Chapter 127: Why is no one else upset about this?
"W-What do you mean by that?" Lady Fiona sputtered, and Cass felt his lips turn up slightly. He even felt his shoulders shake as all attention turned from him, to Lady Fiona. Vespertine was looking confused, and Lady Fiona was throwing panicking eyes around the room.
Cass wasn’t feeling inclined to help her.
"Well, I had no idea that humans referred to getting intimate with another as a sleepover. I will have to update my vocabulary again." Draken outright said it, and Sam gasped, Byron gasped, Charles gasped. The people involved, however?
Vespertine looked genuinely shocked. Like he had never considered that his wife and sister (even if through adoption) were getting it on. His pale, handsome face went even whiter, and his eyes looked huge in his face. He raised his hand to his mouth, his hand shaking, covering his lips as he stared at Lady Fiona. He looked as if he didn’t know the person he was staring at.
Lady Fiona looked just as shocked. Her eyes were huge, her expression slack, and Cass watched as her expression shifted to one where she looked genuinely ill. Ah. So that’s what it looked like from the outside.
Draken tapped Cass’ face, asking for him to pay attention to him. Cass turned his attention towards the other man, wanting to look away from the car crash a few seconds away from hitting. He was frowning.
"Was I not supposed to say that?" He asked quietly, his expression confused. Cass wanted to laugh. For someone who said he’d been alive for so long, he was oddly stuck in his ways. Or, that was intentional. Maybe he hadn’t hung out with a lot of humans from this time. This was, after all, a strange time. Demon kings, homophobia. Not great, really.
"I think she was trying to keep that a secret." Cass whispered back, and Draken’s gaze widened. He seemed surprised that she had been trying to keep it a secret as if to say that she was doing a rather piss poor job at it. Then, he narrowed his gaze.
"You don’t seem that surprised." He accused quietly, and Cass had to do his best to pretend to be shocked. His eyebrows shot up, and he made his eyes look big and wide.
"Oh, but I am. I’m soo shocked. Very shocked. But you see, I’m still recovering from whatever the hell I just went through, so I have very limited reactions." Cass lied through his teeth and Draken’s lips twitched, his expression shifting.
"You’re a liar." Draken told him, his voice just a deep rumble. "I like it." Cass felt his eyes widen as Draken bent, pressing his lips against Cass’ temple again before he pulled back. Cass was still in shock, his heart racing in his chest at the way that Draken touched him and looked at him.
"Fiona, is what Lucian said true? Are you and Ava having...’sleepovers?’" Vespertine asked and Lady Fiona swallowed. She was caught, red handed, by three of her four husbands. What was she supposed to say? Especially when two of them had been aware for a while, but Vespertine was the only one who had been in the dark. Who knew if Lord Ridgewood knew.
Lady Fiona sunk down on the loveseat near her, covering her face with her hands, and that was answer enough for Vespertine. He huffed, before he snorted, shaking his head.
"Did you lie about caring about me? All to get to Ava?" He accused. Cass was surprised that he said it, and at the same time, not really. It was probably common during this time for something like that to happen, but Lady Fiona jerked. She didn’t like that she had been doubted like that. Not from her reaction. She uncovered her face, her eyes wide and pleading.
"No! I wouldn’t do something like that! It wasn’t like that! I genuinely have feelings for you, for all of you! I just..." She trailed off, and Vespertine’s face twisted.
"You just like Ava more, is that it?" He shifted, crossing his arms again but this wasn’t the relaxed hold of before. He looked like he was holding himself back. "So you married us? Why? Because it was the right thing to do?" Vespertine spat his question, his blue eyes hurt and angry. Lady Fiona shook her head in the face of his anger and pain.
"No! I wanted to be married to you!" Lady Fiona protested and Vespertine scoffed.
"If you wanted to be married to us so badly, why haven’t you had any ’sleepovers’ with us, Fiona?" Vespertine’s voice was scathing. It could peel paint off of the walls. It was Cass’ turn to gasp. He was flabbergasted to hear that.
She hadn’t slept with any of them? How? Why?
They were all attractive, handsome men, who clearly wanted to jump her bones, but she had been off having only a gay time with Lady Ava up until this point, and apparently Cass was the last to know. He bet Lord Blackburn knew.
This was so fucking salacious. This was crazy news to hear after whatever the hell he’d just gone through. Vespertine looked pissed, too. He’d seen that look after Cass had tried to flee, so he had some experience. Apparently, it wasn’t Lady Fiona’s first time seeing his expression either.
She looked even more ill, and there was a small part of Cass that wanted to help her, as a fellow gay, but at the same time, she’d made her bed. She had to lie in it.
