, before he closed me in, I saw the ghost of a smile there.

Christ, what did it say about me that I amused or impressed or whatever-it-was the sickest bastard in The Green?

--

Jasper

It took me all of ten minutes to get the key and free myself. But ten minutes was too long. I realized that as soon as I crossed into The Green and they were already long gone. And they were headed to the Dark Court, no doubt. Where I, unaligned, wasn't exactly unwelcome. But I knew without a doubt that I would be used by Cass against Cece so he could get whatever the hell he wanted from her.

I'd like to say her parentage shocked me. But, honestly, it just made sense. She was simply too powerful to not be from the Courts. Though, I had to admit, everything about her powers seemed to point to the Light, not the Dark. Her name was angelic for fuck's sake. But while her powers sparked white, not black, the ability to cause so much damage was certainly a case for Dark ancestry.

I walked back toward the woods with her fucking taste still in my mouth and the knowledge that I was shit out of luck when it came to any hope of getting her back. Maybe that made me sound chickenshit. Maybe I should have been making some action-movie plan to go in there and get her out. But this wasn't the human realm, it was The Green. Guns couldn't be brought in and Cass had every kind of big and bad protecting his Court. I couldn't think of a single fucking thing I could do to get her back.

"About time," a familiar voice said as I crossed over.

"Of for fuck's sake," I hissed, exhaling hard. "I don't have time for your shit, Dad. I've had a hell of a couple months and I really have nothing against ending this thing between me and you right fucking now."

"You know it's funny," he said, leaning back against a tree. "A couple months back, maybe a few days after your little firecracker and mutt dragged you out of the dungeons, something happened."

"Seriously don't have the patience for some long, drawn-out story."

"It was like a switch was flipped. I was crippled by it, fell down to my knees in the middle of the hallway it was so overwhelming."

I felt some of the frustration ebb away, replaced with curiosity. There was something different about him, in his carriage, in his eyes. "Mom had Baba Yaga lift the curse."

"Baba fucking Yaga," he said, shaking his head at the very idea. "How did you know about the curse?"

"Cece ended up at her cottage. Mom was there. We had a little... chat."

"I'm shocked my skin didn't start melting off."

"Me too," I said, knowing how pissed Alex had been about what he had done to me. But if there was one thing that Baba Yaga was good at, it was knowing what would be the most torturous form of punishment for each individual man. Maybe she figured that giving my father back his full spectrum of emotions would be the worst misery possible, to feel regret, shame, and sadness for all the bad he had done. "She gave you your feelings back."

"Imagine what it was like to feel the repercussions of all the horrible acts you've committed in your life come back to haunt you in one giant wave."

"Nothing less than what you deserved," I said with a shrug, moving to brush past him.