Chapter 168
ATASHA’S POV
“She’s alive,” Grace said the moment Cassian gave her a nod to speak. Her voice was steady, but her eyes flicked briefly toward me before she went on. “She’s been bound, Your Highness. We’re waiting for her to wake up.”
I sat on the edge of the bed, still in the same clothes from earlier. The fabric smelled faintly of smoke and iron. My palms were covered with faint red marks that hadn’t fully faded yet.
Cassian stood near the window, his arms crossed, the light cutting through the space between us. “Where?” he asked.
“In the lower room,” Grace answered. “The guards stationed there have orders not to let anyone near her without permission.” She hesitated, her gaze moving between us. “They’re asking when you want to see her, my lady.”
I exhaled slowly. “Now,” I said, pushing off the bed. “We need to see her.”
Before Grace could take another step, Cassian turned sharply toward her. “No.” His voice was firm. “Lady Atasha is resting. She will not be disturbed by anyone.”
Grace froze. “But-”
“That wasn’t a request,” he said, his tone low enough that the room seemed to still around it. “That includes Lady Kenneth and the council members,” he added.
Grace’s shoulders stiffened. “Yes, my lord.” She bowed her head and stepped back. “I’ll inform the men to keep their posts.”
Cassian gave a small nod just as Grace glanced at me once more, worry written plainly on her face, then turned and left the room, the door closing softly behind her.
The moment she was gone, I looked at him. “I’m fine,” I said. “I’m not injured.”
He didn’t answer immediately. His eyes traced the faint cut still healing on my cheek, the bruising that had already begun to fade from my throat. “You’re not,” he said finally.“But you are not fine.”
“I don’t need rest,” I replied, getting up. “What I need is to see her. Whatever that thing was, it spoke to me, Cassian. I needed to know what it was.”
He crossed the space between us in two steps. “And that’s exactly why you won’t go near her again,” he said: “Not until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“She’s a girl,” I said. “A girl who was sick and possessed by something. I can’t just sit here while she-”
He cut me off with a look. “You think I don’t know that? I saw what she did. I saw the marks on the floor where her claws hit the stone. Whatever had her wasn’t human, Atasha. It wasn’t even something that should exist here.”
I swallowed. A part of me still wanted to tell him that this wasn’t the case at all. She’s been bound now. She could not touch me again. Besides, that thing… whatever it was, was scared of my ability.
Cassian’s stare lingered on me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. Then his voice cut through the silence. “Do you still remember what I told you after you signed that contract?”
My breath caught. I did.
The memory came back like a weight pressing on my chest, the blood, the ink, the binding words. I had signed away everything that night. My body, my ability, my name. I agreed that everything about me would belong to him. It wasn’t a symbolic vow, it was written in the seal itself. My power was tied to his command.
“Yes,” I said finally, my throat tight. “I remember.”
But Cassian didn’t look satisfied. “Then you also remember what I said after.”
I frowned. “After?”
He stepped closer, his shadow falling across the bed. “I told you that it’s better to pretend to be weak and deceive your enemies than to stand tall and invite their arrows. Tall trees attract wind, Atasha. And you’ve just made yourself one.”
I blinked. The words didn’t sound familiar. I didn’t remember him saying them. Not exactly. But there had been something close, something about hiding strength until it mattered. Still, I stayed quiet.
He continued. “You showed them what you can do. Every person who saw it will tell someone else. Letters will be written. You’ve made them curious, and curiosity is a dangerous thing here.”
I stared down at my hands. The faint red burns on my palms had faded, but the reminder stayed. “I thought it was necessary,” I said quietly. “To draw attention away from you.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened. “You did it for the right reason,” he said. “But right reasons don’t protect anyone. They just make you feel less guilty when it goes wrong.”
That stung, mostly because he was right.
I thought of Violet, of her voice twisting between human and something else. Of the way she had laughed before the black blood fell from her eyes. I thought of Lady Kenneth and her letters, of Matron Yara, who would no doubt already be whispering this story through her network.
I had been impulsive again, too focused on control, on proving that I wasn’t a witch, that I wasn’t afraid. But I had drawn eyes I didn’t want.
Cassian’s gaze stayed on me. “You need to be careful,” he said. “You may think you’re safe because you’re here, under my name. You’re not. The moment they see your strength, they’ll start looking for ways to use it, or destroy it. At the end of the day, you are not just my wife, Atasha. You are the Lady of the North.”
I met his eyes. “I understand.”
He studied me for another beat, then nodded once, satisfied.
“Good,” he said.
The room fell quiet again, the fire crackling low.
I exhaled slowly and lowered my gaze. “Thank you,” I said, and I meant it.
Cassian didn’t respond, but the corner of his mouth twitched, like he almost wanted to. Then he turned toward the window again.
I swallowed, the reminder still echoing in my head. Pretend to be weak. Deceive your enemies.
Then I looked at him, the light from the window cut across his back, catching the faint outline of the scars that disappeared
beneath his shirt.
He didn’t have to say it, but I knew what all of this was about. The way he barked orders, the way he refused to let me leave this room, it wasn’t about control. It was fear. His kind of fear. The kind that came from losing too much already.
Cassian didn’t care about the politics or the rumors. He cared about keeping me alive.
I knew that.
He was still staring out the window, silent, probably thinking I’d sit back down and listen like he asked. Instead, I took a step
closer. Then another.
Before I could talk myself out of it, I wrapped my arms around him from behind.
He stiffened immediately, his whole body going rigid under my hands. For a second, I thought he might pull away. But he didn’t. He just froze, caught between instinct and confusion.
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly against his back.
Cassian didn’t move. His breath hitched just slightly, so faint I almost missed it.
“I should have listened,” I continued. “I keep saying I understand, but I still do things that make you clean up after me. I just thought… if I showed them what I could do, they’d stop doubting. I didn’t think it would make things worse.”
For a moment, there was only the sound of the fire and the wind outside. Then, slowly, the tension in his shoulders began to
ease.
He turned halfway, just enough to glance down at me over his shoulder. His expression was unreadable, but his voice was softer than before. “You never do what I tell you,” he said.
A small smile tugged at my lips. “That’s not true. I just do it late.” I can be a bit… slow.
That earned the faintest huff of breath from him.
I tightened my arms around him. “I really am sorry.”
He looked forward again, silent for a few seconds before saying, “Just don’t make me watch you almost die again.”
“I’ll try not to,” I said.
“You said that last time.”
“I mean it this time.”
He didn’t answer, but one of his hands reached back, finding mine where it rested on his stomach. He didn’t push me away. He just held my wrist, fingers brushing my skin as if testing whether I was really there.
It was enough.
For the first time since Violet’s attack, the room didn’t feel heavy anymore. The fear, the tension, the lingering chill, all of it faded a little.
I rested my forehead lightly against his back. “Thank you for coming,” I murmured.
Cassian’s voice was low. “You think I wouldn’t?”
I smiled again. “No. I knew you would.”
