“Badly, most likely. Though, I doubt many leaders in history sent their people to war without knowing the cost.”
“That’s a pragmatic way to look at it.”
“I am nothing if not a realist, Brielle, but I’ll do anything to bring my son home. If we don’t respond now, your brother might do something else even more brazen. I take no joy in it, but this must be done. Unfortunately, it falls to me to do it.”
When we got to my room, I realized I didn’t want to be alone anymore. Talking to Cassius was strangely comforting. The king was so fatherly, and for years I’d been craving that emotional connection of having a father. It made me both happy to have met him, and bitter about my own dad.
“Would you like to come in? We could chat some more,” I said.
His eyebrows rose in surprise. “Are you sure? I assumed you wanted time alone. Wasn’t that why you went to the library?”
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Well, yeah, but now I think I’d rather not be alone.”
The smile that broke across his face actually made my heart ache. That this man, who had lost his son and was on the verge of a war that would most likely devastate his people, could still enjoy the company of a person he barely knew baffled me. But then I realized I was helping him cope as much as he was helping me.
“I would enjoy that,” he said, then held a hand up to a passing servant. “My dear, could you have a full tea service for two brought up to Lady Brielle’s room?”
The servant bowed her head. “Of course, Your Majesty,” she said before hurrying off.
“I hope you like tea,” he said.
“Well, it’s no pumpkin spice Frappuccino, but I think I can manage.”
Within minutes, two housemaids arrived. One carried a tray with a tea kettle, cups, saucers, and a selection of teas with accoutrements. The other, a three-tiered tray with small finger sandwiches, pastries, and tiny cakes.
“Thank you,” Cassius said as the women vanished out the door. He poured steaming water over the teabags. “Clotted cream with your tea?”
“Uh, sure. And extra sugar,” I said.
He did as I asked and passed the cup and saucer to me before selecting a small cucumber sandwich from the tray.
“Can I ask you something?” I said, deciding to dig deeper into this enigmatic man who had taken me in.
“Of course. Ask away,” he said, popping the sandwich into his mouth.
“What’s it like being king?”
His eyebrows shot up as he chewed. “Interesting question,” he said, dabbing at his mouth with a linen napkin.
“It is interesting. Wolves have noble houses, sure, but it’s all dependent on strength. There’s no royal family, per se. The Laurents have led the majority of the packs within a thousand miles and hold a lot of sway with the packs in the rest of the world, but that could change if our-er- their fortunes were to be upended. I think that’s partly why Bastien is acting like a chaotic psycho about all this. He wants the wellsprings that are under the dragons’ control to solidify the power of his house.” I sighed. “I guess I was just wondering what it’s like to know that you and your family would be the rulers no matter what.”
He winked at me as he sipped at his tea. “It’s not always that easy. Yes, I was born to be the ruler, like Aurelius, but you have to rule fairly and properly. Need I remind you what happened to Marie Antoinette?” He made a quick chopping motion with his hand. “Things didn’t end well for the queen, did they?”
I let out a slight, humorless chuckle. “I guess not, now that you mention it.”
Cassius sighed heavily and leaned back in his chair. “I’ve ruled a long time. My father brought the dragons across the sea to the new world a hundred years before the Mayflower set sail. He led us here to salvage our fortunes when the old wellsprings began to dry up.
“After he passed, I took control.” He shot me a questioning look. “Has Aurelius told you of my first wife?”
“Uh…” I thought back on our conversations, and nothing rang a bell. “You mean his mom?”
Cassius shook his head and put his teacup down. “I was married once before to a beautiful highborn dragon lady from the Holy Roman empire. We were married very young for dragons. I was barely eighteen, and she was sixteen. I lost her when we came here.”
I stared at him. His gaze had turned distant, as if he was looking into the past. I cleared my throat. “You don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”
“It’s fine. It’s my own damn fault. Why not own up to it?”
“I don’t understand. How is it your fault?” I asked.
“You wouldn’t.” He heaved a weary sigh. “Not without knowing how things were here centuries ago. Wolves didn’t venture to the new world until the early seventeen hundreds. By then, this new nation was nothing like the wild plains, forests, and mountains we found. The Natives had their own shifters, you see. And if I’m being honest with myself, we didn’t treat them very well. There were clans and packs of bear, moose, and panther shifters that called this place home long before we arrived. Through my grief over my father’s death and my desire to build something special, I took their wellsprings by force and began creating products we could sell to humans to increase our fortune. Things did not go well, and one of them-I never found out who-assassinated my wife.”
A gasp burst from my mouth, and I clapped my hands to my lips. “Oh my god.”
Cassius nodded, but he didn’t meet my eyes. “I’m not proud of what my anger led me to do. I sent my security forces out and annihilated all three clans. Word spread, and that was what caused the resentment most other shifter races feel towards us. Part of me wonders if, with Aurelius being taken, karma has finally swung full circle.”
“You can’t think like that, Cassius.” I had to force myself not to reach out and take his hand.
It was hard to equate the man who’d sentenced hundreds or thousands to death all those years ago with the kindly man who sat before me now. The stressors of pack and clan life was far more than I could comprehend. Shifters and fae all lived such isolated, hidden lives, waging wars right under the noses of humanity. It had to change a person, especially when they were doing it alone.
“I know,” he said, “but it’s one of those-what does your generation call them?-intrusive thoughts?”
“Yeah, I get that,” I admitted.
“After the wars, I ruled alone for nearly two hundred years until I met Aurelius’s mother. Then, only a few years after he was born, she too was taken from me by illness. My boy is all I have left. I’ll do anything for him. Anything at all.
“To answer your question, being a king is hard, but being a father is harder. For one, you rule with your heart and soul, and hope it all works out. For the other, a piece of your heart and soul walks around outside your body, and you have to pray that they stay safe.”
That statement sent a pang of sadness piercing into my heart. Having a child must have felt exactly like that. A little piece of yourself and someone you loved coming together to create a whole new being. A being who was released into a thankless and dangerous world. Some people, like Cassius, took that to heart. Others, like my parents, were callous to that fact.
It was no wonder Cassius looked so tired and was ready to retire. The stress of being king without a queen to lean on and help guide him must have been exhausting. Though, it was most likely why he’d done such a good job raising Aurelius. He’d groomed his son to be a king equally as good and fair-if not more so-than he himself was.
Cassius fixed himself another cup of tea. “Can I tell you something, Brielle?”
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