Cassandra chuckled. How has she become so interested in boys?
“No, which is another advantage of living out there,” Cassandra said.
“Mother. How am I supposed to meet a husband if we live on an island by ourselves?”
“You have several years before you should even be looking for a husband.” Cassandra sighed. “I’m just ready for some peace. The battles have been carrying on my entire life. I see all the soldiers we can’t help … ”
Andronika wrapped her arms around her mother’s shoulders. “We’ve come as far east as we can to get away from them. Unless you want to build a boat? I guess I would go to the island with you, at least until I become a woman. But we have to wait for Father.”
Cassandra blinked back the sting in her eyes. They hadn’t seen Niko for over a month. He usually returned every few weeks, helping them move and re-settle when necessary, before leaving again for war. Once or twice over the past few years, he’d been away this long, but she’d failed to convince herself he would come back this time, too. Something felt different. But the pain of thinking she’d never see him again would seize her entire body—she felt it threatening to envelop her now and she inhaled deeply, pushing it down.
“Of course we’ll wait for your father,” she said, standing up. “Come. We must gather some herbs before nightfall.”
“You’re going to the battlefield, aren’t you?”
“From the sounds of it, I don’t think the fight will last until morning.”
When Niko first left them here, they had been a safe distance away, but the war had moved closer. Cassandra had been hearing the signs of its approach as she explored the area and hunted for supplies. Today’s battle was only a short run away. Although her heart ached for peace, she knew her place—healing the wounded.
“Will you take me this time? I can help. You know I can.”
Cassandra frowned as she pulled her daughter into her arms. She’d been teaching her everything she knew about healing and Andronika was right—she could help. But Cassandra couldn’t stand the thought of the girl seeing so many mutilated bodies, hearing the moans of the dying, feeling the squish of blood-saturated grass under her feet. She was still too young and innocent.
“I know you think you’re close to becoming a woman, but you’re still a child, and a battlefield is no sight for a child’s eyes.”
“You’re just afraid you’ll find Father’s body and you don’t want me to see that.”
Cassandra inhaled deeply, the salty air stinging her nose and coating the back of her throat. “You’re right. I don’t want you to see that.”
Andronika stared at her mother with the same dark eyes they shared and tears pooled then spilled over her cheeks. She buried her face against Cassandra’s shoulder. “I don’t want to see that either, Mother. He has to come back. He will come back to us.”
Cassandra only responded by squeezing her daughter more tightly. She wished she could confirm Andronika’s plea, but she couldn’t. Something was wrong this time. The feeling had intensified over the last few days and she now felt it in her bones. Something was wrong with Niko, but she didn’t know how to find him or how to save him.
Mist hung around the trees and hovered over the grass in the pre-dawn light, turning the entire world an eerie gray as Cassandra ran for the battlefield. She headed in the direction where the sounds of yesterday’s fighting had come from, but now it was dead silent and she had to hunt for the site. The sun had risen high in the sky when she finally found it.
Her heart sank. Not a single body stirred.
No one screamed or moaned or gasped in pain. No chests rose and fell with even the slightest of breath. She hadn’t been able to sleep, worrying about waiting until morning, but she couldn’t leave Andronika alone all night long. Now she was too late to be of any use.
Tears streamed down her cheeks as she walked through the field, checking every single body, just in case she was wrong. Without realizing it at first, she even checked those who were obviously dead, rolling them over if their faces were planted in the ground. Wiping mud away to get a good look at their features. Making sure none of them were Niko. Even with all the death surrounding her, she couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief when she didn’t find him after checking every corpse. She didn’t know what she would have done if she had. The guilt of not coming earlier, in time to save him, might have killed her.
With slumped shoulders and a slow stride, she began making her way back to the sea and to her daughter. She prayed no one had suffered through the night because she hadn’t come sooner. She prayed she’d never have to see another battlefield … so much blood … so much death ever again.
Cassandra felt the evil presence before she heard the snap of a breaking branch. Her heart jumped. She froze and held her breath to listen. Silence. Except for the racing pulse in her ears. And again she felt … evil. Pure evil sliding across her skin like this morning’s mist. Without waiting to know what it was, she broke into a sprint.
“Wait! Cassandra, wait,” bellowed a man’s voice.
Someone grabbed her from behind and she screamed and kicked. A hand clamped over her mouth.
“Little sister, it’s just me.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened. Her heart stopped. She fell still.
Then she blinked, her heart pounded again and she panted against her brother’s hand. She squirmed in his arms.
“No more screaming?” he asked. She shook her head and he let her go.
She dropped to her feet and spun on him. Her jaw dropped.
“Jordan?”
He looked nearly the same as the last time she’d seen him—he hadn’t aged a single day—but something in his blue eyes looked different, making them hard and icy. Although no lines creased his skin, his hair had lightened so much, it looked almost white. And there was something different about his face, a new sharpness to his features that made him even more attractive yet … frightening. He was the evil I just felt. She sucked in a breath at the realization.
“What have you done to yourself?” she asked.
He grinned and it was both familiar and terrifying. “I’m improved. Even better than I was.”
“Better?” Cassandra echoed.
“Nearly perfect! I brought you something.” He held out his hand, palm up, to reveal two beautiful, gold brooches decorated with blue stones. Jewelry only the wealthiest women would wear.
“How … ?”
“Money is nothing to me. I have all the riches I want. All the power I want. And you can, too, little sister.” He pushed his hand toward her.
She lifted her brows, ignoring the gifts. “Is this what you came for? Have you been hunting me down, just to give me gifts I don’t need and to tell me how great you are?”
“Every woman needs brooches for her peplos. And to tell you how great you can be, too.”
Cassandra blew out a breath of frustration. “Why can’t you ever come see me just to see me, Jordan? It’s been … I don’t know … before my daughter was born so thirteen years? You left me to become someone’s slave, after promising to protect me. And here you are, still saying the same thing you said way back then. You’re still stuck on that stupid argument that you won’t win because I want nothing to do with you and your friends. I don’t care how great you are, I don’t want to be like you! Why can’t you just come and have a normal conversation between a brother and his sister?”
Jordan blinked at her and then his face fell and his shoulders sagged. With a forlorn look, he tucked the jewels into the pouch at his hip. She’d gone too far with him once again. What was it about Jordan that made her snap every time she saw him? She opened her mouth to apologize, but he spoke first.
“Because we’re not a normal brother and sister,” he said.
Cassandra groaned.
“I am normal,” she said. “As normal as I can possibly be and that’s how I like it, so leave me alone if that’s all you’re here to harass me about.”
