Chapter 550: Defenseless, worried and not alone

Byron came in hot, pushing the door open, his black eyes blazing. Cass was right in assuming that his Mom went with him as she trailed in behind him, just as upset as he was.

"You were right. Not only was it disturbed, they were completely gone. They were clearly picked up, the gardens were messed up, the house was askew and Mom found so many partial traces that we couldn’t pinpoint a single creature." His eyes scanned over the group before settling on Cass.

Cass could feel the anger coming off of him in waves, his hands clenched at his sides and his body shaking slightly. It only shifted when Sam came to his side, taking his hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. Byron closed his eyes, took a steadying breath, and then opened them again.

"That’s not good." Taniora commented, and Byron gave a snort but didn’t respond beyond that. Edgar glanced between everyone who seemed to be in the know and his face scrunched up further.

"What’s not good? Where did you send Byron? What was gone?" Edgar asked and Cass let out a soft sigh.

"Do you remember how we found Taniora? In the dungeon?" Cass asked and Edgar glanced at Gideon. Gideon shrugged.

"She was in a large chamber with a huge pool of water. She was on a small platform with a table and two chairs on it." Gideon said and Cass nodded.

"Yes. Did that table and those chairs look familiar?" Cass asked and the two of them looked confused. They glanced at each other, and then glanced at the others in the room.

"I, uh, I don’t think so? What are you really asking here, Cass?" Edgar asked and Cass shuffled slightly on the couch.

"They looked familiar to me, which was why my reaction was a little bit weird when we met Taniora. Outside of Lucian being a little weird." Cass explained. "But I forgot about it until I was talking to Taniora and finally sent Byron to go check on it today. Byron just got back, as you can tell, and he confirmed what we suspected." Cass let out a heavy sigh. "That table and chairs were from Fiona’s backyard." Cass told them.

Edgar slowly sat down next to Cass, his expression smoothing out a bit but he still looked a little confused. He had sat down because he knew that the words were supposed to impact him, but he didn’t know how it was supposed to impact him yet.

"That’s...a big deal?" He asked carefully and Cass nodded.

"Taniora reminded me about it because they had to take her whole body to put her in the dungeon. I was curious if they did the same to Fiona’s table." Edgar’s look of confusion didn’t change.

"Why did you think it was Fiona’s? Not that I’m upset that you found out that was the case, but that table set is rather common. I’ve seen it at bistros and other noble houses before." Edgar’s words made Cass pause. Cass had been so caught up in the possibility that his theory was correct that he forgot about the greater context.

How the hell was he going to explain his way out of this without being suspicious?

Cass felt his body break out into a sweat. He had explained part of what had happened to him to them, so they weren’t completely out of the know, but they didn’t know about his meetings with Cassian. They didn’t even know that he could meet Cassian, because they still thought that they were the same person, just altered.

Cass didn’t want to reveal these points, but he had been so caught up in the excitement of finding out something new and that could possibly benefit the story moving forward that he had forgotten about the small details.

Like the fact that it was a common backyard set.

"W-Well," Taniora began, "um, we know that the demons want to hurt you, right? Or me as well? So, Cass just assumed that they would have taken the set from the hero’s house out of spite." Taniora’s words could have made sense, but Cass wouldn’t have even bought it.

Cass could feel the sweat trickle down his spine as Edgar stared at him, not Taniora who just spoke. His blue gaze was unwavering as he stared into Cass’ eyes. Cass gulped, his emotions still raw after revealing everything to Taniora. The walls that he normally had up weren’t fully back yet, and given the feelings that he had for Edgar-

Cass felt his face go red as he realised that. He truly didn’t have any walls up if just the thought of the feelings he was developing for Edgar and Gideon were enough to make him blush.

Edgar leaned in closer to Cass, his eyes widening slightly.

"Why are you blushing? What are you thinking about?" Edgar asked, delight sneaking into his tone and Cass turned his face away. Cass was so emotionally vulnerable that he raised his hand, trying to hide his face from Edgar’s view.

"Stop looking at me like that." Cass muttered. He knew better than to say that, but it was too late. Edgar shifted closer and Cass felt his arm coming down around his shoulder like a warning.

"Cass, bunny, why are you being shy all of a sudden? I’ve stared at you plenty of times before and it didn’t bother you. Are you embarrassed that you didn’t even consider that it was a common set?" Cass’ face burned at his affectionate, teasing voice.

"W-What if I am?" Cass countered, using that as a chance to pivot away from the true reason that he was blushing and his heart was racing in his chest. Him thinking that Cass was embarrassed because he was too rich to know something was far better than him catching on to the fact that Cass had been momentarily overwhelmed by the fact he was developing feelings for him and Gideon. For anyone, actually.

