you did it, but this is good.”
Acubens preened. “Let me try some,” he said, leaning over the table. I offered him a bite off my fork. He nibbled it up, smirking at me, his eyes heavy-lidded.
I hoped I could keep my promise to Darshan. Acubens was offering his, ahem, honor to me with both hands. And at this rate I just might take it.
I hadn’t expected to enjoy this dinner so much, I admitted to myself as I ate. Even with our respective chaperones looming over us, I felt myself unwinding after so long under pressure. Lowering my defenses.
But there was always that one last burden, heavy on my shoulders. A burden that would weigh me down until the day I saved my mother.
I looked at Acubens, and he grinned back at me. Maybe I’d been too quick to judge him. Maybe I could still find an ally in him, someone I could trust. Someone who wouldn’t be endangered by the truth, at least.
“Have some of mine, too,” said Acubens, picking up his last square of ravioli between his teeth. He leaned forward, eyes bright.
Arcturus’s gaze was doing its best to stab holes into me. “For god’s sake, she’s a Redbriar,” he snapped.
Acubens scowled, dropping the ravioli back onto his plate. “So? Priam Redbriar’s the one you hate. He did all the bad stuff, and now he’s dead. The demons ate him. What does she have to do with anything?”
“For what it’s worth, hating Priam Redbriar is extremely valid,” I said. “I hate Priam Redbriar too.”
“You?” said Arcturus, his voice cold with contempt. “The new head of his House? You and your family have only profited from his sins.”
Anger surged in me. “Do you have any idea what he put my mother through?” I demanded. “He ruined her life because he couldn’t keep his dick to himself. I’d burn down Redbriar Manor if I could.”
I’d said too much, I realized with a sinking feeling. I’d said things that the real Cly Redbriar would never have. I’d kept my anger bottled up for so long that it had burst out of me.
Behind me, Aegis stiffened. Arcturus’s expression went strangely blank. But it was Acubens who made the bottom drop out of my stomach.
“Oh, gross,” he laughed, horrified. “You mean the rumors were true? Priam Redbriar went around fucking humans?”
The way he laughed, like it wasn’t just adultery Priam Redbriar had committed, but something that even a teenage boy found shockingly depraved.
The way he said that, humans. Like you’d say sheep, or horses, or dogs.
What did that make my mother?
What did that make me?
I was shaking. I’d opened a hole into my rage and it was pouring out. “You say that,” I said quietly, “while you eat food made by humans at the table of humans.”
Acubens just looked at me, confused. “What does that have to do with anything? I’m fine with humans. Humans are nice, and they make some nice things. But, I mean, dogs are nice, but I wouldn’t—”
I slapped him in the face.
I hadn’t realized I’d put magic behind it until I saw he was bleeding, but I didn’t care. I walked out of the restaurant, leaving him there.
My veins burned with anger and betrayal. I should’ve known. I should’ve remembered what mages were like. To think I’d considered trusting him with my mother’s life, when he thought it was worth as much as an animal’s.
Aegis caught up to me, matching his strides to mine. He had followed me out.
“Go back,” he said.
“No.”
“You were there to make allies of the Nightfelds. Go back and apologize. You can still fix things.”
“No.”
“Cassandra,” he said, and there was an odd note in his voice. “Is this really worth it? Carrying so much anger for the sake of a human? Wanting to burn everything down just because of her? It’s… not good for you.”
“She’s my mother,” I said. “And if you have to ask, then you really don’t know me at all.”
He fell silent. A long time passed before he said, softly, “I see.”
We went through the wards, past the school buildings, cutting through green lawns dappled with will-o’-the-wisps. We went through the doors of Rowan Building, up the stairs, down the hallway.
At the door to the dorm room, I felt a brief, sharp prick at the back of my neck.
Chapter 21
I woke up with a pounding headache, shackled to the sofa.
My eyes felt gritty, my mouth rasping dry. My joints ached as I tried to turn my head. Aegis. Aegis stood stiffly