Cass was having a hard time. He felt that anyone would be, given everything that had been revealed to him.
How had he not even considered it? How had he thought that the rumours had been false? Untrue? Was it because of what Ser Hune had said? How someone related to him had been unable to make a contract with a demon?
How had he thought that no one would be able to succeed? Why had this blind spot formed?
She giggled.
"You looked shocked. I’m sorry baby. I meant to see you sooner, but your stubborn grandfather kept getting rid of the demons I had put in place to take you to see me." That did not make Cass feel well. In fact, it actually made him feel worse.
It was fucked up. It was soo fucked up that for once, Cass had to acknowledge that that fucker was right. His Mom had been making deals with demons.
"What have you done?" Cass asked, his voice grave. "What the fuck have you done? To me? To everyone! You ruined my life!" Cass shouted, furious, and watched as both demons were taken aback by his outburst.
Cass’ body was shaking, he was so mad. They had done this. They had taken away any hope that Cassian had. No fucking wonder the man had snapped. He wasn’t trying to join the demon king. There was no doubt in Cass’ mind.
He had been trying to kill him, and it had failed spectacularly and then he had been killed by the hero party. Because everyone had driven him into a corner. He had no idea about how to work with people as a team. He had seen this, found out this truth, and panicked.
How the fuck was Cass ever supposed to be mad at a man who had been lost in grief? Cass was grieving too. He wanted to reach through the fucking glowing circle and strangle the woman who was Cassian’s Mom.
"Ruined your life? I gave you a life!" She said back, her expression confused. "What would you have been without what I had done? A human? A fairy? Disgusting. You have been nothing without what I did for us. For you." She had done a piss-poor job at hiding her intentions. Maybe she hadn’t expected to be met with such pure anger and vitriol.
Cassian had probably been more composed when he’d confronted them. He might have gotten angry, but Cass was always angry first. Rarely did he react ’normally’ when something strange happened. They were about to get a full face of why the gods didn’t even like to deal with him.
Cass laughed. It was harsh, terrible laughter that made his chest ache as it left him.
"For me? Don’t even fucking try to say that. That’s the biggest fucking lie I’ve ever heard, and I’m met my grandfather." Cass said and watched as her jaw clenched. She was trying to look serene, pretty. A little bit of arm candy for the demon king. However, Cass knew that couldn’t be true.
No one ’normal’ made a deal with a demon to become a demon. Maybe that wasn’t the end goal, but she certainly got it. She was probably a succubus, since the demon king was an incubus. They were the reason that Cassian had a fucked up body. They were the reason for all of his fucking hardships and she wanted to say it was for him? Bull. Shit.
"You are the most selfish person I’ve ever met." Cass said and watched as her jaw dropped.
"I am your mother! Do not speak to me that way!"
"You only lived long enough to give birth to me and fulfil your end of the fucking bargain, and then you left! You killed yourself so that you wouldn’t have to deal with the mess you made! You left me behind and then you dare to say that you’re my Mom? I don’t have a fucking Mom. I don’t have a fucking Dad. I’m a damn orphan!" Cass was shouting, his voice loud as he screamed at her.
Her face scrunched up angrily, twisting her pretty features until she looked just like her son.
"I never abandoned you! I made sure that fucking tree was alive, didn’t I? I made sure that your grandfather could never get his grimy little hands on it, didn’t I? Look! You grew up perfectly fine. With a damn silver spoon in your mouth. I gave you enough wealth that you would never have to want for anything." She told him and Cass let out a disbelieving laugh.
"Enough money? Money? Is that what you think you did? That you just fucked the right guy, got pregnant, and then leaving me behind after you’d given birth would make everything okay? I don’t even look like a Blackburn!" As soon as the words left Cass’ mouth, something resonated inside of him.
The true feelings of Cassian Blackburn. A hard pill that had always sat in his chest.
Cass felt his eyes water.
"No fucking wonder that man hates me so much! Am I even related to the Blackburn family?" Cass demanded and the woman huffed.
