Cassandra lifted her brows. “Well, he’s still alive. Even if you don’t have the decency to care for him as a human being, if you want answers, help me get him to the house.”
“You really believe you can save him?”
“I don’t know for certain, but I definitely can’t if we leave him out here. He won’t survive the chill of night. And what if that wolf returns?”
Jordan shook his head and then jerked it toward Niko. “He got a good slash at it with his sword just before he collapsed. Then the wolf saw me coming and ran away, probably to its death.”
“You didn’t make sure? You didn’t kill it yourself?”
When Jordan didn’t answer, Cassandra cut her eyes toward him. He shook his head, without further explanation. He hid something from her, she could tell, but she had more pressing issues to worry about. She lifted Niko’s arm and draped it over her shoulder.
“Well, if you won’t help me, I’ll do it myself.”
She hoped Niko remained unconscious because he would never understand how a woman half his weight could carry him. Jordan rolled his eyes and blew a frustrated grunt through his nose. Then he rose to his feet and lifted Niko’s limp body in his own arms.
When they entered the hut, Cassandra’s eyes immediately slid to Father’s empty bedding. But she just couldn’t disturb it. Not now. And not with a filthy, bloody stranger. She gestured to Jordan to lay Niko on her own bedding. With a patient to tend to and her brother nearby, the overwhelming loneliness disappeared. She went to work, cleaning Niko up and caring for his wounds.
Jordan collapsed into his own bedding and fell right to sleep. Cassandra stayed by Niko’s side throughout the night, though he remained unconscious the entire time. His skin flamed with fever and she rubbed water over his body to cool it. The herb treatments in his wounds kept turning black, gagging her with a bitter odor and requiring her to change them frequently. As his life signs became stronger, he slept more fitfully, tossing and thrashing, crying out and whispering, “Man-wolf.” But by the time the sun rose high in the sky, the herbs no longer turned black in his wounds, his skin no longer burned with intense fever and he settled into a calmer sleep.
Jordan finally awoke, barely glanced at Niko’s sleeping form and set out to hunt and gather fruit. He stayed away throughout the morning and into the afternoon. Niko never woke, never even stirred. Cassandra looked longingly at Father’s bed as the thought of a nap tugged at her barely coherent mind, but she was afraid to leave Niko’s side. His life signs remained weaker than normal and his skin still felt warm, but not as hot as he’d been through the night. She made herself stay awake until Jordan could relieve her. Surely he had enough compassion to keep an eye on the sick and injured man long enough for her to get a little rest. But when he returned, he had no interest in staying for long.
After they ate a meal of rabbit and berries, he asked her to go outside with him. Cassandra looked at Niko’s sleeping form and sighed. She didn’t want to leave him in case he woke, but anything she and Jordan had to discuss—their father, their belongings, their future—this stranger didn’t need to hear. She followed Jordan out the door and far into the clearing, which was turning gray in the fading light of dusk.
“We need to leave in the morning,” Jordan said as he turned around to face her.
She blinked at him. “Leave? Why?”
He’d just brought home a month’s worth of supplies. They would only need fresh food, easily found in the nearby woods and streams. Why did they need to go already? And did he actually plan to take her with him? This caught her by surprise, but the thought of leaving crushed her heart. This was the last place Father had been. The last place she’d ever feel his presence.
“I’m not leaving,” she said before Jordan could even explain his reasoning. “Not yet.”
“Don’t you want answers?”
“Answers to what?”
“To what Father revealed to us. He kept it hidden all these years, so there must be a reason he told us. Don’t you want to know what that reason is? Don’t you want to know more about us?”
“And just where do you plan on finding these answers?”
Jordan’s eyes lit up. “There are others out there like us. I know where to find them.”
Cassandra’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? You know others like us? How?”
“I don’t exactly know them, but four of them live in a village about a five-days’ walk from here. I’ve been there many times over the years and they don’t look a day older than the first time I saw them. We have aged faster than them.”
“Impossible.”
“I’ve seen it myself.”
She put her fists on her hips. “Then how could they live in the village all these years and no one has questioned them?”
“They only come outside at night and the rest of the village ignores them, as if they don’t even see them. Besides, only I have lived long enough to notice.”
“So they live secret lives while everyone else sleeps? Others ignore them, as if they aren’t even real people? If all this is true and they’re older than us but look younger, well … they sound like … like demons, Jordan.”
“Exactly.”
Cassandra’s eyes widened. “And you want to seek them out? Have you lost your mind?”
“We’re no different! We don’t sneak around at night, but instead hide out on the edge of civilization. Why would Father make us live like this? Because he was afraid people would know what we really are.”
“But we’re not demons. We’re from ang—”
Jordan cut her off with a roar. “Don’t even say it. Stop lying to yourself!”
She narrowed her eyes, raised up on her toes to lean toward him and lifted her chin. She kept her voice low and her words deliberate. “I am not evil. I am not a demon. And I am not going with you.”
Then she turned on her heel and stalked off toward the hut. Jordan’s hand clamped down on her shoulder and he spun her around.
“At least come with me to get answers. They must know something.”
“You can get your answers. I don’t need them. I know who and what I am. It changes nothing. I don’t care about the rest.”
“I can’t just leave you here alone!”
She threw her arms in the air. “Why not? Isn’t that what you always wanted? Your freedom to do as you please without worrying about your father and sister? I can take care of myself. Now, I have a sick man to tend to and I won’t leave him to die, either.” She turned again and stomped toward the hut.
“Is that what it is?” Jordan asked, catching up with her. “This strange man? You’ll stay for him rather than go with your own brother?”
“I stay for myself, but, yes, I will take care of him until he is well.”
“I want him gone. He leaves immediately.”
“Leave?” She let out a bark of a laugh. “You know he’s too ill. I thought you had questions for him anyway.”
“I won’t wait around for answers he probably doesn’t have. I already know where to find them. And I will not have him here with you alone.”
“Then don’t leave. You’re the one insisting on going.”
Jordan stopped. “So that’s it? You’re choosing a stranger over me? Over your own family, all that you have left?”
Cassandra didn’t answer, didn’t even acknowledge the question. Her decision had nothing to do with Niko. Well, little to do with him. She wasn’t ready to go yet, to leave Father’s memories behind. She needed peace to grieve and time to figure out what to do with the rest of her life. If Jordan wanted to be a part of it, she would be happy. And if he insisted on leaving, she would accept that, too. But she would not go with him now.
“You can’t do enough good in the world to cleanse the blood in your veins,” Jordan yelled. “You’re a demon. Father was a liar and a coward but now you know the truth!”
Cassandra stopped cold. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her nostrils flared and her eyes sparked. She spun around and strode several paces toward the man she called her brother. Jordan stood with his arms crossed over his chest, his muscles bulging out of his chiton, his face twisted.
“How dare you?” she demanded, her voice rising several octaves. “How dare you speak of Father like
