But instead of speaking to me, she looked at Cassian, voice trembling just enough.
“Maybe I should leave. I don’t want to upset Elara. I don’t want the two of you fighting because of me.”
“It’s late,” Cassian said immediately, his tone softening for her in a way it never softened for me anymore. “Where are you supposed to go in this weather? It’s not safe. Go get some rest.”
So he did know that.
He did know a woman should not be out alone at night in the rain.
A bitter smile touched my mouth.
Once, before I moved fully into this estate, I used to drive myself back from the office long after midnight. Rain, traffic, empty roads—it never mattered. One night I asked him to come get me.
He had laughed and said, “This city is full of our men. What exactly are you afraid of?”
He had been right.
What was there to fear?
Odette stood there another second, as though waiting for him to say something more. When he didn’t, she lowered her head and slipped quietly back into the guest room.
I was too tired to keep going.
I brushed past Cassian, walked into my room, and shut the door behind me.
A moment later, he knocked.
“Elara.”
Then again, louder.
“Elara, open the door.”
I ignored him.
After a while, the knocking stopped. Through the wood, I could hear the low murmur of his voice, then Odette answering softly from the other room. Eventually, even that faded.
The house had two bedrooms on that floor.
I took the master suite.
Odette stayed in the guest room.
And Cassian Ashbourne, caught between the two women he had made enemies of each other, spent the night on the sofa.
The next morning, Cassian was already awake.
Or maybe he had never slept at all.
He was sitting on the sofa in yesterday’s shirt and slacks, looking like a man who had spent the night simmering instead of resting. His hair was slightly messed, there were dark circles under his eyes, and the tight line of his jaw made it clear he was still annoyed.
The moment he saw me step out of my room, he straightened.
“You’re up,” he said. “I had the jet prepared for Blightmoor. You said before that you wanted to go there, didn’t you? I’ll take you myself. Call the office and clear your schedule.”
He said it so casually, as if nothing had happened the night before. As if bringing Odette into our house, arguing with me in the hallway, and leaving me to lock myself in my room had all been too small to matter.
“I’m not going,” I said.