***Cassius***
I sat on the edge of our bed, staring at nothing, my mind still reeling from what Aldrik had told me earlier that day.
"Our family is joining the war," he'd said, his tone matter-of-fact, as if discussing food or weather. "Alongside the Ashfordes."
"What war?" I'd asked, confusion cutting through my usual careful composure.
"The Ashfordes refused to surrender Cadiz," Aldrik had explained with clipped efficiency. "The empire has sent its soldiers, it's going to be a war."
The words struck me like a punch.
The Ashfordes were going to war for Cadiz. They were willing to fight the entire empire rather than hand him over to be executed. They hadn't abandoned him the way Father had, hadn't written him off as an embarrassment to be discarded.
They thought he was worth fighting for.
The realization stirred something in my chest that I couldn't quite name. It wasn't jealousy, exactly, though that was part of it. It was something more complex, more painful.
