Chapter 122
Cassie
I don’t know when Ian had been the double baby sling but I was glad of it. It wasn’t exactly comfortable but it secured the twins to my body and kept my hands free.
One of those hands was curled firmly over a long wicked looking dagger.
“Is that?” Walking to the side of me, Julian glanced at my hand. “Duncan’s blade?”
“How did you know?”
He gave a small shrug. “It has his family crest on it plus I can still smell my blood on it.” He answered softly. We were talking in hushed voices because Ian said we had to move quickly and quietly. He was worried. More worried than I had ever seen him. I could tell in the stiff way his shoulders were set. He vibrated with barely contained violence. Like he was only just holding back some rage. I made me wonder what else he had found out. Not that I would get a chance to ask him until we were somewhere safe and even then he might not tell me.
Ian was full of secrets.
“I’m surprised you kept it.” Julian’s voice brought me back to myself. Shaking myself I turned my head towards him. “Yeah I kept it.” I said simply.
“Why?” It was genuine question but I wasn’t sure I could answer it. Not without him looking at me in a new way.
“Cassie?”
I took a deep breath. Setting my shoulders. “I watched when he beheaded Cathy.” I said softly but my voice carried. “He pretty much skinned her before that. The torture he made her suffer made your time under his knife look like a childish spat. He ripped her apart and then used his wolf to rip her apart.” I sucked in a breath. Forcing myself to calm down. I couldn’t let myself get angry. It had been so long since I had shifted and let my wolf out and she was desperate for revenge.
She would get it as well, just not yet.
“I’m going to kill him with this knife.” I said finally.
By my side Julian reached for my hand. His fingers brushing against the back of it. “You’re a doctor. A healer. Do not be so quick to take someone's life Cassie. It changes you. And I don’t want you to change.”
He meant it in the sweetest way but I whirled on him with a low menacing growl. “You don’t know shit about me Julian. I am going to kill your friend. There’s nothing you can say to change my mind. For what he has done,” I vibrated with anger. “I will end his miserable existence.”
“He isn’t my friend.” Julian said through gritted teeth. He was walking unaided but it was costing him. He kept stumbling and was growing slower and slower. We hadn’t even been walking for long and he was slowing us down. Soon Ian would have no choice but to help him.
Goddess I hated thinking of him as a liability but I did.
“He was once upon a time.” I said quietly but I knew Ian had heard because his shoulders slumped a little bit. “Fancy telling me what happened between you all that Duncan has held a grudge against you for decades?”
Julian stumbled. “It’s a long story.” Catching himself on the stone wall, he bent double and wheezed.
“Ian?” I called.
“I’m coming.” He stopped dead in front of me and then turned on his heel and came to catch Julian under the shoulders forced him to keep going.
“He needs to rest.” I hurried after them because Ian was now almost jogging, dragging Julian along with him.
“He can rest when we are somewhere safe.” He groaned as I set my feet further apart and prepared myself to argue. “We don’t have time for this Cassie.” Ian sounded bone weary. “I don’t have time for you. We are coming to the lower levels and I don’t want to waste time there.”
I blinked at him in surprise. Waste time there? That’s what he had said. But why would I want to linger? Julian was here with us. Who else could be there?
I narrowed my eyes at Ian. “Who is down there?” I asked in a whisper.
He sighed heavily. “We can’t stop Cassie.”
At my side my fingers curled into fists. “Who. Is . Down. There.” I stressed each word.
“Cassie- there’s nothing you can do for your dad.” Julian groaned and I tensed. “You shouldn’t even care. He made your life hell. Sold you over and over again. He was never the dad he should have been to you because you weren’t his blood.”
I took a threatening step towards him. My fists so tight that I knew I had cut into my palm with my fingernails. The pain didn’t register though.
“The same could be said for you King Julian.” I ground out and he paled even more. How dare he say those things to me. He didn’t have the right after what he had done to me as well.
“He isn’t your real dad Cassie. So think before you go running off and trying to save him.” Ian said evenly.
He could go to hell as well.
They both could.
“But I always thought he was.” I was seething with anger.
How dare they try and- a thought entered my head. One that made frown even more. “You’ve seen him haven’t you?” I levelled my question at Ian. Who had the good graces to look guilty.
“Yes. It’s not pretty Cassie. You don’t want to see him like that.” He was trying desperately to stop me going but that only made me want to see the man I had thought was my father more.
“Nothing I’ve seen since I’ve come here is pretty, Ian. Take me too him.” I demanded.
“It’s too late Cassie.”
“He’s dead?” I asked. And part of me broke. I hated my dad but he was still my dad and I had seen first hand how Duncan killed people who got in his way.
“He’s not dead. But death is close to him.” Julian shook his head. “The stench of it has been growing stronger and stronger by the second. Please don’t risk yourself to try and save him.”
“Julian is right. Your dad will never leave this dungeon. He will-“
Ian trailed off as I barged past him. Literally shouldering him out of the way. He was my dad, kind of anyway and I was a doctor. If I could help him, then I had to try.
Now that I knew what I was smelling it was easy to follow the trail down.
He wasn’t in the same cell as Julian had been. I didn’t have to crawl on my hands and knees. I came to a stop at a grate in the wall. It was dusty but I knew from the outside it would be shiny brash. The smell was stronger here.
I froze and for a second I wanted to grab hold of my children and run away. It was a fleeting thought before I pressed my hands on either side of that ventilation grate and narrowed my eyes to stare through it.
The moment I saw him I wished I had listened to Ian and walked away.
The man ahead of me was the only father I had ever known. He had never loved me but I had loved him. I had been desperate for his affection growing up. Part of me still wanted it.
He was slumped in a velvet and gilded wood chair. I couldn’t see any ropes or chains binding him but he wasn’t trying to run away. The front of his white shirt was crusty with blood. A puddle of urine had pooled around his bare feet.
“Daddy.” I mouthed his name. Clapping a hand over my mouth so I didn’t make a sound.
“Cassie?” My father groaned softly. Almost like he had heard me. He lifted his head and stared in my direction and I bit back a scream.
It was my father , but he couldn’t see me. He wouldn’t be able to see anything ever again.
There was nothing but two gaping black holes were his eyes used to be.
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