Sleep with the Lights On ✔️

16. Poor Little Mortal

"Have you considered my suggestion?" Roan asked with some excitement.

"I can't do it," he said softly, "I don't want to." He didn't want Cassie to overhear and grow concerned. "I can't force someone into fading, I won't kill to extend my own life."

"How noble," Roan said, almost sarcastically. "How mortal."

"I was raised to be a mortal," Peros replied.

"Your father raised you to die, and that's what you will do unless you follow my advice," Roan said, his voice growing sharper. Peros stared in confusion, he couldn't understand why Roan was getting so upset. 

"You're right, but I am fine with that; it makes no difference how long I live when I have no ambition or purpose to make an impact," Peros said.

"Then you will leave your friend to die as well. Oddly enough she will last longer than you will and you'll leave her alone." Roan said, casting feverish glances at Cassie, who was sitting in the corner of the room with an anthology of enchantments. Roan had suggested that Cassie not be alone, even in the confines of the estate.

"She'll be back on the upperworld soon enough," Peros replied.

Roan's face twisted in frustration, his voice dropped to a harsh whisper. "No mortal leaves the underworld. Even if she breaks the enchantment keeping her, she will not survive the ascent. That is why only those beings that feed off of mortals make the ascent and descent, because they take power from mortals to survive it."

"But she's strong, she beat Fion didn't she?" Peros asked. 

Roan shook his head. "She is strong, but she is not the kind of being that can replenish power by taking from others. When she got back on the upperworld, she would be dead," He gave him a sympathetic look. "It is better for both of you, if you become strong enough to last as long as she does. It is still the short life you have committed yourself to, but you can't leave her alone."

Peros shook his head. "I don't know if I can do it," His stomach ached, he couldn't think of anyone that deserved to fade, who was he to judge that his own life was more important than someone else's. "My mother made the ascent and descent, and she's not a Vampire of Incubi. She was a valkyrie."

"But, she siphoned your father regularly?" Roan suggested, Peros had been careful not to share many details about his family with Roan. Peros nodded. "Cassie can't do that, she can't siphon, she can't get strength from mortals and so she will be trapped here."

Peros gave Cassie a despondent look, she was completely absorbed in the anthology. "I can't..." Peros said, turning back to Roan.

"She doesn't need to hear it from you," Roan said, he rested a large hand on Peros' thin shoulder. "Unless a miracle happens she'll be trapped here. Hope for the miracle, but prepare for the probable. I can find you a mortal within the next few days."

Peros hung his head. "I can't," He whispered to himself.

Cassie slipped out of the room before Peros or Roan could stop her, making her way down to the dining room. Although she'd been told not to go out on her own, something was pushing her to leave the room.

The terrible feeling was churning in her stomach, pushing her weird little impulses. She'd had the urge to look in the enchantment anthology, she'd found herself staring at offensive enchantments. Fion had taught her basics, telekinesis and concealment, the sorts of things that Fion said she'd need but were more or less harmless.

Had she done that on purpose? Teaching Cassie the spells that could make her stronger without being a real threat to anyone? The feeling in her stomach was a stormy sea, lapping at her insides and telling her yes.