The Half-Class by Kayvion Lewis

Chapter Thirty-Nine

It was a miracle that I made it past the gates, let alone into the castle. I wouldn’t have made it within a hundred paces without Cass’s letter. The guards looked ready to strike me down the second I came into view, but when I showed them my letter, complete with the royal seal and all, they lightened up immediately.

I flew into the great room with stinging eyes, ready to collapse into Cass’s arms. But he wasn’t alone.

Sir West and Lady Lilith were with him.

Lady Lilith gasped, putting her cup and saucer on the table beside her settee. “Oh my.”

Heat flooded my face. Cass jumped from the sofa across from them.

“I’m sorry.” I shook my head. “I didn’t…”

This was ridiculous. What a mess I must have been after the ride. I turned around, ready to push the doors open and leave as impulsively as I’d come.

“Wait,” Cass called.

I took a deep breath and turned around.

“Leave,” he said to West and Lilith. After a pitiful look from Sir West and a sideways glance from Lady Lilith, the pair shuffled away as Cass jogged to meet me.

“I’m so sorry,” I said as he reached me. “The guards didn’t tell me they were with you, and I look—” I looked down at myself and immediately folded my arms over my chest.

“It’s fine.” He rubbed my bare shoulders. I hadn’t seen someone so worried for me in such a long time. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

I squeezed my arms tighter. “It’s Kat. She hates me, Cass. She really does. At first, I thought she was just mad about things that happened recently, but now I have cause to believe she’s thought of me as less for a long time.” Perhaps no one I knew was what I thought they were.

“Why?” He frowned. “What did she do?”

I sniffled. “It’s not important.”

“It’s important to you, so it’s important to me.”

I wanted to tell him the truth. I really, really did. “She stole something,” I murmured. “I don’t know, maybe I didn’t really want it, but that’s not the point. It’s that…she thought she could treat me like that at all.”

He brought his thumb up to graze my cheek. “That doesn’t sound too bad.”

“I know it doesn’t.” My voice cracked. “But it is. Everyone I thought I could trust…I don’t know anymore.”

I wrapped my arms under his and nestled my head into his chest. He embraced me in an instant. His warmth melted into my cheek.

“I had to get away, and there was nowhere else to go. I can’t go back tonight, Cass. I can’t look any of them right now.”

“You don’t have to.” He ran his fingers through my curls. “You should be here anyway. Honestly, it looks strange that you’re not already.”

Of course, it did. If I was going to be his mistress, I should be here with him every night.

“For good?” I asked. “Until Sir West’s ball?”

“Until we leave. It’s for the best.”

Leave. My heart synched.

“Alright.” I pulled back from him. “But I didn’t tell my aunt I was going. I can’t disappear forever without letting her know.”

“Write her a letter. Tell her your prince needs you here. I’ll have a messenger deliver it the moment you finish penning.”

“You don’t think that’s cold? Delivering a message via stranger in the middle of the night?” Given how tense things were at home, I didn’t want to add more distance between Auntie and me.

“I’ll have Donnie take it,” Cass offered. “Your aunt already met him, so it won’t be by a complete stranger. And he can relay anything else you like by mouth as well. Is that better, Lovely?”

I nodded. “A little bit.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead. I smiled weakly, and a tiny bit of my sorrow lifted.

“Thank you, Cass, for caring.”

“I’ll always care about you.”

And just like that, the sorrow was back.

“Check.” Cass slid his rook across the board, in the direct line of my king.

I adjusted my robe and reached over the board. The glow of the library fireplace illuminated the board, and him, in an angelic light.

“I thought you were done trying to let me win,” I slid my bishop into his rook’s square.

“It was a calculated sacrifice, I assure you,” he said.

“Hmm.” I grinned, almost genuinely. My mind had been racing, flipping through idea after idea since we settled down. This was supposed to be one of Cass’s last nights alive. But I refused to let that be. There had to be a way for me to save him without ruining everything else Gilow and Jace had been working on. There had to be a way for me to save only him.

Even the wildest ideas seemed plausible.

I could tell him everything.

No. He might not take well to the idea that he was nothing more than an assignment to me just weeks ago.

I could ask him to run away with me.

And go where? Do what? He’d realize what I’d done, or what I knew was going to happen, after everyone he’d ever known was dead. That was more than enough to hate a person.

I struggled not to let my thoughts leak onto my face. But there had to be a way to save Cass’s life without ruining the rebellion and without revealing to him that I knew it was going to happen. The solution was somewhere. I had only days to find it.

A rap sounded on the library door.

“You should get that,” I said, tightening my robe.

Cass hopped up from the fireside carpet that we and our game had settled over and pulled open one of the thin library doors. Donnie’s silhouette stood on the other side.

I waved at him over Cass’s shoulder. I hadn’t expected Auntie to send a return letter, and I definitely wasn’t expecting Donnie to bring it to me this late if she did. Before I could rise to properly greet him, he spoke.

“Sorry to interrupt Cass, but—"” He gestured into the hall.

Cass looked back to me, scratching his head. “I’ll be back in a blink, Lovely.” With that, he slipped out of the library.

I crept up to the library door and pressed my ear against it.

They weren’t that far into the hall. I could hear the edges of Donnie’s voice, but it was too faint and blurred for me to make out many words. And the ones I thought I heard didn’t make any sense.

“Yell.”

“Threatening.”

“Family.”

“Danger.”

Cass said something back, but his voice was even fainter.

“Hurt.”

“Have.”

“Tomorrow.”

Their muffled conversation grew even quieter. I strained to listen, but before I could latch on to any more words, the much more distinct sound of footsteps heading back towards the door sounded.

I hopped back to my spot by the fire, and Cass slipped back inside only a moment after I settled back on the carpet. His eyes were stuck on the floor as something clearly occupied his thoughts. He was tense, and, if I wasn’t mistaken, there was something akin to anger teeming behind his emerald green gaze.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Everything’s fine.” He sat back down and raked a hand through his hair before forcing a smile. “It’s my turn.”