Chapter 1
Chapter 1
(Chapter song ‘Zombie’ by Bad Wolves)
CASSIAN
“Yes… it’s true.”
The words hit me like an alien language as I stare at the man who I’ve put at the center of everything since I woke. I slowly step in front of him, looking him up and down like he’s not real.
He looks past me and stares at Jasper, his eyes not blinking, as if saying, ‘How dare you make me tell them the truth.’
The rest of the Kings stand in silence.
Like me, they’re struggling to register this. All of us have been thrown back to that field. We all remember it like it was yesterday, but now… what we know… It’s all made up.
The Kings pace, rub their heads, and whisper among themselves as my eyes bore holes into the side of Lucien’s head.
He needs to speak. He needs to say something.
Anything!
“It’s been fun meeting up, Lucien.”
I slowly turn and meet Jasper’s dark eyes. He smirks and tucks the book under his arm. We’re all too crippled to do a damn thing.
“I’d love to stay, but…” He glances at the King’s before meeting Lucien’s eyes. “This feels like a private matter, and it’s getting… a little uncomfortable.” He nods to me. “Until we see each other again.” He bows dramatically low and disappears in a blur with the Arcane.
The dust barely settles as I turn back to Lucien. Ash rains down between us and he’s still stuck, his jaw clenched. All he does is lower his eyes to the road where Jasper was.
Stunned confusion fills me as I look over his frozen stare. The Kings group up at a distance off his back, some posturing, others looking almost lost.
I step into his line of sight. “You’re really just going to stand there.” He blinks once, and I reach my boiling point. “Vale!”
Several flinch behind him and he finally moves. He clears his throat as he looks around—not at me—and brushes past. “We need to regroup.”
I turn with him as he delivers his low order like we’re not standing here in a giant pile of bullshit. “What?”
He stops, places his hands on hips, and looks to the ground. “We need to regroup.” He turns, scrubbing a hand down his face. “We need to get the book back. The longer we wait, the farther he gets.”
He starts to walk away, but we don’t move. Our universe just imploded, and he wants to pretend it didn’t happen?
“Nah… No way… Fuck that.”
Something in me snaps. Within a beat, I catch up to his back, grab his jacket, and spin him so fast he can barely balance.
With a dark, clenched growl, my fist flies and lands on the side of his head so hard that blood arches from his lips and he crashes at my feet. My rage and pain rolls off me like tidal waves and I just directed it all to crash on him.
“CASS!”
My jacket flies back as I grab his shirt, and strike again and again. He flops in my hand and tries to defend against me, but it’s pathetic.
“STOP! CASSIAN!!”
I throw him to the ground and stand over him like judge and jury. He rolls, coughs, and spits blood as he groans. Eden stands just off the side, yelling, but I have tunnel vision.
“Cass...” He struggles to get up. “We don’t have time—”
I lean to his broken face. “THEN YOU FUCKING MAKE TIME, YOU LYING SACK OF SHIT!” I quickly pace in front of him until my rage bubbles up. My boots skid and I drive one right into his side. He grinds, holds himself, and lands on his back. “WE TRUSTED YOU!”
Rook strides up behind me. “Guys, come on. We can’t do this—” He tries to grab my arm, but he should know better.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” My blood-red eyes glare over my shoulder and my elbow follows. It grazes his nose as he juts back at the last minute.
His hands rise as he backs up.
They all should know better.
He turns and walks back to the Kings. “Just… let him cook.”
I glare at the broken mess bleeding from several places. “You walked around… knowing… KNOWING… you stole something from us that we can never get back… ALL BECAUSE YOU’RE A FUCKING BITCH COWARD!!!”
His head lifts to me. He knows what kind of anger this is. I bet he never thought I’d unleash it on him. He’s lucky a small piece of me is holding back.
He pushes himself up to his knees. “The Arcane—”
“FUCK THE ARCANE! AND FUCK YOU IF YOU THINK I’M FOLLOWING MY FUCKING KILLER AGAIN!” I lean down to him and fire my words at him like missiles. He stares back like they missed, but I know… I know he’s nothing without someone to suffer with him.
He leans on his thighs. “Listen, I know we have to—we can talk about this later… Right now, Jasper—”
I lean down to his eyes. “Talk about this later?” I throw my hand behind me without losing my focus on him. “You had your fucking chance TWO. HUNDRED! GODDAMN YEARS AGO, VALE! YOU LIED TO ME! YOU LIED TO THEM! YOU MURDERED 22 OF OUR BROTHERS, AND YOU MURDERED… US!! YOU DON’T GET TO TALK!!”
He doesn’t flinch. He doesn’t move. He takes everything I hit him with.
“You made us believe… You stood there, wiping our blood off your chin, letting us think…” I feel my chest crush inward, and my voice cracks, which fucking angers me more. “You told us you got us… Now, I know what you meant by that. It wasn’t loyalty. We’re fucking trophies! Trophies for a punk bitch.”
He shakily rises to his feet. “No, Cass—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I grit as I wipe my cheek.
The smoke around us is hot, and I’m sure the anger rolling off me would make the place hotter. Ashes sit in his hair, settles on my shoulders and starts to accumulate on the road. A perfect symbol for where all this is headed.
“I could kill you right now.” He locks with my stare. “And would not give it a second thought.” My eyes sting as he looks at me like he never thought I would actually threaten him and mean it. He knows I do.
“You heard me.” I swipe ash off my face. “I really want to shred you, but I know sitting in your skin… is a worse hell for you. It’s why you did this, right? Why you made us? So you wouldn’t have to suffer eternity alone?” Feelings I never thought I was capable of start to rise. “Right?!”
His brows stitch up. “No… I—”
“Save it,” I spit. “You’re done.”
