His words were like an arrow to the gut. There it was— the beratement.
I was fully prepared for him to chew me out, so I was surprised when he added, “I apologize for my role in this. I don’t believe I’ve explained myself very well.”
I furrowed my brow. “Aren’t you going to yell at me?”
“For what, exactly?” Cassiel asked. “Failures happen. If you’re going to take my place as the head of this family, you need to learn how to deal with failure in stride. The mark of a good mob boss is not a perfect track record. It’s learning how to adjustwhen needed. That, and not getting caught. You barely made it out alive, but you’re here with me now.”
All I could do was gape. “I don’t get it. Shouldn’t you be ready to rip my head off? We exposed the supernatural world.”
“What good would that do?” Cassiel asked. “I’m not here to guilt trip you. I’m here to train you, and I haven’t done my job as of yet.”
If he was yelling at me, I’d know how to respond. His behavior was weird, and I didn’t know what to do with it. Cassiel sat on a stone bench, and I took my place beside him.
“I think it’s evidenced by the way things turned out this morning that this cannot happen again,” he said.
“So what do you suggest I do differently?” I asked, rather harshly. “I did what needed to be done.”
“This isn’t how this family operates. You’re supposed to sendotherpeople to do your dirty work. You’re the boss.”
“Which is exactly why I took matters into my own hands,” I stated.
“You got your hands dirty,” Cassiel countered. “A good leader keeps his hands clean.”
“So everyone else can take the fall for me?” I demanded. “I took a chance, and we got closer than we’ve ever been. I can’t trust anyone else to get that close. It took a lot of demigod magic to get as far as we did. I’ve always done things by myself. I don’t know why I can’t do that now.”
Cassiel sighed. “You’re not the criminal you think you are— you’re so much more. You’ve lifted from cash registers and stolen a few electronics. I’ve robbed royal vaults and taken jewels from high-security museums. I’ve stolen ships and navigated their route through treacherous waters. All of this was done from the comfort of my own castle. I’m going to teach you how to be a bigger class of criminal.”
“What fun is sitting around giving people orders?” I questioned. “I should be out there breaking into bank vaults and cracking through museum security. Hell, I should be on the ships captaining them myself— not sitting here on the phone while someone’s shining my shoes. Forgive me if that’s worked out for you, but you don’t get it. While you were building this palace and restoring Ilamanthe, I was rotting in a prison cell. If you could get past security in a museum, why couldn’t you get into the Institute and get us out of there?”
“You think I didn’t try?” Cassiel asked. “Patience is a vital tool in our family. These things take time.”
“That’s theproblem,” I insisted. “I acted fast on that key, and it wasn’t fast enough. You tried to get me out of the Institute, but I couldn’t sit around waiting for someone to save me. My friends and I saved ourselves.”
I felt like I was talking circles with these people. No one was hearing me.
“I understand that you’re upset,” Cassiel started.
“No, I don’t think youdounderstand. You’re safe here in your palace. It makes you feel like you have time. But when you’re out there on the streets, your clock is always ticking.”
My grandfather thought about this for a moment, then said, “I see. Be that as it may, you can’t put yourself in danger just because there’s limited opportunity. If you are to take my place when I’m gone, you must produce an heir when this war is over.”
I didn’t understand why he was bringing this up now. Once I inherited all of this, I’d love to have kids and give them everything I never had. I wanted to build a perfect world for them.
But at the same time, Ava wasn’t sure about having kids, and I wasn’t going to make her be a mother if she didn’t want to be. And I certainly didn’t want to have kids as some sort ofobligationto the throne. I knew how it felt to have a bigresponsibility you’d been born into, not chosen yourself, and it was heavy.
“Heirs are irrelevant,” I stated.
“They’re relevant if we hope to continue our family legacy,” Cassiel insisted. “You’re the prince, which makes you the brains of the entire operation. You can’t have a bullet wound to the brain, or it compromises our entire existence as a society. Furthermore, you dragged Ava-Marie into the line of fire. She isn’t just your wife. She’s yourprincess. Soon, she will become the spiritual mother of our people, and she’s your greatest treasure. You can’t bargain with her safety like that ever again, because the monarchy won’t survive losing another queen.”
“I would never let Ava get hurt,” I snarled.
“You almost did,” Cassiel reminded me. “Our people look to Ava-Marie above anyone else. Once she completes her spirit ceremony and accepts her role as the mother of our people, she will be able to communicate with the goddesses. Our nation will look to her for answers. She is more vital to the Elves than either of us.”
“The Elves have survived without a queen before,” I pointed out.
“Barely,” Cassiel replied. “You’re correct that there hasn’t been an Elven queen in years, and look at what has happened to us during that time. We barely survived extinction. We haven’t thrived as a society since my wife died. That is why Ava is so important to our people. If she dies, so does our symbol of hope and rebellion.”
Guilt twinged in my guts again, but I refused to feel guilty for this. I wasn’t going to push my wife into this if she didn’t want it.
