Sticks and Stones

Chapter Thirty-Six

Maybe it wasn't the best decision to go and see Caspian. At least not until she'd figured out what she was going to do.

But the words Ruby wrote in that letter hit her harder than she'd been bargaining for. The letter said to stay away if she wasn't prepared to love Caspian the way he deserved to be loved.

And God, she missed him. Seeing him again was just a reminder of everything she'd done wrong. Of all the ways she'd hurt him and messed up.

Sofia had two options. She could spend the rest of her life regretting what she'd done to Caspian and living with the guilt of it or she could go out and make things better. With her options laid out like that before her, there was really only one logical choice.

Which meant that this was the start of Project win Caspian back.

It took her a week to think of what to do first then another week to work up the courage to do it.

If she was going to get Cas back then she needed to think like Caspian. He'd reject her straight away, asking what her brother would make of them together. Which meant it was time to face the music and have Emilio get with the picture. Caspian was her man and he wasn't going anywhere.

At the back of her mind, she feared her efforts were going to be futile. He'd told her three years ago that she was out of chances—that she'd never get another chance with him. But she owed it to both of them to prove to Caspian how much she cared. So that was exactly what she'd do.

Except that backfired pretty damn quickly. A week or so after seeing Caspian at Morio's, she headed to her brother's home with the intention of telling him she was head over heels in love with a demon and that he was just going to have to deal with it. Instead, she'd found the sanctimonious Emilio bent over a naked vampire with her fangs in his neck.

And he wants to play high and mighty.

How was it fair for Emilio to refute what she felt for Caspian when it was completely fine for him to slum it with a vampire?

Annoyingly, she never got the chance to tell him what was happening. He was too busy yelling at her for fighting with 'Nazreen' and then he was off again on the certain death mission Caspian had set him out on.

Such events were the reason she now sat alone in Morio's with her head pressed to the sticky tabletop, feeling sorry for herself.

As she laid there, the barmaid pottered around her, collecting the dirty glasses Sofia had already worked her way through.

"You want another drink?" Rosa asked, looking at Sofia with pity.

"I want to die. Is there an easy way of doing that here?"

Her brother was mad at her. Caspian was mad at her. She didn't know what to do.

"Rip one of those bounties down from over on that wall there and change your mind," Rosa said. "You'll be dead in an instant."

Sofia sighed. Not a reminder I need right now.

"Yeah, I learnt that recently."

Caspian had made his point—but Sofia wouldn't take any notice of it. There'd been something deeper going on there. That blankness wasn't Caspian. He'd looked at her with no emotion at all. No anger, no sadness—she'd barely even seen recognition on his face.

Dirty glasses in hand, Rosa lingered by Sofia's table. "You're the pretty hunter man's sister."

Right, it was easy to forget the barmaid was interested in her brother. Apparently he's off the market with a vampire now.