Page 138 of Shadows of Ruin

Cassandra didn’t turn to look at us. She wrote frantically over and over on the wall from a perched position on the corner of her desk. The entirety of her room was covered in a garbled mess of words.

“Kade?” Lana whispered.

I felt her fear as my own. What happened here?

Cassandra didn’t flinch at Lana saying my name, or at our presence. Instead, she hummed and muttered to herself.

The words haphazardly scratched into the walls didn’t make sense.

Light.

Dark.

Thames.

Mate.

Mate.

Thames.

Mate.

Traitor.

Destruction.

Blood of the Heirs.

Listen.

Listen.

Listen.

“Cassandra,” I said more firmly, trying not to let my gaze linger on the words too long.

Her head tilted to the side, and she looked over her shoulder, her eyes completely white.

I rushed to her, grasping her by the shoulders. “Cassandra, it’s Kade. Can you hear me?” I shook her once. “Cassandra,” I shouted.

“The traitor will rise. He comes with fury.” She twisted her hair around her finger, winding it and unwinding it. “Light. Light. It is not ignited.”

Lana tried next, but she approached Cassandra differently, with the same calming tone she used with Vivienne in The Knotted Willow. She took her hands. “Cassandra, we need your help.”

“Time runs thin. You need to trust. You need to give in.”

“Give in to what? What time is running out? Does this have to do with my mother’s journal?” Lana pressed, but not gruffly. She stroked a finger over Cassandra’s whitened knuckles.

The seer fell away from Lana, taking a few steps and bumping into her desk. A hand flew to her chest and her eyes cleared.

She blinked, her breathing returning to normal over the next few steadying breaths.

“How can I help?” I asked. Cassandra comforted others but usually loathed being touched or shown any sort of compassion in return, so I remained back.

She shook her head, looking over Lana and me. “Time runs short,” she said, her voice raspy.

I grasped her arm gently when she swayed, leading her toward her sitting area, away from this room holding so many jumbled thoughts.

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