Page 98 of Crown of Roses
His voice was calm. Collected. “I said, not if you kill her first.”
“But even if I do, even if I were to try, it wouldn’t be enough to save Kells. To save my people.” She wanted to stall, to stop and ask what was happening, to figure out how to fix everything, but Casimir urged her further through the woods. Away from Niahvess.
“I need you to listen to me very carefully, Your Highness.” There was coldness in his voice, and a trigger of alarm blared in the back of her mind.
“Okay…” she drew the word out.
He spared her a glance, but continued to barge onward, until the trees thinned to reveal an expanse of rounded gray rocks that rose up from the earth between patches of seagrass and stretches of sand. When he spoke again, she could barely hear him over the call of the sea. “There is no saving Kells.”
This time she did stumble, but Casimir was there. He caught her arm and held onto her, looked her right in the eyes, and she thought he ventured further. Into her soul.
“What do you mean?” She tried to swallow the bubbling rise of terror, but the grip of it was maddening. Strangling.
“When Saoirse chose to stay in Kells, Tiernan sent Merrick and another scout back to find out just how far the Scathing had spread since our departure.” He paused, and the ache in her heart swelled. “It’s overwhelming the city, Maeve. They’re in the process of evacuating people to Cantata, south of the Cascadian Mountains.”
“Wait, what?” Tiernan sent scouts? Again? It almost seemed unreal. So much so, she didn’t believe Casimir. “No. Impossible. It couldn’t have destroyed that much of the city so quickly.”
“But it has. Almost all that remains is the castle, and that’s only because the Scathing is having to move upward, along the Ridge.” He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, they were colored with loss. “We will return to whatever is left of Kells. You will kill Carman. They will have a rightful queen, and not a sorceress. And then once she is dead, we will return to Faeven…and do what we must.”
“Cas, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand.” She shook her head, cleared her mind of the ruthless images of her beautiful city plagued with decay and death. “We’re in Faeven now, why should we leave when we can just destroy Parisa now?”
“Because.” He took her hand, gently encircled it with both of his. “Once Carman is destroyed, my soul will be released back to me. If my soul is released, my full strength will be restored.”
“Your full strength?” Maeve stared at the man she’d known her entire life. The one who never aged, who never changed. “What are you talking about?”
“It was the one thing I refused to talk about with you, because I worried you would view me differently because of it.” Casimir continued to aim for the edge, where the cliffs jutted out over the calm sea. “When I sold my soul to Carman, my reasons were my own. I was foolish and desperate, and I thought my actions would be enough to save myself. And the woman I loved.”
Maeve nearly tripped over one of the protruding rocks, but she caught herself, and stared up at him. “You were in love once?”
He rolled his eyes, ever the annoyed mentor. “Don’t act so surprised.”
“Sorry, I just—”
“It doesn’t matter.” He shook his head sharply, swiftly ending that part of the conversation. “What matters is that I’m…”
Casimir hesitated.
“You’re what, Cas?”
“I’m a Drakon.”
This time Maeve did fall. Her hands hit the soft ground and a laugh bubbled up from her chest. She shoved up from the rocky beach, dusted the sand off on her pants, but when she glanced up, Casimir wasn’t smiling. “Seven hells, you’re serious.”
“Yeah.” He shoved his dark, windswept hair back from his face. “I’m serious.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t even sure what to say to him. A Drakon. They were legendary, magnificent creatures with the ability to shift between their dragon and human forms at will. She remembered being fascinated by Drakons as a child, reading all she could about the mythical beasts of wonder who once ruled the skies, seas, and underworlds. They were exceptionally powerful, full of magic, and often lethal. “You never told me.”
“Very few know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She wasn’t mad at him for keeping such an extraordinary secret, but the abrupt revelation stung. “Do you not trust me?”
“No.” He turned on her then, and took her by the shoulders. Gently. “No, Maeve. It’s nothing like that.”
She looked up the warrior she thought she knew. Only half of his face was visible, the rest was hidden away beneath the shroud of his hood. “Then what is it like?”
“Drakon aren’t always accepted in the human lands, much like fae. To humans, we’re seen as the enemy. We’re monsters who fly through the night, burning down cities, stealing treasure, and leaving nothing but ash in our wake.” His hands fell away from her, and he straightened, never one to show defeat. “Carman hates everything with more power than her. It’s why when I traded her my soul for the ability to remain in a mortal form for eternity, she took my power to shift as well. I thought, that is, I assumed, if you knew the truth about me…you’d hate me as much as she does.”
“What? Cas, no. That’s ridiculous.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “I could never hate you.”
