A Court of Three Stars

28: Stone

Silene's Tunnels, Night Court, Prythian

Nesta

Cassian hadn't let go of me since we left the mouth of the cavern. His hand was a large, eternal presence on my back, regardless of the tight squeeze of him trying to walk through the narrow passages. He had to duck to fit through the tunnels, and I knew it was starting to bother his neck.

He had said nothing about it.

I hadn't expected him to, but I still worried. Sometimes, I caught myself so sickeningly in love with him that I would walk through these dank tunnels and worry about how his neck felt. Of all the things I could think about, I was worried because my mate was too absurdly large to fit down a normal walkway.

I'd be revolted if I wasn't so happy.

Everyone else had been quiet too. Especially Bryce. The typically nauseatingly peppy female had been silent since her time in the water, walking quietly behind us with the eternal presence of her mate. I liked her, enough that I was a bit concerned that she hadn't said a word since her near-drowning.

I wasn't a great fan of her mate.

I'd tolerate him, consider it a good deed, a sign that I truly was a changed person. But each distrusting comment about Leur, a female who had saved him from certain death, given him his wings back, fed and clothed him and kept him safe- made it harder and harder to ignore the fact that I desperately wanted to punch him in the face.

However, another benefit of Cassian being here, I truly doubted that he would be stupid enough to say something negative about Leur in front of him. Rhys was too concerned with the politics of everything, thinking ahead about building alliances and relationships, playing some long game by documenting everything in his head. Cassian would have no patience for any of that.

A word of disrespect towards his sister, and he was going to knock the lights out of Hunt Athalar. I knew that, and if the angel didn't- he would find out quite quickly.

Perhaps I wasn't so changed, because I found myself looking forward to the thought of it.

Shadow of Death, my ass.

"It should be coming up here soon." Rhys noted, a ball of violet faelight in his hands, "Just around this curve."

"Leur said it documents the First Wars?" Bryce finally spoke, her voice scratchy in her throat, "Do we know who carved them?"

"Silene, I'd assume." Rhys frowned, "She's the only person who would have known the histories, unless it was one of our ancestors."

"Where did it end, with the information passed down?" Cassian spoke up, "Did your father know?"

Rhys was silent for a moment, his face introspective. For a moment, I remembered that painting I had found, the pale male of darkness that had stood at the helm of his family. Rhys and Leur's father had perhaps been the worst male to ever walk this planet or the next, and the thought of him as a young boy- learning histories of an egregious sin committed by some ancient ancestor... it just didn't compute. Then again, Leur and Rhys were so old that imagining their father as a child was a thought I could barely wrap my mind around at all.

He had been over 900 when the siblings were born.

"Maybe." Rhys shook his head, "I never heard a hint about it."

"Why am I not surprised?" I mumbled, mostly to myself.

Rhys scoffed, shaking his head a bit, "I truly hope he's enjoying hell."

Finally, a hint of Bryce's personality came back, "Should we start a shitty dad support group?"

"Already done." Cassian quipped back, "It's called the Inner Circle."