Lucian entered the room quickly, his bare chest entering first and then the rest of him entering after. Cass normally would have found that fucking hysterical, but he was too lost in his own rage to find humour in anything.
Lord Ridgewood was stiffly standing by the desk, his expression flat compared to the pure emotion that was on Cass’ face.
Lucian glanced around the room, his expression confused as he scanned the area. He raised his head, making an obvious sniffing motion and his expression clouded further.
"This...is Fiona and Ava’s room, yes?" He asked and Cass let out a bitter laugh.
"Well, that’s debatable right now." Cass was being sarcastic. Lord Ridgewood let out a heavy sigh.
"It is their room." Lord Ridgewood confirmed in the face of Cass’ sarcasm. Edgar was a little confused, glancing between the new comedy duo that was Cass and Lord Ridgewood.
"Where are they?" Edgar asked carefully and Cass let out another laugh and gestured towards the desk where Lord Ridgewood was standing.
"Why don’t you go check for yourself? Maybe my letter has different things written in it, so you can check mine too. It’s on the fucking floor." Cass growled. He sounded bitter and angry, because he was. It was clear that Lucian wanted to go to Cass, but Cass angrily gestured towards the desk again. Edgar glanced at Cass, but turned and headed towards the desk first.
Lord Ridgewood stepped back from the desk, his own letter crunched in his fist. Lucian kept glancing at Cass even as Edgar handed him his own letter and Cass just started pacing again. Standing still was going to drive him fucking insane.
He needed to move, hell, he needed to punch. He’d been angry at his situation before, but now? Fuck everything.
Cass listened as they both tore open their envelopes and felt a sick sense of satisfaction as Lucian snorted.
"Is this true?" Edgar asked and Cass turned to look at them, mid spin on his heel and he gave a malicious smile.
"What part? The fact that neither of them are here? Or did she put something else in your letters?" Cass asked and Edgar glanced at Lord Ridgewood and Lucian before swallowing.
"She said that...you encouraged this." Cass came to a halt, a different kind of betrayal filling his chest.
"I...encouraged this? Is that what she said?" Cass asked, confirming and Edgar shifted his gaze away. It was subtle, but given how emotional Cass was, it was like a punch to the gut. "Are you believing her right now? Are you fucking serious? Do you think that I would want something like this?" Cass asked and Lord Ridgewood and Edgar didn’t say anything.
Lucian was still reading.
Cass felt his chest squeeze, something even more awful twisting in his gut. They were accusing him of encouraging this behaviour. While he might have encouraged her to be honest with herself, so that they could get divorced and Cass could flee this fucked up hero party, he wouldn’t encourage her to fucking run away! That was Cass’ plan!
Cass scanned the two men, noticing how even though Edgar had been distant with Lord Ridgewood for a while, they were still able to speak to each other with their eyes. Cass did not find it cute at the moment, nor did he find it endearing that their relationship didn’t appear completely fractured.
He felt betrayed, for the second, no, fourth fucking time at this point. Cass let out a disbelieving noise.
"I can’t believe you right now. You two are seriously thinking that I would encourage this behaviour? Fleeing when things got tough? I’m the fucking one who worked so fucking hard to be able to go to the ball to confront everyone! That fucked up my life. Are you saying that I did that intentionally?" Cass demanded and watched as Edgar looked ashamed for a moment and Lord Ridgewood dropped his gaze to the floor, his hands still clenched.
It was like a blow. Cass stumbled back, his gaze flying to Lucian. The man knew that Cass was angry, but he didn’t realise how quickly everything was crumbling. He was too busy reading the letter. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t have his eyes up, and had his back partially turned to Cass so he wasn’t able to catch the desperate way that Cass was looking at him.
How Cass needed him to deny what he was witnessing right now.
His lack of response was taken as agreement and Cass didn’t realise he was crying as Edgar’s eyes went huge and Cass spun, running out of the room.
He couldn’t even look at them. They were going to believe Fiona? That he would want this? After everything that he had done? This was a fucking romance novel! Half of the fun was trying to keep the plot moving, fighting against the fucking systems put in place, etc.
You didn’t get to run away unless being part of the plot was your issue. That was Cass’ issue.
The book was fucking written in Fiona’s P.O.V.
Cass couldn’t believe that they would think, for a second, that Cass was responsible for this. That he would have encouraged this. If he had, they wouldn’t have had to leave through the fucking window. Why couldn’t they see that? Why had Edgar looked at him like that? Why hadn’t Lucian said anything?
