NESTA & CASSIAN

Waste No More Time (Short Story IV)

Nesta sat straight up in the darkness. Her back, sweaty and aching, was glued to the black, dirty wall of her cell. She was panting as her eyes blinked to adjust against the dark sweep of night. She tried to take deep breath through her nose - breathing in all of the nightmares and painful memories - and release the huff of breath through her parted mouth.

Nesta reached with her bleeding and trembling fingers for her abdomen, the touch of her fingertips was as light as a bird's feather but she still sucked in a sharp intake of breath. She tried to blink away the tears that gathered in her frozen eyes, not because anyone could see them. But because she didn't want to lose hope.

Not just yet.

Not when there was a chance that she could get out of here, alive.

Morrigan had managed to escape. Nesta even helped her. It had been a few days after Morrigan got past the guards and Hybern's crows. At least that was what Nesta kept telling herself.

Morrigan had gotten away. Morrigan had gotten away. Morrigan had gotten away. Morrigan had gotten away.

She repeated the words over and over in her head, desperately. That is what she needed to do if she didn't want to lose complete hope. If she didn't want to lose her mind. If she didn't want to lose hers and Cassian's child.

Morrigan had gotten away, she repeated the words once again. Mouthed them, she did it just as much because she wanted to make sure her lips could move and just as much as she wished for the words to be true.

Morrigan had gotten away, and they all were going to save her.

Nesta for the first time in her life wished - prayed - for something so bad. She yearned to go home, sit on her usual grand sofa with her fingers in Cassian's black mass of curls, she yearned for the fire of the fireplace blazing and crackling at her side, she yearned for the lights and music of Velaris, she yearned to hold her sisters and tell them - tell them all the things she was to afraid to say before.

Doors slammed open and shut. Footsteps sounded in the hall and Nesta braced herself, her shoulders tight against the filthy wall of her cell.

She could yearn and wish and pray all she wanted.

But perhaps after all, nobody would come for her. Perhaps after all the bitterness and cruelness she showed her family they had decided to abandon her.

Perhaps she was this was her punishment. And this was her own personal hell.

***

Cassian clenched and unclenched his right fist. He was sitting against the bunk of a twisted tree, the soiled ground under his heavy weight felt wet against his fighting leathers. It must have started raining. He wasn't sure though, he didn't even feel the pour of rain hitting his shoulders and settling in his mess of hair.

He couldn't tell the difference between the raindrops and tears rolling down his cheeks, anyway.

Cassian numbly shifted his gaze towards the cave again, he could make out the shadows mirrored from Feyre's fire. He glanced at the blond head of Morrigan, at Azriel's hand on her waist, his massive wings wrapping around them - trying to keep them warm.

At least they had found her. He kept telling himself. At least the cauldron had kept Mor alive, because if it hadn't he didn't know what would become of his brothers and the rest of the inner circle.

He didn't know what would have happened to Nesta or his child if Mor wasn't alive. If she hadn't escaped from Hybern's clutches.

He waited by that twisted tree until his fighting leathers were completely soaked. Waited until exhaustion had taken over Feyre, until her flames shifted to air and nothing more. Waited until even had closed his eyes and drifted off to a deep slumber. Cassian had waited long enough and when time came, he stood from his seat. Shook of the dirt from his fighting leathers and walked away.

One step after the other was bringing him closer to Nesta.

He was going to get her back. Even if that would cost him his life.

***

Nesta screamed and screamed but no one came for her.

They all had left her to die.

And she was dying.

***

Cassian crouched on the ground. His breaths was coming out in puffs, the sound was harsh in his own ears, he closed his mouth and forced himself to control his breathing.

There were two guards standing outside the door, and as far as he knew there were no more guards inside the hall that lead towards Nesta's cell. Cassian had listened and listened to Mor's information, she told them all how the building looked and how the guards changed shifts and how they were remorseless when it came to them.

Cassian felt his siphons starting to glow a deadly red, the color of the blood he was about to spill.

If they'd tortured Nesta...

He'd end them all. There would be no discussion, no thinking and no remorse considering their deaths.

Clouds gathered above his head again and Cassian waited patiently. He had waited and wasted so much time to get through to Nesta. Make her at ease so that she would finally drop these high walls and let him in. He wasted even more time making her smile and making her feel loved the moment he had hesitated when she told him about their child.

But he would waste no more time.

Not when it came to her, not when it came to his family.

The rain drew closer and when it started to pour on Cassian's head heavily enough that he couldn't see further than his own nose the he let his red siphons glow. Then he attacked. The two guards by the door never even saw him coming, they dropped to the floor without complicating further Cassian's task. He kneeled by one and yanked the keys from his belt, took his weapons as well.

Cassian unlocked the door and slipped through the opened crack. He was dripping on the floor but that never stopped him from walking towards the end of the hall, straight to where he spotted brown and blond hair on the floor.

His heart was in his throat and his pace quickened with every step.

He couldn't tear his eyes away from Nesta.

The mother of his child.

She was his life.

His life was lying in the middle of a cell, in a pull of her own blood.

Cassian didn't waste any more time ripping the bars apart and getting to her. He lifted her up, one of his arm supporting her head, the other under her knees.

"Nesta," he murmured, his nose was buried in her hair. "I am here Nesta, I am taking you home. Everything is going to all right. I promise." he said, his lips trembled with the sobs that threaten to take over his powerful body.

If he lost her now...

"I knew you'd come for me." she whispered back weakly.

Cassian's heart bursted with sunlight. He smiled against her bloody skin, his grip tightening on her just so that she'd know that he was here. That he'd never, ever let her go again.

And with that thought in mind he carried Nesta back home.