The rest of the carriage ride was awkward as hell. It took Cass a long time to calm down, especially since he didn’t even know what the fuck he was doing and none of the men could help him since they weren’t a demon like him. Edgar had never had this kind of issue before, and Cass was kicking himself for not talking to Sam.
He even pulled out the thick ass fucking book to re-read the sections about incubus and succubus but there was nothing about the shit that he had just pulled. Maybe it was a new development? Or something that the demons this author of the book hadn’t been upfront about? A trade secret or some bullshit?
Cass didn’t know, but he was fucking pissed. And annoyed. And upset.
He had been genuinely worried for these damn fucking idiots and instead they were the ones who pissed him off. The only person who hadn’t done so was Gideon, which was fucking saying something. So when Gideon asked if he could read the demon book that Cass had in his lap, his green eyes sparkling, Cass handed it over without a complaint.
"Are you sure that’s a smart idea?" Lucian asked carefully and Cass gave him a sharp glare. It had been hours but they had to keep the windows open because the ’funk’ that Cass was emitting still hadn’t faded completely. Cass ignored how both Edgar and Lucian were pitching tents in their damn pants. It was their own fucking fault, and Cass wasn’t sure if that was his funk or their own devious minds.
He didn’t care, either.
Suffer.
"Why not? He likes to read, I like to read, and it would be good for him of all people to have a better understanding of demons, wouldn’t it?" Cass suggested mildly. He meant it because he was the new saint, the others seemed to take it in a completely different direction.
Gideon’s face flushed, Edgar’s jaw dropped, and Lucian’s eyes sharpened.
"I can’t exactly argue with that." Lucian muttered darkly, before sighing and staring out the window on his side. Cass wanted to snap at him, get made at him because why was he the one sighing dramatically when it was Cass who was continuously embarrassed by these fucking buffoons? He was the one who should be sighing and throwing a fit!
Cass grumbled, muttering darkly to himself, quiet enough that most couldn’t hear him, but Lucian still could. The man didn’t make it obvious that he could hear Cass’ complaining, but Cass swore he caught the man’s shoulders shaking at one point. Lucian did his best to hold it together, but most of the muttering on Cass’ part was about how stupid and foolish the men were being.
Lucian couldn’t help but find the other man cute.
~
All in all, Cass was unable to question Edgar and Gideon like he had wanted to. He did get some answers, but not all of the ones that he had wanted to. Cass eventually just pulled out one of the books that he knew Sam had packed for him, a slutty romance novel between a Doctor and his suspicious next door neighbour, and curled up on the bench and read.
It was clear that the boys were interested in what he was reading, including Gideon, but Cass did his best to focus on the words on the page and not the men he was traveling with. He didn’t even notice that Lucian was hand-feeding him because he became so immersed in the story. Nor did he notice that Edgar was giving him water.
He was at the part in the story where the Doctor came home to find his neighbour on his front steps, a stab wound in his side when the carriage finally came to a stop.
Cass scowled, raising his eyes up, wondering who or what had interrupted his reading to find that Lucian and Edgar were beaming at him.
"How was your story?" Lucian asked, reaching over and patting the top of his head. Cass scowled, marking his place in the story even if he really, really wanted to continue and tucked the book back into the blue bag.
"Good. Where are we?" Cass asked, glancing around the carriage. It was brighter, the breeze felt nice and he swore that there was something...salty? In the air?
"We’re here, Sweetness. It’s time to get to work." Lucian told him softly. Cass, who had let the anger and rage sweep away all of his concerns, suddenly felt like he was going to have a fucking heart attack.
Right. He had a mission to do. An image to upkeep. It was the whole damn reason he hadn’t wanted to get into a fight with the men and then had gotten into a fight with the damn men. Fuck. He was off his damn rhythm now, and he had to pull himself together.
He needed to be a strong force once he stepped out of this damn carriage since there was no Fiona, there was only Cass, and three fucking idiots. Two monsters, and a man who had attempted to betray him, got upset, and then came crawling back.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t a fair way to describe them but damn it, it was like all of his nerves were coming back right at this damn moment.