Cass raced down the hallway, his vision blurry as he moved. He only heard the door slamming against the wall when he was almost at the stairs.
"Cass, wait!" It was Lucian, but in his mind, he’d had his chance to speak up. Cass shook his head, not able to respond past the emotions in his chest. Cass grabbed onto the railing of the stairs going up and began the painful, blurry trek up.
He barely got ten steps up before a set of hands wrapped around his waist and stomach. Cass shook his head, ready to kick, ready to scream. He wasn’t going to-
"Sweetness, please. I’m just a slow reader of this language." Lucian begged. "Please don’t run away. Please. Talk to us. It’s clear you’re upset. Can you explain to me why?" Lucian asked, pressing his face against Cass’ back. He wasn’t moving them, he wasn’t picking Cass up and spinning him around like Cass feared.
Instead, he was keeping them on the fucking stairs.
Cass let out a soft sob.
"I’m so fucking angry at her." Cass whispered, his hands claws on top of Lucian’s hands on his stomach. He knew it wasn’t nice, it was actually quite mean of him, but Cass dug his fingernails into the flesh there. He wanted to make him bleed. He wanted to make someone bleed.
"Fiona?" Lucian asked softly and Cass nodded. He didn’t want to voice this, each word feeling like broken glass coming out of his mouth.
"She fucking gave up! The gods gave her my fucking mission! She didn’t even fucking try! Things got rough and she fucking left! She got to leave!" Cass wasn’t sure if he was shouting or not considering the ringing in his ears. "It’s not fucking fair! I’ve given up everything to be here, everything! And I can’t even have the one fucking thing I was promised! I can’t even be favoured in this fucking world!" There it was, the truth. The core of the issue.
Cass thought that he would be able to do one thing, the one thing that he wanted, but it was snatched out of his fingers. Given away without a care, or a discussion, with Cass. He was at the fucking temple just yesterday. They could have told him what they had planned, how it had shifted, but no.
They left it so that it could blindside him.
"Oh sweetness." Lucian murmured as Cass’ body shook, his fingers digging in deeper to Lucian’s hands. Cass couldn’t see, his vision so clouded with tears that everything was a blur of colour.
"It’s not fucking fair. I’ve worked so hard to not fuck up everything. I’ve tried so hard to keep things...good. Relatively normal because I know I’m the issue. We’ve always been the issue in this world. And now? Now things are going to be so fucked up that I can’t even-I’m not a fucking hero!" Cass sobbed. "I’m not good like she is!"
Lucian rubbed his face against Cass’ back, giving him a gentle squeeze.
"Cass, you are good. You are far better than you give yourself credit for." Lucian told him softly and Cass shook his head violently.
"That’s not true! I’m angry, I’m bitter, I fucking ordered you to eat someone!" Cass said and Lucian gave a soft chuckle.
"Well, he was doing something bad, and no one was listening to you. I think ordering your beast to deal with a bad man is pretty hero-coded." Lucian said and Cass shook his head.
"Just shut up." Cass muttered, and Lucian gave him a squeeze again.
"Can I at least tell you how pretty you are?" Lucian asked and Cass snorted.
"You’re fucking blind if you think I’m pretty right now. Or ever." Cass declared, not wanting to be gentled, not wanting him to be sweet. Cass felt Lucian press a kiss against his back.
"Hmm. That’s a matter of opinion. Let’s get you upstairs, alright? Can I move you? I don’t think you should be moving on your own right now." Lucian asked. Cass felt his face scrunch up. He was being nice to him. Too fucking nice to him.
"Did you even finish reading the letter?" Cass asked and Lucian chuckled.
"Of course I did. I just didn’t have time to read yours since you had fled the scene of the crime." Lucian said, picking Cass up and carrying him up the stairs like a toddler covered in something gross.
Cass forgot that imagery very quickly.
"I didn’t flee." Cass muttered, and Lucian gave a small noise of agreement.
"Alright. So you didn’t flee, you...hmm, were compelled to leave the room rather quickly." Cass turned his head to give Lucian a glare, but he was sure it was ineffective since he couldn’t even see Lucian properly through the tears and his face was puffy and red from crying.
"Shut the fuck up." Cass growled, his voice not as strong as he would like it to be and Lucian chuckled.
"Such a feisty little fairy I have as a bond partner." Lucian joked and Cass grew silent. He would never admit out loud how hearing Lucian call him a fairy instead of a demon changed something inside of him. It...in this moment, was as close to casting a healing spell on Cass that Lucian could do.
Cass sniffed, silent for the rest of the trek up the stairs.