Chapter 150
ATASHA’S POV
Cassian moved fast, too fast for me to argue. He gave Sister Veris a quick, firm order to keep Violet resting and left no room for questions. Then he took my arm and led me out of the cabin.
Two guards followed a few paces behind as we crossed the yard, their footsteps barely audible against the dirt, but I could still feel the weight of Cassian’s mood pressing through the bond. For some reason, it felt sharp, controlled, and burning just beneath the surface. Was he angry? Why? Did I do something wrong?
He didn’t speak once during the ride back. Yet the tension within him was impossible to ignore. I could feel it in my own chest, the restless pull of his emotions bleeding through something heavier he was trying to bury. By the time the gates closed behind us and the mansion doors slammed shut, my heart was pounding again.
He didn’t turn toward his study like he always did after a confrontation. Instead, he guided me straight to our room, his hand still at my back. Whatever this was, he didn’t want anyone else to hear it.
He closed the door and faced me. “We need to talk.”
I folded my arms. “About what? Because unless it’s about the hidden enemies, we should be planning—”
“You,” he cut in. “You are more important than hidden enemies.”
The words landed harder than I expected. My throat tightened. I looked away, fixing my eyes on the window latch as if it needed inspecting. “It was nothing,” I said. “I’m exhausted. That’s all.” Did he not hear me the first time?
I stepped to pass him. Yet, his hand caught my wrist. “I felt it,” he said. “Through the bond. Whatever that was, it wasn’t exhaustion.”
I stared at his hand on mine, then at his face. He wasn’t bluffing. I pulled a slow breath through my nose. “Fine.” I didn’t think that he would be able to feel that horror that I felt when it happened, but I knew that lying wouldn’t do me any good.
He released my wrist, but the heat from his grip lingered. I rubbed the spot, not because it hurt, but because I needed something to focus on. “I don’t know what I saw,” I said, my voice lower than before. “It happened so fast. One second I was reaching for her, and the next-” I swallowed hard. “I saw her wake up. Her eyes weren’t normal. She grabbed me, and everything about her was wrong–her skin, her voice.” My pulse quickened as the memory came back sharper than I wanted. “She said, ‘I found you. Then it all vanished. When I came to, I hadn’t even touched her.”
“It felt like a snap,” he said. “Like the bond recoiled and then settled.”
I nodded. “It did. But, it wasn’t real.” I said it out loud because I needed to hear it. “When I actually healed her,
it was normal. I didn’t feel any resistance. Or anything that would tell me there is a curse inside her body.
There were no traces of poison either. Her body was failing, and it responded the way it should.”
“Is this the first time?” he asked.
“First time?”
Chapter 15U
“Is this the first time that you saw something like that?”
“Yes.” I hesitated, then added, “Well… lately I’ve been feeling off. Not sick. Just–on edge,” I turned my head away. For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him that this started since that stone… vanished from my hand. “Some sounds are too loud sometimes. Or too quiet. And when people crowd me, I get a pressure here.” I touched my temple. “It passes. I figured it was the test, the rumors, the travel. And I haven’t been resting enough since the red moon started.” Surely, the lack of sleep makes people see things, right?
He watched me without interrupting. It made it easier to keep going.
“There’s more,” I said. “When the vision hit, it didn’t feel like mine. It felt… pushed. Like someone knocking from the wrong side of a door.” I searched for the right words. “It doesn’t feel like a dream or a memory. It felt like… something was trying to make me see it.”
He gave a short nod but didn’t say anything. The silence stretched, heavy enough to make me keep talking.
“It’s either that…” I forced the words out, my throat dry. “Or maybe it was just my mind trying to scare me. I
don’t know.”
I searched his face, waiting for something, maybe an expression, a flicker of emotion, but there was nothing. It was strange. Usually, I could feel him through the bond, the faint pull of his presence like a heartbeat in the back of my mind. But now, there was nothing.
“Why can’t I feel you?” I asked quietly. “You said the bond works both ways.” Then I bit my lower lip. Why do I need to spout all the nonsense inside my brain? Why am I acting like this in front of him?
Was he blocking me on purpose? Then I cleared my throat. “I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Don’t mind it.”
I forced a small breath. “Anyway,” I said, breaking the silence that had grown thick between us. “I should go back to the infirmary. Mendez might need me.”
I started to move, stepping past him, but Cassian shifted, fast. One step, and he was in front of me again.
“Cassian,” I said, trying to keep my tone steady. “What are you doing?”
He was standing too close. The space between us was barely a breath, close enough that I could feel the heat of him through the air. His scent immediately filled my head, making it hard to think anything side from what happened between us on the pool. I took a step back on instinct, but he followed.
“What are you doing?” I asked, though it came out softer than I meant it to.
Cassian’s gaze didn’t move from mine. “What are you hiding from me?”
Before I could even think of an answer, my back met the wall. The impact wasn’t hard, but it sent a jolt through me all the same. His heat rolled off him in waves, filling every inch of space between us until I could barely breathe. My pulse kicked up, loud enough that I was sure he could hear it.
“I’m not hiding anything,” I managed. It sounded weak, even to my own ears.
He didn’t believe me. I could see it in the way his eyes dropped briefly to my mouth before dragging back up to meet my gaze. Then he stepped closer again, close enough that I could feel his breath brush my cheek.
Chapter 150
Then a memory hit me without warning, our skin slick with water, his voice low and rough as he said my name, the way his hand had lingered on my waist just a second too long when we were in that pool. The same heat crept up my neck now, and I hated that he could read it all over me.
His hand came up, bracing the wall beside my head. The movement pulled him even closer. My chest rose and fell too fast. “Cassian…” I said his name, but it didn’t sound like a warning anymore.
I swallowed hard. He leaned closer, close enough that I could see the faint shadows beneath his eyes. “Don’t lie to me,” he said. “I felt something when you touched her. It wasn’t fear. It wasn’t exhaustion either.”
His hand came up, fingers brushing my jaw lightly, not rough, but enough to make my breath catch. “Tell me what you’re not saying.”