Edgar’s soft lips pressed against Cass’ hand that was covering his face and Cass flinched. Edgar laughed, tugging Cass’ hand down so that his sparkling, handsome face was a direct threat to Cass’ stable state of being. His pleased, amused expression was downright lethal to Cass right now and Cass jerked his head away from him. Damn handsome vampire.

"Oh Bunny baby, that’s actually adorable. Too rich for your own good, hmm?" He was teasing, leaning in close to rest his chin on Cass’ shoulder. Cass shuddered.

"Stop it." Cass tried to put venom into his words, but it sounded more like he was a petulant child throwing a weak tantrum than anything else.

"Edgar." Gideon’s voice rang out from above them. "Cass is already embarrassed enough. Don’t tease him too much." Cass felt his eyes widen slightly as even Gideon stepped in to tease him. Cass jerked his head back, glancing at Gideon to find even the knight had a soft, warm expression on his face.

When Cass turned his gaze to Taniora, she also looked the same way. Byron and Sam didn’t, but that was because they knew better. Cass pouted, his hands forming fists in his lap.

How in the world did it come to this? One second he was worrying about how Edgar and Gideon would take his words, how he would disguise a different truth from them, and the next second he was being made fun of for being too rich to blend in with the common folk.

Why was it Cass’ fault that it was a common set? It wasn’t common in Cass’ world, and Cass had never even had a backyard to put the set in before if it was! If anything, he was living both extremes. Too rich and too poor at the same time.

Cass’ face burned for a few minutes more before Byron’s Mom took pity on Cass and spoke up.

"As Byron said earlier," She spoke softly, but with authority, "there were too many scents and traces in the house for me to get a proper reading. What that really means is while the hero’s life trace was there, the more recent forces were too chaotic and overlapping for me to get a proper reading." She sounded apologetic. "What I can tell you is that it was a mix of human and demon traces, but I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint anything specific." She gave a small bow. "My apologies."

Cass thought that was a marvel enough. He had no idea that that kind of magic existed, and when Cass glanced at Edgar, he wasn’t staring at Cass ready to tease him but instead staring at Byron’s Mom.

"It is a very useful thing, your powers." Edgar muttered, before sliding his gaze to Cass. "Though, I think all of us are just grateful that you went in the first place. The fact that demon traces were even found at the hero’s house and that they weren’t related to Cass or Sam is news enough." Edgar said what Cass was thinking, and Cass nodded when she slid her gaze to him. She smiled.

"Since I am so familiar with both of your traces it was easy to not mistake either of you. Your traces were faint, faded. These were too fresh to even be related to you." She told Sam and Cass both and Cass nodded, before he paused.

"Wait, do I come across as a demon to you?" Cass asked, curious and slightly afraid. What if he ran into a fairy that was like her, but not friendly to Cass? It was like she could see Cass’ fears on his face. Then again, Cass wasn’t exactly the best at hiding his emotions right now.

"Don’t worry, Cass." She said, her smile bright. "Your traces to anyone else would be more fairy forward, while I only see a little bit of the demon twist because my powers are older, aged. I’m able to see more because of that." She explained and Cass found himself nodding to her explanation. That was fascinating.

"That is very interesting. I didn’t know fairies developed their magic like that." Edgar said, again, stealing the words from Cass’ mouth. Cass would have been upset if it had been anyone else.

"Fairies inherit their magic from nature itself. Of course it would be able to grow." She said it like it was obvious, and in that moment, it was. Cass found that he had nothing to say back to that, and neither did Edgar. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"It makes me worry what Cass will grow into then. He’s already a powerful mage, are you saying he will get stronger?" Gideon asked. Cass looked back at him, but Gideon was staring at Byron’s Mom, focused. Her expression was thoughtful for a moment.

"Hmm. I hadn’t considered any other option, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how Cass’ blood decides this battle. Fairy blood is more potent and often drowns out human blood when mixed over time, so I wonder how the demon blood will hold up?" She pondered and Cass was fascinated to hear that.

"Are you saying that Ailia’s child who will be mixed, is going to eventually just be a full fairy?" Cass asked and she smiled, turning her gaze to Cass.

"No, because the shifters, those who aren’t quite human, have origins alongside the fairies. They wouldn’t be drowned out completely, but if Sir Sanders has any trace of human in him it will be blotted out but the fairy blood." Edgar shuddered next to Cass.

"That’s a bit...terrifying. Sounds like your Father’s blood never stood a chance." Edgar told Cass and Cass just sat there. That was...not something he had even considered could happen. Fairy blood thought of human blood as...a disease or something.