Lady Fiona dropped her head, her shoulders slumping.
"I...didn’t want to get pregnant." Lady Fiona said and Vespertine scoffed.
"Don’t even start that with me. You know fucking better. My family runs brothels, Fiona. You know I know how to make sure that doesn’t happen. You just...you used us. You used me." Vespertine actually sounded...really hurt. Cass watched as his face twisted, and he sniffled.
Oh fuck, was he going to cry?
"Edgar, you can’t be serious. You’re upset because she used you? You used her just as much. Weren’t you complaining before our marriage to Fiona that your father had been hounding you about marriage?" Draken broke the touching moment the same way he had caused this mess. Vespertine’s face darkened.
"That’s completely different! I asked her to marry me out of pure intentions, because I wanted to! I didn’t want to get married to someone my Father picked out for me, I wanted to marry someone I cared for, who I thought cared for me back." Vespertine’s ideals were surprisingly...sweet for a man who knew every nook and cranny in the small town nearby. Draken huffed.
"Sure. Let’s say I believe you for a second. Why are you getting mad at her for lying, when you haven’t even told her the truth yet about you, hmm? You’re keeping just as many secrets from Fiona as she is keeping from you. Clearly, things might have been different if you both were honest with each other." Draken said like he was suddenly a wealth of knowledge when it came to relationships.
Vespertine was giving Draken a look like he wanted to strangle him with his bare hands, before his gaze dropped to Cass. His lips thinned, and Cass was pissed that even when he looked like a prissy idiot, he was still hot.
"What about you, Cassian? Aren’t you shocked at this sudden revelation? You aren’t like Lucian, who has the nose of a damn bloodhound. You couldn’t have known about this. Aren’t you hurt?" He demanded, trying to get solidarity out of him for her actions.
Cass slid his gaze towards Lady Fiona, who looked...awful. She looked awful. She had already been doubting her purpose, why she was here, her relationships, everything. To now have everything being aired like this, and with a live studio audience in the way of the servants in the room...Cass felt a little twinge of sympathy.
He was still angry at her for what she’d done to him, but that didn’t mean he had to be the same kind of fucking asshole as everyone else. He could be...different.
"I am mad, but not for the reasons you’re implying." Cass said, and Vespertine’s face shifted to one of victory. Until Cass kept speaking. "I’m mad that she let it get this far, and that she was so careless. Her own rooms? She should have known better if she was trying to hide it from others." Lady Fiona’s gaze slid to Cass, who winked at her. Lady Fiona’s face faltered, while Vespertine sputtered.
"I-I would have thought out of everyone, that you-"
"-Would have a problem with a same sex couple? Come now, Vespertine, I knew the temple’s teachings were feeding into this belief, but I didn’t realise you were a fucking hypocrite." Vespertine’s jaw dropped, while Lady Fiona gasped, and Draken’s grip tightened on Cass. Cass chuckled. "I am not my grandfather, the current Duke Blackburn, Vespertine, and you would do well to remember that. I’m sure you’ve benefited from that directly, have you not?" Cass was being blatant, and watched as Vespertine’s face turned red.
He uncrossed his arms, his hands clenching at his sides and, oh look, it wasn’t hard to see where Lady Ava got it from.
"I didn’t mean to imply-"
"-Even if you didn’t mean to, you still did, Vespertine, and while I appreciate your help today, it’s clear that you are overemotional, and are not taking the news well that Lady Fiona has a lover who also happens to be a woman. You should take a moment and reflect on that, considering where you are, and who you are with. It shouldn’t surprise anyone, honestly, that Lady Fiona, the hero of the kingdom, is sleeping with the healer." Cass scoffed, closing his eyes as a sudden wave of sleepiness washed over him. "It’s honestly, really cliche." He mumbled, tucking his head against Draken’s chest.
"My Lord?" Sam’s voice held a tinge of panic to it. Cass was trying to understand. He hadn’t felt this level of sleepiness before, like he was being pulled under by something, but he couldn’t fight it. Plus, Draken was so warm, and soft in all the right places. He felt like he was lying on a pillow. A firm, but soft pillow.
"Mmm." Cass tried to speak, and found himself jostled.
"Sam, it appears that Cassian’s injuries and the excitement of the day have caught up to him. We should bring him to his den now." Draken’s words were loud, but soft and Sam sighed.
"He’s going to be angry that I let you in." Cass swore he could hear Sam mutter and Draken chuckled.
"I’ll deal with that punishment. You show the way." The soft steps, the sound of blood pumping and moving through the body below him had Cass lulled completely and he was asleep before he even made it to his bedroom.