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He nodded, before he nearly ran from the kitchen. As he entered the hallway, he called himself dumb nine different ways. Castian should have known he’d run into his little sister.
“Brother, push me higher.” She cried out, her pigtails flying as he used his magic to push her on the swing.
“Any higher and you’re going to fly away,” he jokingly warned from where he lounged on the blanket a few steps away. His mother sat behind him cross leg and knitting a scarf. She’d gotten into it after visiting his fiancés grandmother. “How about you let me take a break?”
She shook her head, moving her legs back and forth. “No, I want to fly," she said, looking over her shoulder as she wrinkled her nose. “Father said I’m an angel so of course I should be able to fly.”
He laughed at that. “I’ve never seen an angel as ugly as you. Ow.” He flinched, turning around to see his mother daring him to say something with her narrowed eyes.
“Be nice,” she mouthed.
At that time, his little brother had refused to join them and had insisted on remaining inside to study for a test he’d failed, that Castian himself had passed. For some reason his little brother seemed in constant competition with him. Castian hadn’t yet spotted the resentment in his brother’s face, or noticed it growing into hate.
His sister now had a daughter of her own. Time had been cruel in its ebb forward, he’d lost the light of the world, his father and mother had died, and he’d missed out on all of Graces first. Her first love, her first kiss. He’d never gotten to tease her about having a crush and hadn’t been there to comfort her when they lost their parents.
“Why hadn’t he come back sooner?”
Waiting for the right time? That was complete Bullshit.
He stopped in the hallway, staring down at the floor forcing the tornado of raw emotions to die down. He knew what he needed to do.
“I’ll kill them.”
“Kill them. Bleed them on my altar.”
Ashiya’s dark emotions mixed with his own anger, and this time Castian didn’t bother to stop it. He needed that rage to power him. It would be what he used to continue forward. He couldn’t allow himself to show weakness.
He’d taste the whisky and smoke the cigars. He would play his role as the Lothario cousin everyone expected him to be. But the minute a chance came he would go to the private library and search for the key to the altar. Once it was in his hands, he would overturn everything.
With his newfound determination he left for the solar.
* * *
“Cousin, a penny for your thoughts.”
Castian had kept his distance since entering the masculine decorated solar. Meeting Arwin’s gaze, he shrugged. “They are not that entertaining.”
“Surely, they are more entertaining than listening to Tillon regale us once more on how he got between a famous actresses’ thighs. It’s almost like none of them remember he’s supposed to be marrying my cousin.”
Arwin pressed his lips together in disgust. Together they looked at the circle of men who laughed seemingly on cue when Tillon hit a particular part of his story.
“They just don’t care.” Castian said, taking a sip from his drink. Narrowing his eyes on Tillon, “The only reason they're laughing is because he’s a Napier.”
“Tsk, the name Napier lost its power when his brother was imprisoned.”
Castian stiffened, but Arwin didn’t appear to notice. “His brother was truly the definition of a Napier, and Tillon couldn’t stand it. I told Lance many times, he should watch out for his brother’s greed. But he didn’t take me seriously at all.”
Surprised at Arwin words, Castian said. “I heard he was caught on charges of human sacrifice and attempting to assimilate with the family demon.”
Arwin’s entire demeanor changed as his voice grew cold. “He would never have done something like that. Lance had honor, something his brother sorely lacks.”
Castian observed Arwin, “How is it you know about this? It’s odd that you’re the only one here still defending him all these years later. What if that was his true nature? A murderer.”
“Don’t be ignorant.” Arwin said, disgust clear in his voice. “If it wasn’t for Lance, you’d have been bullied in private school a thousand times worse than you were. As his friend, I immediately knew something was fishy. We both know he was too much of an amazing horseman to die from falling from one. And then two years later both his father and mother die in a car accident, I call horse shit.” Arwin’s expression showed contempt.
Arwin’s hatred burned the air around them. “We’re all a part of the Ring of Syed such things have happened before. Only, this time I—” He stopped talking abruptly, his eyes not on Tillon anymore but on Castian.
“You… I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. For a moment it was like I was talking to an old friend," he said, dropping his head so that his hair fell into his face, blocking his eyes from Castian sight.