He gives me a confused look as Eden slides in between us.
“Alright. That’s enough.”
I don’t take my eyes off Lucien for a second. “I’m not done.”
“Yes… You are, Cassian.”
I look down and see the ghostly white light swirling around her hand and I meet her eyes. “You’re threatening me… After hearing what that piece of shit did?”
“I know.” She gives me a serious look, but there’s more to it. “I get the anger, but I won’t stand here and watch Jasper tear you apart too.”
I lean over her shoulder and shoot a fiery glare at Lucien’s eyes. “It wasn’t Jasper.” My lip curls in a snarl as I straighten slowly. “You broke the oath. You broke the conviction. The Blood Council’s mine—”
“Cass. Come on, man—”
“Don’t do this—”
“Just… Can’t we—”
I throw up a hand behind me. “The Kings are mine. You’re done with us, and we’re done with you. Go to hell where you should have gone in the first place.” Eden backs up like a shield and stands in front of him. “Kings… Retreat.”
He watches his leadership and power crumble as they break into a blur and disappear. I slightly shake my head, then the world fractures.
I run out of there faster than I have in my life. I blast through the air, hoping the friction and heat will erase every ounce of Lucien from my brain.
Aftermath comes into view, and I don’t stop until I’m crashing through the front door. I stop in the middle of the bar, glass slowly catching up. Before the shards fall, I grab a chair and roar as I throw it, and it crashes into the mirror behind the bar. Bottles and liquor explode out.
My hands wrap around a stool’s legs, and I smash it into the bar. I kick the others, and they fly across the room. My claws break through the top of a wood table, and I whip it. It smashes into the other tables and chairs, and they fly.
Chair after chair smashes into splinters. My fists destroy tables, and the table stands embedded in the walls. I flip pool tables, and the floor cracks under the weight.
My shoulders heave as I stumble back, my heels kicking through the carnage of splintered wood and broken glass. My hands pulse with pain, and every muscle burns. I look around my destroyed bar while I wipe spittle off my chin. My heel lands on a table leg and rolls. My feet come out from under me. I land on my back and my eyes squeeze tight from the impact.
My eyes shoot open, and a suffering gasp of air echoes in my ears. I breathe, whining as I wildly look around. I can’t see right. The stars are suns burning my eyes. Everything hurts as my heels dig at the ground. I can’t move and all I can smell is blood. It feels infectious and invasive. My chest moves up and down rapidly as I look to my side and come face to face with the frozen scream of a man.
Terror fills me and I match his expression with my own panicked scream. I push and fight myself away and realize there’s a bleeding body on my chest. I scream again, smacking and punching at it, pulling myself out from under him furiously.
I’m coated in blood, but I don’t know if it’s mine. My head pounds, and my neck throbs. I stumble to my feet, and my movements slow when I see what’s on the ground around me.
Legs, arms… bodies.
I spin around, and the circle continues. All of them… Bloody, torn, and not moving. I step over them, turning in confusion as I go.
‘HHHEEELLLPPP!!!’ I cry out before catching a boot on a body and falling backward over him. I breathe fast, crawling fast to get away from the horror of it. I sit and stare into the horror face down on the dirt. Tears fall as I look around the dark, realizing I’m the only one left. ‘Help…’
‘Cassian?!’
I whip my head to the voice. ‘Lucien!’
In the dead of darkness, he skids to a stop and my jaw falls slack. His uniform is dark to his knees. His chin is covered, and fear sets in. Underneath it all, he looks just as shocked.
‘WHAT DID YOU DO?!’
‘No, Cass… Just calm down.’ He starts to walk across the bodies.
‘WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU KILLED THEM?!’ I clumsily rise to feet. ‘WHY?! WHY WOULD YOU—’
He leaps and bounds over the bodies to get to me. ‘IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!’ He roars and grabs my wool coat. He looks into my frightened eyes, running his hand across my hair. ‘It’s not what you think.’
My chin quivers and tears well. ‘What happened?’
He leans in close. ‘I don’t have time to explain, but we must leave.’
I stare into his dark eyes for a moment, then look out to the sea of death. ‘Jace.’ I shove him away and stumble across the bodies. ‘Jace! JACEY!!’
‘He’s dead, Cass!’
I circle the pool of bloodied corpses and shake my head. ‘No…’ I inhale all my pain. ‘JAAACCCCEEE!!’ I turn as I scream out his name.
Coughing cuts the dark like a knife. ‘Jace.’ I follow it to a shallow hill of bodies and start to pull them off. His blood-soaked hair moves, and I start to laugh as I dig him out.
‘What happened?’ His voice cracks severely.
‘We were attacked. Come on.’
‘What the hell?’ I look as another body rises.
I support Jace , lifting him to his feet. ‘Adrian!’
He looks with confusion. ‘Cassian?’
‘Damn it!’
I see another. ‘Lucien, get Rourke!’
Jace sputters and spits as we start to walk. ‘I don’t feel good. My stomach hurts.’
‘Mine too. Just hang on. We’re getting out of here.’ I walk him to the place I left Lucien. He stands in the huddle of the only survivors of our camp. Kiernan, Dante, Silas… stumble to us, bleeding from the neck and very much alive.
But there’s something wrong.
Lucien looks us over and says one thing. ‘This… was horrible. After we bury them, and deliver their final rites as soldiers, we will deal with this in our own way. But from this night on, we will need each other. And no matter what happens...’
‘I will never leave you.’
The heels of my palms dig into my eyes and I growl everything out. I drop my arms and lay with my eyes closed, wishing I never woke up. Damning myself for believing what came after.
We acted like we weren’t looking at the monster who ate our camp. We bought it all.
And I’ll watch him burn for it.
