Chapter 17
853 Words
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CASSIAN POV
He knew she was going.
Even before she said it out loud.
Cassian had spent his entire life mastering strategy, but with Luna, he never had to guess. She was already halfway across the world in her mind — chasing a ghost she used to call family. Her uncle. Her myth. Her sanctuary. Now possibly her salvation.
Or her executioner.
The letter sat on the edge of the table, a delicate black blade in the shape of paper. Cassian had read it twice. Memorized every line. Every calculated twist of that elegant, manipulative tone.
Lysander Knight wasn’t dead.
He was worse.
He was alive and watching.
And he knew exactly what kind of girl Luna had become in his absence — what kind of woman the world had tried to mold and what kind of weapon she’d made herself into.
Cassian didn’t trust him.
Not because of what Lysander had done in the past.
But because of how precisely he knew when to return.
Cassian stared out the window of the safe house, his jaw tense, eyes on the skyline as the sun broke over the city. Somewhere below, men moved in silence. Guards. His men. Ghosts of a world Luna tried to leave behind but would never truly escape.
She was packing in the other room.
He heard her zip the bag — small, practical. One she could run with. One she wouldn’t mind dropping if she had to fight her way out.
She was smart like that.
Too smart.
Which made the danger worse.
Cassian ran a hand through his hair and reached for his phone. His fingers hovered over a contact.
Silas Veyron.
The man he called when things were about to spiral.
After a few seconds, he tapped send.
The line rang once.
“Didn’t expect your name to light up today,” Silas said, voice like sandpaper and bourbon. “And not this early.”
“I need eyes in Prague. Discreet. No tech. No flags.”
A pause.
“Luna?”
“Yes.”
Another pause.
“I thought you said you wouldn’t follow her.”
“I’m not.”
“You’re lying.”
Cassian exhaled. “I’m protecting her.”
“Same thing, Laurel. Just dressed in guilt.”
Silas didn’t ask questions. He never did.
Because they both knew what this was.
Cassian had done worse for less.
But Luna wasn’t less.
She was everything he hadn’t meant to want — and now couldn’t live without.
“Keep her alive,” he said flatly. “That’s all I’m asking.”
Silas sighed. “She won’t like it.”
“She doesn’t have to.”
By the time Luna stepped into the living room, her bag slung over her shoulder, Cassian had already poured two coffees. One black. One with a single drop of honey — just how she took it when her nerves were starting to fray.
She looked at the mug.
“You’re not trying to stop me?”
“I know better.”
She walked over slowly and took it. Their fingers brushed. The smallest touch, but it still sent a jolt through him.
“I won’t be gone long,” she said.
Cassian didn’t answer.
Because long wasn’t the problem.
Gone was.
“If you’re not back by the morning of the second,” he said quietly, “I’m coming to burn the city down.”
Her eyes softened, just for a second.
Then steeled again.
“I’ll be back.”
He reached for her hand. She let him take it.
“I know you think this is about your past,” he said, his voice low. “But this isn’t a reunion, Luna. This is a test. And you’re walking into it blind.”
“I’m not blind,” she whispered. “I just need to see what’s true.”
“And if the truth is worse than the lie?”
She looked up at him, jaw set. “Then I handle it.”
Cassian leaned in, pressing his forehead to hers. “Come back to me, Luna. Not as someone else's pawn. Not for revenge. Just… you.”
She kissed him. Soft at first. Then deeper. Her fingers curled into his shirt like she didn’t want to let go — like she might break if she did.
When she pulled back, there was fire in her eyes again.
“I’m not running from us, Cassian.”
“I know.”
“I’m running toward the war that built me.”
He watched her go without saying goodbye.
Because he knew she'd hear it in his silence.
Later that night, Cassian sat in the dark, lights off, phone on the table beside him. The key from Lysander’s letter rested next to it, untouched. She hadn’t taken it.
Not the original, anyway.
He’d made a copy.
Just in case.
There were always contingencies with Luna.
Because if she didn’t come back?
Then there would be no legacy left worth protecting.
Only vengeance.
And Cassian Laurel had built an empire out of vengeance once.
He could do it again.
- Writer
