Flames

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Cassandra slept through that day and partially through the next. She woke in the early afternoon, unable to remember when she had fallen asleep and what had led up to it. There were vague images, none of which answered her questions. She could see Nix, along with feeling an intense amount of anxiety and stress. Cassandra struggled to remember what had actually happened versus what she had just dreamt. "Nix?" She began getting out of bed, changing her dress and brushing the tangles out of her hair. She winced at each knot her brush broke through, glancing around at the few feathers that were spread throughout her room. When her stomach began to twist in hunger, Cassandra left her room. She peeked into Nix's room, slightly frowning as she discovered he wasn't there. Assuming he was downstairs, she started on the stairs.

As she came into view, she heard a low chuckle.

"Sleeping beauty finally awakes." Nix was seated at the table, boots resting upon the chair in front of his own. He held an orange in one hand and a knife in the other, peeling the fruit slowly. His eyes had only left the orange once to glance at her. Out of all the fruit Cassandra had made him try, the orange had been his favorite.

"Finally?" Cassandra got to the bottom of the stairs and paused for only a moment. "How long was I sleeping for?" She rubbed the side of her head trying to recall what had happened.

He momentarily paused his knife, glancing at her again. "All of yesterday and half of today." Nix went back to his orange, placing the peel onto the table next to him. Looking at her made him angry. He had had the perfect opportunity to finally end her that first day she slept and he had failed. Several times he had reentered her room with the intention of ending it and failed each time.

"It didn't feel that long." She crossed the room into the kitchen as her stomach began to twist again. Coming from a royal family, it was rare her stomach hurt this bad from not eating. She had been blessed to always have access to large amounts of food at any given time. Cassandra refused to complain, knowing that some of her people felt like this everyday. For their sake and the sake of the war, she would happily feel like this if it meant their security and the war ending. "Did anything happen?" She grabbed some of the bread they had bought, smothering the insides with honey.

"Nothing at all, like always." He was cutting the orange in slices, trying to keep his focus off of her. Nix had decided that distancing himself from her was the only way he was going to bring her down. While it was a struggle, he was managing.

She grabbed a banana out of the cupboards, slicing it and placing it throughout the two pieces of bread before sticking the two pieces together and putting it on a plate. "What did you do yesterday?" She brought the plate across the table from Nix and sat down, her mouth already beginning to water at the sight of the sandwich.

Nix shrugged, eating the slices of orange in between sentences. "I watched the window for a while as you made me promise I would." He glanced at her. "Then, I realized I could just as easily watch from down here. So I came down, ate some food, enjoyed the sun and silence, checked up on you every now and then, cleaned up; you know, the basics."

"You checked up on me?" Cassandra couldn't help but smile as she glanced up at him, beginning to eat her sandwich. She felt her heart skip a beat at the mention, though she pushed it down to try and ignore it. Nix had started out as a stranger and had grown into a close friend. The longer she spent with him, the more she realized there was another unrecognizable feeling growing within her.

Nix started to laugh, knowing the truth. While he had checked up on her, it had always been to have another attempt at killing her. He hadn't been doing it because he cared. "You nearly fell out a window while you were awake. I had to make sure you stayed sleeping." He thought on it for only a brief moment more, finding that a part of him had been curious about her and had wanted to make sure she was alright. His laughter ceased as he discovered the lie he had told himself. He was quick to clear his throat and return to his orange.