The Man Who Never Knelt
693 Words
Chapter 16: The Man Who Never Knelt
The rain seemed to avoid him.
Cassian stood on the rooftop ledge as if the storm itself knew better than to touch him. His iron coat moved in the wind, heavy with old symbols burned into the fabric.
Lena looked at Adrian.
“You know him.”
Adrian’s face had gone unreadable.
“I made him.”
Cassian dropped into the alley without sound.
Up close, he was taller than Adrian, broader through the shoulders, carrying the stillness of something that had survived too much to fear anything now.
The Iron Circle fighters bowed their heads.
Even the scar-marked leader stepped back.
Cassian’s gaze passed over Selene, Elias, then settled on Lena.
“So this is the girl kingdoms burned for.”
“I’m right here,” Lena said. “You can insult me directly.”
His mouth almost curved.
“I expected less.”
Adrian moved between them.
“You were dead.”
“I was loyal,” Cassian corrected. “There’s a difference.”
Lena glanced at Adrian.
“That sounds pointed.”
“It is,” Selene said, still recovering.
Cassian clasped his hands behind his back.
“When enemies came for the throne years ago, I held the lower gates for three nights.” His eyes never left Adrian. “When I returned, my king had vanished chasing love.”
The alley fell silent.
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“I left to stop a war.”
“You left because you could not rule and want at the same time.”
The words hit harder than any blade.
Elias muttered, “This world really prefers emotional violence.”
Cassian looked at him.
“And this is the mortal.”
Elias straightened. “Elias. Frequently endangered.”
“You smell of ordinary life.”
“Thank you?”
Cassian ignored him.
“The courts rotted in your absence, Adrian. Fools played king. Monsters fed. Cities nearly fell.”
He spread one scarred hand.
“So I built order.”
“The Iron Circle,” Selene said.
“A necessary hand around a broken throat.”
Lena’s eyes narrowed.
“You kill people to create peace?”
“I remove those who threaten structure.”
“That is a long word for murder.”
Cassian regarded her with interest.
“No wonder he lost everything.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“You want the throne.”
“No.” Cassian’s answer was immediate. “I want what the throne was meant to do.”
“And what is that?”
“Make the world obey.”
The air changed.
This man was worse than ambition.
He believed himself right.
Selene rose slowly beside Elias.
“You always were tedious, Cassian.”
“And you always mistook vanity for influence.”
She smiled coldly. “I can still cut your throat.”
“You may try.”
Lena moved closer to Adrian, lowering her voice.
“Can we beat him?”
“Once, yes.”
“And now?”
Adrian’s silence answered.
Cassian heard anyway.
“Mortality suits you poorly, my king.”
He drew a sword from beneath his coat.
Its blade was black iron veined with red light.
The alley walls groaned.
“Give me the girl,” he said, “and I may spare the rest.”
Lena blinked.
“I am getting tired of being requested like luggage.”
“She carries the last living bridge between worlds,” Cassian said. “With her blood, the gates can be sealed—or opened forever.”
Adrian’s eyes widened slightly.
“You’d tear the realms apart.”
“I’d unify them.”
Elias stepped beside Lena with a stolen baton.
“I know this is symbolic, but I’d like it noted I’m participating.”
Selene moved to Lena’s other side.
“Try not to die loudly.”
Adrian stood in front of them all.
Cassian smiled sadly.
“There you are,” he said. “The king I followed.”
Then he lifted the black sword.
And every Iron Circle fighter attacked at once.
End of Chapter 16
Say Chapter 17 when you're ready.
- Writer
