35. ~Caleb~

One Week Later

I watchedfrom the shadows as the unmarked black van pulled into King Manor.

The now extremely heavily-fortified estate.

After what had happened that night, Caspian had shored up security to the nth degree, expecting retribution to come in a most brutal and debilitating fashion from Elijah.

It hadn't yet.

But that didn't mean it wouldn't.

Elijah was known for playing games with his prey before he devoured them.

Although, Caspian King had never been anybody's prey and the measures he'd put in place would ensure that wouldn't come to pass. He would be safe. He had a whole army protecting him.

Besides, he wasn't the one who really needed protecting.

No, that fell to Bastian.

And I'd ensured he'd get that now.

When he'd woken up after sleeping that drug off from that brutal night, he'd lost it. Not just what getting shot up with that shit had awakened full-force in him, which was bad enough, but finding out that Skylar had disappeared.

He'd left our home and gone on a bender, disappearing too into the underbelly of the city. With Caspian's resources taxed at the time with cleaning up the massive mess and complications of that night, he hadn't been able to track him quickly enough before Bastian had slipped off the grid.

So I'd stepped in.

I'd found him in my unorthodox and highly illegal way.

I'd sent an anonymous message to Caspian and his men had just retrieved Bastian now.

I grimaced as two of Caspian's guys hauled him out of the car.

He was so strung out, he couldn't even walk.

My breath caught in my throat as the door to King Manor opened and Cas rushed down the steps out into the courtyard to meet them.

He looked a world away from his usual impeccably dressed self, wearing a pair of lounge pants and a tee—all black, his hair in disarray, and thick stubble plaguing his chin.

The stress of everything had finally gotten to him.

Of holding us all together.

Only to have it all come crashing down in the end.

That night had brought everything to a head, in different ways for each of us.

In brutal, inescapable ways.

For me, I'd crossed a line I was struggling to come back from.

What I'd done… murdering so many… I couldn't just shake that off.

That dark had its claws into me now.

And that kind of shit could be contagious, especially to those closest to me.

Especially to Cas.

I couldn't do that to him. I couldn't be another burden that he carried.

He wanted out of the dark and being with me, he couldn't have that.

Not as I was right now.

Things had become far too toxic.

I couldn't let it go any further, because it would end up rotting us all from the inside out.

Tears pricked my eyes, emotion threatening to get the best of me, and I blinked them away, trying to force it down as I looked on.

I couldn't hear from this distance, but with my binoculars, I could read their lips.

As Caspian reached Bastian, he was startled by the latter suddenly grasping his arm.

He was sobbing uncontrollably as he held onto Cas like a lifeline.

"Cas. I can't… I can't do this anymore. I need… I need help."

"I know. It's okay, sweetheart. You'll have it. You'll have it, I swear it to you."

He took Bastian's weight from the guys, then led him toward the house.

I was about to turn to go now that I knew Bastian would be okay, and that I'd now seen Cas for the first time since that night, which had caused all of us to go our separate ways.

But then Cas stopped for a moment at the threshold, frowning.

And then he looked out at the tree line.

Right at me.

Emotion swam in his eyes for several long moments as we held one another's gazes.

And then he sucked in an unsteady breath and turned away, carrying Bastian inside.

"Fuck," I muttered, lowering my binoculars and scrubbing my hand over my face.

That night had burned so many bridges.

It had wrecked us to pieces.

We'd lost each other.

I'd lost myself.

I blew out a breath and forced myself to turn and walk away.

Every step was excruciating, the pull to turn around, to go to my brothers, so fucking powerful.

But I couldn't.

Not until I fixed this blackness inside of me.

I had to walk.

I had to leave Rossun.

I had to leave them.

To be continued inHATE ME