Page 86 of Even Robots Die
“Only a few scratches,” Amélie answers as Cassiopé enters again.
I’m relieved to know nothing bad happened to the girls. The living room is ruined, maybe, but it’s only material loss. We’ll find a way. I’ll use the money I set aside from Brice and we’ll get new furniture. It’s okay. It was more fear than real damage.
“She needs to rest,” Cassiopé says. “Order of the doctor.”
Without arguing, the girls leave the room and I’m back to being alone with just Cassiopé.
“How are you feeling?” she asks me.
“Tired. And itchy. Does it always itch while healing?”
“I wouldn’t know,” she answers with a small smile. “I only need to shift to heal.”
I nod.
“We’re in Notre Dame, right?" I ask her.
“Yes, but enough questions. You do need to rest or it won’t heal correctly. There’s still about ten minutes on the timer the doctor set, and you’ve already moved more than you should have.”
Cassiopé helps me back onto the bed and retrieves a blanket that she sets next to me on the bed.
“You should sleep,” she tells me before she walks to the door. “I'll make sure you’re not bothered for a while.”
Then she leaves and closes the door after her.
And when the silence settles over me in this room, that’s not mine, it occurs to me that none of my sisters asked if I was okay. Elodie only had reproaches to make, but none of the others had much to say.
I realize that the only person who asked me how I felt was basically a stranger to me.
Cassiopé.
And I don’t know how I should feel about that.
48
Brice
If those girls weren’t her sisters, the people she loves the most, I would have put them in a dungeon. Not that we really have a dungeon in Notre Dame, but still.
Especially the youngest one.
That one is really a piece of shit. She sounded vicious and full of resentment. She sounded like the world was against her and like her sister was doing nothing to make it better.
I get it, she’s young, and she’s probably in her rebellious phase, but the way she talked to Florentine and made her speechless, the way it doused the fire I so like to see shine in her eyes …
It almost makes me regret sending a team to retrieve them with how ungrateful they sounded.
Of course, I would do it again. I saw the relief on Florentine’s face as soon as her eyes fell on the girls, and just because of that sight, I’m glad I could do something like that for her.
It doesn’t change the fact I hate everything that happened after that.
It makes me mad for her to no end. It makes me want to throttle someone and to free the violent streak I have in me since those damn birds toyed with my brain.
I know I shouldn’t have spied on them, but I’m glad I did. It gives me more insight about Florentine, about her role in her family, about who she is when she’s not blushing from rage at my every attempt to raise her temper.
I had no doubt before today that most of the things she did were first and foremost to help her sisters, to keep her family together, but I believed it was mutual. That her sisters were taking care of her the same way she did, that she had a place she could be herself and loved.
Hell, the girl switched her position with her kidnapped father without a second thought. I’m not proud of that move now that my emotions are coming back, but I would do it all over again if I knew it would bring her to me, even if it’s just for a few weeks.