"Of course you are! Fairies can’t mate with demons! I had to have sex with your rotten human father before I could offer up your human side to your real Dad!" It was like getting hit. Offered up.
She’d offered up Cass. Her child. Her baby, to the fucking demon king?
"I was what you traded? You traded me for your fucking demon powers?" Cass yelled and she at least had the decency to flinch.
"I-It wasn’t intent-" She couldn’t even get the lie out. In fact, her hand flew to her throat and her eyes widened. She glanced towards the demon king who watched this whole interaction with a smile on his face. Calm. Cool. Unbothered that they were shouting at each other.
He actually seemed amused by it all.
"Not fucking intentional, my ass!" Cass pointed a finger at her angrily. "You’re the fucking reason I have a deal with a demon, aren’t you? You-You put my name, didn’t you? You made me collateral for your fucking deal!" Cass was putting the pieces together as he was yelling at her, and by her reaction, he was right.
He was fucking right.
Cassian Blackburn had never fucking signed a deal with a demon. He was just collateral to whatever fucking deal his Mom had made. That fucking whore.
Cass stumbled back, making sure to remain on the path as he shook his head. He couldn’t fucking believe this shit. This was a true fucking comedy if he’d ever heard of one. The gods were mad at him, the demons were pleased with him, humans didn’t even like him and here he had been, so concerned that something had gone wrong.
That he’d even for a second thought that Cassian had made a deal made him sick to his stomach. Of course a man like him wouldn’t have done it. It had been beaten into him to avoid demons. By society and certainly by his grandfather. He hadn’t even acted on his urges because of the way he had been raised. He had married a fucking woman when all he had wanted was to be held by someone who loved him, even once.
And now he was gone. Swallowed up by Cass. By the gods will. Probably by this fucker’s will too.
"What was the deal?" Cass demanded. He was angry, he was actually beyond that at this point. It was his fucking right to know what was going on. What the deal was.
She looked flustered, and clearly didn’t want to tell him. Cass could feel his emotions rage and the air began to crackle with magical energy. It was similar to the time that Fiona had forced Lucian to bite him, but there was no one else around to stop him.
"What. Was. The. Deal?" Cass enunciated each word, glaring at the woman who had birthed him and abandoned him. Cass was thinking it was a blessing that he didn’t remember the face of the first woman who had abandoned him because this? This was breaking him in two. The emotions filling him were causing havoc inside of him.
"Eve, we have to tell him. We can’t lie, remember?" The demon king whispered sweetly to...his wife? His partner? His plaything? Cass actually didn’t want to know, but it disgusted him that anyone related to him sold off her own kin just to get a piece of that ass out of everything available.
She let out a harsh breath, glancing between the demon king and Cass for a moment before she turned to face Cass. Her expression smoothed out, the red that had tinted her face as she yelled at him fading until she looked like a doll. Fuck. She was pretty, at least.
Maybe that was a side effect of being a succubus? Cass didn’t actually care. Fuck her.
"The deal was to birth the next demon king." She said and Cass felt like the carpet had been ripped out from under him again.
"What? I’m the next demon king?" Cass asked and the demon king let out a tinkling laugh.
"Oh no. No no no. While you are my son, you aren’t the next demon king." Cass did not like where this was going. He’d read enough novels to know.
"No." Cass said before he’d even clarified and the demon king’s smile was wide, bright.
"Your job is to create the next demon king. Because you were still a little bundle of cells when I gave over my seed, and the contract made it so that you didn’t have just one way to fulfil it. Everyone has their preferences, don’t they?" His smile was teasing as Cass felt his whole fucking world shatter.
From the jump, Cassian never stood a fucking chance, and now Cass knew why he was so damn important. Why he was summoned here and in Cassian’s body specifically. The gods might not have known why since they couldn’t look at the contract, but they knew that he was the reason.
"You had no plans to tell me this, did you?" Cass asked slowly and the demon king grinned at him. That was an answer in itself.
"I didn’t, but I also know that you’ve begun to change. As soon as you start getting others involved in your ’heats’ as you call them, it’s already too late. Soon, dear son, you will be just like us."