Chapter 14 - Underestimating the Blue Scion
I was in my room, sitting down for tea, when I heard the gossip from Emily. It had been two days since I had last seen Cassis. Apparently, I had missed some drama.
Charlotte had knocked out the guardsman after dealing him an underhanded trick to enter the dungeons. The girl had wanted to meet the infamous prisoner she had become obsessed with. The most scandalous part, Emily said, was that the prisoner had injured Charlotte.
“I see,” I said. The tea flowed down my throat. It was spiked with poison again.
As expected.
The past rolled over me as if I were watching a film: Jeremy looking poorly during dinner after I described how I would like to play with Cassis, Charlotte’s offended face when I left her bleeding on the floor, Cassis having an odd expression in the dungeons….
I sighed inwardly without moving a muscle on my face.
Jeremy and Charlotte were both still children and highly predictable.
Even after brutally defeating Charlotte, I knew she wouldn’t keep still. Her obsession over owning her own toys bordered on insanity. Instead of discouraging her, I may have inspired her to see Cassis instead, even without father’s permission.
Also, Jeremy would have provoked her.
The steam from my tea curled around my face.
Jeremy had been startled when I described how interested I was in toying with Cassis, and had lost his appetite afterward. Since then, I had watched him closely, even as I was disciplining Charlotte.
It was odd for him to offer to take care of our little sister. He must have wanted to have a private word with her, perhaps to insinuate that breaking toys she couldn’t have would bring her pleasure.
Regardless if he had provoked her or not, Charlotte was a free spirit. It wouldn’t be surprising if she committed some outrageous act anyway.
But she would have held back from killing Cassis.
Father had told us not to touch the prisoner. Even in a fit of rage, Charlotte would always heed his words carefully. Seeing the prisoner, let alone torturing him, would have gone directly against his wishes, but
she must have gambled that a little fun wouldn’t risk her life. She was aware, as all of our siblings were, that any one of us could be getting scrapped for being a disobedient child.
After our meeting, Charlotte must have seen Cassis as a forbidden fruit she couldn’t have and felt more enticed to meet him.
She wanted to break his will and see him beg if she couldn’t have him, especially to spite me.
I was unconcerned.
Without father’s permission, Charlotte wouldn’t go further than mutilating the toy’s face or dismembering a few of its limbs. I had already prepared some surgical thread to stitch Cassis’s wounds in case Charlotte went a bit overboard.
I felt inclined to frown. It would have been a waste to disfigure that body.
“How did the toy lay a hand on Charlotte?” I said, disinterested. “Did he yank her hair with his teeth when she came too close?”
“Miss Charlotte broke the prisoner’s restraints and was attacked,” Emily said.
My eyelashes lowered as I rested my teacup and saucer on the table.
“Interesting,” I said casually.
At least one of his shackles was broken. In addition to bringing him pain, the demon-infused restraints were supposed to suppress any magic the prisoner could possess.
Was it Charlotte or Cassis Pedelian? I thought.
Cassis Pedelian had obviously committed a trick.
My little sister was cunning. She would have no reason to break his restraints.
What if she was mad or rash again? I thought.
No, the possibility was still unlikely. In an unstable temper, she would not have had the ability to break a cursed object; it would have required deliberate concentration.
I started to hum, playing the part of a content mistress.
I may be overestimating Cassis, but he was the Pedelian heir, the Blue Scion, and of course, the heroine’s elder brother.
I began to rearrange my schedule. I would stop by to see Cassis a little later than planned.