Page 84 of The Child of Rue Royale
I’m transported inside Oksana’s memories, her thin hands before me, but it’s not Franklin whose eyes are meeting hers, it’s Cassius’s. I shouldn’t be here, but I’m not going to stop now, I’ve come too far.
“Oks, it can never be,” he says, clasping her delicate hands in his. They are downstairs at Comey’s, sitting across from each other on the bar stools.
“You can drink from me every night. I will give myself to you. I…fancy you.”
He drops her hands as if they burn to touch and shakes his head incessantly. “It was one time. One time, and that’s all. You are a part of our family, like a sister to me. I can’t love you back.”
“Then just drink from me again, please. I love you so much, I don’t need your love back. My love will be enough for the both of us.”
“No. I was starving, and it was a mistake. Do you hear me? Oksana, tell me you hear me. Tell me you understand. You are a sister to me. Please.” His face turns tender, grabbing her cheek in his hand.
“I don’t want to be your sister,” she whispers, and his hand falls as he rises.
“I’m sorry I lost control and put you in this position. You will always be a sister to me. Nothing can change it.” And just as he walks out, Oksana falls forward in sobs.
A flash pulls me into another time in space, this time in a home I don’t recognize but assume is Franklin’s, because he sits in a dark room in front of a vanity, combing his hair. I smell the swamp, and the cicadas singing their nighttime song.
“Cassius will never turn me. I’ve begged and begged. You promise, promise you’ll turn me once she’s dead?”
“My word is my bond, baby girl.” The comb pushes through a tangle in his hair as Oksana’s knee shakes from where she sits on the bed.
“And none of the family I work for gets hurt, right?”
“Of course not. I can’t hurt a fellow vampire. They will be fine. Once Aster’s dead, you’ll be turned and be a part of them. Now I know that’s what you really want, baby.”
I’m pulled out, my head falling against Bastian’s back, both spells ceasing at a moment’s notice. I close my eyes, weaker from performing two spells at once, my knees begging to let my body fall. But I won’t show weakness, I won’t allow it. So, I inhale slowly and open my eyes to meet Oksana’s.
Two blue circles, filled with more terror than anger. She covers her face with her hands, her back sliding to the ground right in front of me.
“She’s in love with Cassius,” I breathe out. I won’t hold in her secrets, not with what I have to reveal. “He bit her, and she’s been in love ever since.”
ONE LOOK AT CASSIUS HAUNTSme, an internal war etched upon his face. This could be something he doesn’t want revealed, and I hadn’t considered that, but he can’t deny that it happened, and it only proves that my visions are real.
Bastian’s back turns, and we step away from Oksana’s shrinking frame. The room is quiet, until Marlowe’s feet touch the ground, stopping when they reach Cassius.
“Is it true?” she asks quietly, her face pulled tight from fear. There it is. Cassius did not want this secret revealed, and I can only guess it’s because he abhors when he loses control more than anything.
“Once,” he admits, and my heart flutters. He grabs her hand, but she tries to yank it away. “Once before I knew you. Years and years ago. And it was only a bite. Nothing more.”
Marlowe looks at me then. When you see someone’s heartbreak on their face, it’s hard not to feel guilty for being the cause. Oksana’s quiet cries pull Marlowe’s gaze to the floor as she yanks her hand from Cassius’s grasp. “I’m leaving.”
“No,” he orders, but she shakes her head.
“There’s more, Cassius,” I say, and he puts his hand up, begging me to wait.
“Please, wait in my room for me. Promise you will.”
Marlowe looks among all of us, and I wonder if she ever wishes she had listened to my advice all those months ago. To run.
“Fine,” she says and storms out of the speakeasy, leaving her anger in her wake.
Cassius glares between me and Bastian, and then at his mother, like he’s required to start explaining himself. His admitting the truth is what I needed. But it doesn’t make me happy. I just need them to believe that Oksana worked with Franklin, and now I know why.
“He was going to change her. Franklin promised to change her into a vampire.”
Bastian’s arms draw tightly around my waist, making me a shield for his anger. His heart beats against my shoulder blades while his fingers dig into my hips.
Nicola, silent for so long, paces beside me as Cassius looks at me, utterly stunned.