Cass took a few deep breaths before he glanced around at the other men. They looked ready to go, in fact, Gideon was holding out the book to Cass that he had lent him. Slightly embarrassed, Cass held open the blue bag for Gideon to put the book back into and then looked at the men again.
"Are we ready?" Cass asked them and they all nodded. Edgar adjusted his hat once more and Cass let out a slow breath before he opened the door. The ocean breeze hit him first, before the sounds of people moving and muttering to each other filled his ears. While it was clear that they were in a makeshift camp of sorts, it was clear that it wasn’t completely organised.
When Cass opened the carriage door, several Priests rushed forward, along with two of the mercenary-looking men who were also in the area. Another man joined them, looking completely out of sorts with the amount of finery on him, but from a glance Cass knew he wasn’t the noble of the area. He was too meek for that to be the case.
"G-Greetings, my lord. We thank you for coming all this way." It was then that it began. The group began looking for Fiona. And Ava. Cass swallowed thickly as the group continued to scan for them even as the carriage emptied and all that remained were the four men, not a woman in sight.
"Thank you for meeting us here. Gideon, make sure that they park the carriage away from the cliff’s edge." Cass ordered, not even looking back at the other man. He was in full noble mode now, Lord Blackburn on full display. It should have been alarming how easily he slid into this role, but he’d been attempting to be the man for a solid month, if not longer. "If I could, can I borrow a bit of your time? I am sure you’ve been able to observe the area while you’ve been here and I would like to hear your thoughts on what you’ve observed." Cass said and the group didn’t ask where Fiona and Ava were, and instead followed Cass as he moved about the camp.
They debriefed him on everything, what had been going on, how the camp had been set up, how the locals were reacting to everything. They admitted that the locals had been getting too close, but since a dragon had flown by the day prior, they had stayed off of the water. The fishermen in the area were quite upset and had complained to the noble, but there wasn’t much that they could do.
It was on orders of the hero, and while the fishermen were still upset, there wasn’t much they could do about it. The higher ups were limiting their livelihood. They couldn’t exactly just run out to sea and do what they wanted.
Cass was under no illusion that they weren’t doing exactly that, he just hoped they stayed away from the dungeon.
They continued the tour, the Priests and mercenaries even showing him the spot where they had kept it free for the hero party to set up their tents, and Cass nodded. It was big enough to put a fucking small house and it was in the middle of the camp, but that was okay.
Like Lucian had said, he had made it obvious where the camp was supposed to be set up. He’d made pillars of rock to mark each point. It looked like he’d spat up lava to form them as they were rather...drippy, and Cass was a little impressed.
Cass could even spot where he’d marked out the best spot for there to be stairs or something down to the water. He had kind of marked it like the beginning of an escalator, but Cass knew the man had no idea what that was. It was kind of amusing, even if this was still a rather dangerous situation.
It was the mercenaries who pointed out where the dungeon was located, the Priests not having a clear understanding, but just knowing the vague general area because of the demonic energy that was coming from it. The water all looked the same to Cass, since he’d never really seen the ocean before. The waves looked...dangerous. Even on the side of the area that was deemed ’safe’.
It certainly didn’t look that way to Cass.
Either way, the last spot was the area that Lucian had marked off, and in the time that Cass had been getting his tour, Lucian, Edgar and Gideon had been doing their own thing too. Lucian had been chatting with the group that was in charge of food, Gideon had been checking in with the ’troops’ and Edgar had been checking in with the Priests.
They had all been pulling their weight, so now it was time for Cass to pull his own. He looked at the spot that Lucian had marked, then looked out and down over the cliffs. He wasn’t great with heights, but he felt secure enough that he knew that if he did fall, he had magic. He might not be able to fly, but he could definitely brace for impact in a way that would make sure he would survive. Plus, the spot that Lucian had scouted for him was about two feet away from the edge. It was clear that Lucian was thinking that he should just carve out some steps or a ramp or something from the edge of the cliff, but Cass was feeling like he wanted to show off a bit.