The Fracture
1208 Words
Cassian’s POV
"Really, Noah?" I said, my voice dropping into a dangerous, disbelief-laden register.
I let go of Elena, though she stayed pressed against my side, her fingers digging into my arm like claws. I didn't care about the bourbon in my system anymore, the fog had cleared, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity. I looked at my twin, my other half, the "honorable" one and it felt like I was looking at a stranger.
"A kiss?" I prompted, stepping away from Elena toward him. "While I was out there trying to hold the perimeter, while the Council was sharpening their blades for her neck... you were busy making a move?"
Noah’s face remained a mask of granite, but I saw the flicker in his eyes. He didn't deny it. He didn't even flinch. That was always his way, stony silence until he decided you weren't worth the breath.
"It wasn't a move, Cassian," Noah said, his voice low and controlled. "It was a moment of weakness in a room where we both thought it was the end. Don't let Elena use it to distract you from the real problem."
"The real problem?" I barked a laugh, the sound echoing harshly off the marble walls. "The real problem is that this house is built on secrets. Aria is hiding things, you’re hiding things, and now Maeve is awake and telling me that the woman carrying my child is a liar!"
I turned my glare to Elena. She shrank back, her eyes wide and watery. "Cassian, please... you know I would never—"
"I don't know anything anymore!" I snapped.
The pressure in my chest was becoming unbearable. I could still feel the phantom sensation of Julian’s heart stopping in my hand. I had killed for this family. I had stained my soul to keep this estate standing, and all I got in return was a web of manipulation.
"Aria is in that room with Maeve," I said, pointing a finger at Noah’s chest. "And Maeve is terrified. She told me Julian was laughing about how easy it was to slip someone into our beds. She told me that the 'Vaelor Heir' everyone is so obsessed with might just be a shadow."
Elena’s breath hitched. She went to grab my hand, but I pulled away.
"I’m going up there," I declared. "I’m going to get the truth from Aria and Maeve, and if I find out that you’ve been playing us..." I let the threat hang in the air, my eyes shifting to a predatory amber.
"Cassian, wait," Noah stepped into my path, his hand coming up to stop me. "You're in no state to interrogate them. You're angry and you’re grieving. Let me—"
"Let you?" I snarled, shoving his hand aside. "So you can have another 'moment of weakness'? No. You stay here. Watch the 'Grand Luna’s blessing' while I find out exactly whose heart I really broke last night."
I pushed past him, my boots heavy on the stairs. Each step felt like a drumbeat of war. I could feel Noah’s gaze burning into my back, and I could feel Elena’s frantic energy behind me, but I didn't stop.
I reached the door to the medical wing and didn't bother knocking. I threw it open, the hinges groaning.
Aria was sitting on the edge of the bed, her hand in Maeve’s. They both looked up, their faces pale and drawn. The bond between them was visible, a shared trauma that I was currently excluded from.
Aria stood up immediately, her eyes darting to the blood still staining my cuffs. "Cassian, what are you doing?"
"The truth, Aria," I said, closing the door behind me and leaning against it. "I want the truth. No more secrets. What did Julian tell Maeve about Elena? And don't lie to me, because I’m already at my limit.”
I expected Aria to speak, but it was Maeve who moved.
She scrambled off the bed, her movements jerky and weak, and rushed toward me. Before I could move, she had her thin, cold fingers wrapped around my wrists. "I’ll tell you," she rasped, her eyes wide with a desperate kind of honesty. "I’ll tell you everything, Cassian. Just... sit. Please."
I sat, more out of shock than obedience. The air in the medical wing felt heavy, smelling of sterile alcohol and the metallic tang of the blood still on my skin.
"Elena isn't carrying a Vaelor heir," Maeve whispered, her voice trembling but certain. "She might not even be pregnant at all. It was all Julian’s plot. He laughed about it, Cassian. He said he’d found the perfect way to bring himself to the estate."
The blood in my veins turned to ice.
"She was with him," Maeve continued, her grip tightening. "Elena was intimate with Julian long before she ever showed up at your gates. She was his play, his inside man. Everything she told you about the baby, about the 'future'... it was all a script he wrote for her."
I stood up so abruptly that Maeve stumbled back. My vision was swimming in amber.
"Lies," I hissed, the word feeling like a mouthful of broken glass. "More lies."
I turned my gaze to Aria. She was standing there, watching me with those wide, empathetic eyes, but all I saw was another woman who had kept me in the dark while I played the fool. I looked at her with a raw, jagged distaste, my lip curling.
Aria flinched, her brow furrowing in confusion. She looked like she wanted to ask what she had done, but I didn't give her the chance. I couldn't breathe in this room. I couldn't be near the truth anymore.
I shoved past her, the door slamming against the wall as I stormed out of the medical wing. I didn't go back to Elena. I didn't go to Noah. I headed straight for the bar slamming a bottle of expensive scotch onto the counter and breaking the neck off against the edge of the wood.
A few minutes later, the door creaked.
"Cassian?"
It was Aria. She walked in slowly, her hands raised as if she were approaching a wounded animal. "What is wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like I’ve betrayed you?"
The sight of her, the innocent Omega who had my brother’s kiss still practically fresh on her lips sent me over the edge. The bottle neck in my hand was broken and sharp, a weapon born of my own self-destruction.
"You’re all the same," I roared, lunging across the space. I pinned her against the heavy mahogany bookshelf, the broken glass inches from her throat. "You and your secrets. You and your Mark. You played us both, didn't you? You and Elena, just two sides of the same counterfeit coin!"
Aria’s breath hitched, her eyes filling with tears, but she didn't scream. She just looked at me with a devastating pity that made me want to howl.
"Cassian!”
- Writer
