***
Caius's day home from school wasn't spent lounging around. He barely even had the time to study the Arcane Codex for more symbols to try creating a second spell because his father immediately got him training with the Von Helsing Regimen right after their talk.
"Best way to get past this sort of traumatic experience is to work your muscles," Lucian had said, "Work all those bad emotions out of your body."
The words seemed kind, but the intensity of the exercises did not.
Caius had a feeling his father was working out some of his anger with him for not joining him in hating Athenodora by working him to the bone and beyond.
All that talk about hating her enough for both of them seemed to have been just that; Talk. It was so clear that Lucian would be more than happy for Caius to join him in his hate. It would be one more thing they could and should bond over. As far as Lucian was concerned anyway.
