Cassian Nightwhisper's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Cassian Nightwhisper had waited three seasons to tell her he loved her, and now a stranger was doing it for him. He stood at the edge of the market square and watched the rival suitor bow low before her. The man wore fine green silk. He held out a spray of cut flowers and spoke words Cassian could not hear. She laughed. The sound cut through Cassian like a blade. He was fae, old and strong, the kind of male other men stepped away from in crowded rooms. He could snap a spear across his knee. He could not make himself cross forty feet of open ground and speak the truth. His wolf pup pressed against his leg, sensing his tension. His serpent familiar coiled tighter around his shoulders, her crystal-flecked scales cold with warning. "You look like a man about to lose everything," said a voice at his side. Her younger sister, Isabella, stood there with her arms crossed. She wore a dark red skirt and a knowing smile. She had brown eyes that missed nothing. Cassian trusted no one with his heart, but he had helped this girl chase a thief through the market once, and she had never forgotten it. She nodded toward the rival suitor. "He asked our father for her hand yesterday," Isabella said. "You have days. Maybe less." Cassian's throat went dry. "She should choose freely. Not because I forced her hand." "Freely." Isabella snorted. "She waits by the window every morning for you. She thinks you don't want her." She stepped closer. "That silk-wearing fool brings her flowers that die in a week. What do you bring her? Nothing. You bring her staring and silence." Cassian looked at his familiar, at the living crystals along her body. He thought of the ancient bond his people carried, the tie no war and no crown could break. He could offer that. The rival never could. But offering meant risking a no that would end him. "If you say nothing," Isabella said, "she marries him. And you spend a hundred years knowing you were a coward." That word moved him where nothing else had. Cassian pushed off the wall and walked across the square. The rival saw him coming and stood taller. Cassian ignored him. He stopped in front of her and knelt in the dirt. She stared down, lips parted. "I have loved you since the first frost," Cassian said. "I said nothing because I was afraid. I am done being afraid." He took her hand. "My kind bind their fate to one soul, forever. No power in either world can break it. I want that to be you. Only you." The square went silent. The rival's face turned pale. She looked at Cassian's kneeling form, then at the flowers already wilting in her arms. She let the flowers fall. "Then stand up," she said, "and prove you mean it." The rival was beaten. But her words were a test, not a yes. Cassian rose, and knew his real work had only begun.