Sleep with the Lights On ✔️

19. Answers

"He's not telling me anything!" Cassie fumed as she Peros's room.

"He's stalling," Peros remarked. She exhaled and did another lap across the room. He sat on his bed, his fingers unable to stay still and pulling at the comforter.

"I know that," Cassie replied. She sat on the end of his bed her frustration was wearing her down. "Do you trust him?"

Peros eyed her carefully, "You should rest." She began pacing again, mumbling under her breath about feeling fine. "I trust him..." Peros began, "As much as an underworlder can trust another. He's hiding less than Fion was."

"Fion was hiding things? How do you know?" Cassie stopped pacing and looked at him, her head cocked at an inquisitive angle.

Peros shrugged and looked down to his restless hands. "I think that's why I didn't trust her. Everything is clearer now, I can finally understand my intuition."

"Because of..." Cassie's voice withered and she sat down on the bed again, staring at the door. "Evander is the one who brought be down here."

Peros stared at the back of her head, "We've been hiding from him the whole time and he didn't want to ... so everything we've done is a waste." Peros stared down at his hands, what was the point in hiding her if she was never in danger.

"I don't trust him at all, hiding hasn't been a waste." Cassie spoke with conviction, "I can just about see the power coming off of him and I just ..." She went back to pacing. "He won't tell me anything, and I know he's the only one who can tell me the reason I'm here."

Peros' eyes stayed on her as she paced back and forth, her lips were pursed and fingers tapped away in Morse code asking the same questions over and over. "There's no reason that you're here," Peros said, he was eyeing her cautiously. "If you're thinking you're here to fulfill some greater purpose then I think you haven't been here long enough." Cassie pace quickened. "You're just here because of something he wants from you. Even if we don't know what it is yet..."

"He said he needs my help to reunite with his mother." Cassie muttered, her brows furrowing and lips pursing tighter.

"That doesn't mean that what he wants isn't against the balance of the underworld." Peros spoke without thinking. "and if he tampers with that balance we could all be in danger."

"Where did you read that?" Cassie asked, Her face relaxed but her pace was still rapid.

"I read a lot in the library, while you were learning magic," Peros replied, "It is true though. He doesn't seem all bad to me but if you don't trust him, then don't let him use you."

"if I don't help him I'll never get home!" Her voice raised in pitch.

Peros stood up and stopped Cassie's pacing with a firm embrace. Heat spread through them, slower than it had in the past - and weaker - but still, warmth to keep back the frosty underworld air. "Please rest, Cassie," he said into her hair. She nodded and backed out of his reach.

"I'm sorry again." She murmured as she made her way back to her own room.

Peros went back to his bed and sat, thinking. He considered going to Roan to share the developments of Cassie's situation. He almost laughed that things had ended up like this, the Nymph was friendly with them. While Cassie writhed with frustration towards him, Peros couldn't help but admire him, for a quality that he couldn't quite pinpoint. There was something about him ... maybe it was the power that Cassie could nearly see that made Evander seem so commendable and trustworthy to Peros.

The Valkyrie had been very helpful, she'd been willing enough to tell everything she knew after some threats. Aeron went over the information with a smirk, how exciting for the little mortal, to be thrown into the underworld and out of control.