Sleep with the Lights On ✔️

14. A Soul

The next morning at breakfast, it was even more quiet than usual, everyone was to preoccupied in their own thoughts to pretend to be interested in the thoughts of others. Cassie had a contented look on her face despite the darkening black eye and the scabbed lip. Roan stared at Peros, fidgeting in his seat. At the head of the table, Fion glared past everyone. A faint bruise on her face, her eyes were bloodshot.

Peros didn't know where to look, he hadn't talked to Cassie since she came into his room the afternoon before, what had happened between her and Fion? Roan was sending him urgent glances, he would want to talk after the meal. He ate his food slowly, he still felt off from the smoky room. He hoped that Roan would explain what had happened.

Cassie looked at Peros, but she wasn't desperate to know what he was thinking and if he was thinking about her. She was still glowing with confidence, she didn't care that Peros hadn't responded to her. She glanced over at Fion, her lips pinched, purposefully avoiding eye contact with anyone. Cassie's eye was swollen and dark, she couldn't open it all the way but she didn't mind. It really felt like she was taking charge of something, doing something.

She wasn't the first to finish the meal, the other inhabitants of the house were in a rush to leave. Peros smiled at her as he left, following someone else down a hallway. She was glad he'd smiled at her, she hadn't begun to worry about the consequences of the kiss. She would be content with being friends with Peros, she wasn't sure she wanted anything other than what she'd already done. On an adrenaline high she'd kissed her one friend in the underworld, she was still too happy about exceeding Fion's expectations to think anything more of it.

"Cassia." Fion said, her hand rested lightly on Cassie's shoulder.

"Cassie. Yes, Fion?" Cassie answered, Fion had mixed up her name enough times for Cassie not to care anymore, she would just correct her and move on.

"You did very well yesterday." Fion's voice was cold, and measured.

"Thank you." Cassie replied.

"Now, There is still some things I can teach you, and some things that you'll need to know that I can't teach you. But you know enough to survive on your own for a while." Fion said, her tone unchanging and mismatched to the angered expression barely concealed on her fine features.

"And what about breaking the enchantment that's keeping me from getting home?" Cassie asked. The one question that she'd asked countless times only for Fion to brush it off.

"You'll have to do your own research on that." Fion said with a small smile.

"But you said when I came here that you would help." Cassie said, clenching her jaw. She wouldn't take this from Fion, not anymore.

"Very well." Fion replied. "Although I don't remember promising such a thing I will do my own research as well. When you are healed we will have our final lesson and hopefully we will have enough information between the two of us that will help you get home." She had softened to her usual sweet and superior expression.

"Thank you." Cassie said, her frustration lessening. She touched her eye, she could probably find a healing enchantment and fix it up in no-time. She did need to do some investigation though. Maybe an enchantment that reveals the source of other enchantments? She sighed and hurried off to her room to search through the enchantment book for answers. There was still so much she had to do, but she was still inflated from her victory in the greenhouse. "I'm strong enough to beat Fion, I'll be strong enough to break this enchantment." She told herself.

Roan moved quickly, stumbling over his own toes every few steps. Peros followed closely behind, in spite of everything he was content. Nothing was perfect but tiny things were starting to fall into place. The most important thing was that Cassie trusted him again, or at least he thought she did. His mind was working overtime just to keep from over-analyzing the kiss, he didn't want to end up thinking it meant differently than she had intended. He figured she would explain when they spoke again.