"Bro… did you get taller?" Delvin asked Casadin as he poured whiskey into his glass.
They were in Nirvana Club's game room... the newest feature Casadin had added to the place. It was designed for people who wanted something to do besides drinking and listening to the band... billiards, darts, table hockey, even a corner with card tables and lounge chairs. The lighting was low and warm, the bass from the main floor muffled by thick soundproof panels, and the air smelled like citrus, leather, and expensive cologne.
"I've been tall," Casadin replied, lazy as ever, like the answer didn't deserve more than four words.
"No," Delvin insisted, frowning. "You're taller now than before."
"I know, right?" Flynn cut in as he arrived, catching the end of the conversation and sliding into it like he'd been there the whole time. "I told him that earlier."
"Woooh…" That was all Delvin managed to say when he noticed who Flynn brought with him.
Delvin leaned in toward Flynn and whispered like a man sharing state secrets. "Who is that gorgeous girl with you, bro?"
Flynn made a face first, then sighed... half annoyed, half resigned. He didn't even look surprised by Delvin's reaction. Honestly, it wasn't the first time a guy reacted like that the moment Seraphyne entered a room.
"This is Seraphyne Warriors," Flynn announced, switching into his polite, social voice. "A relative. She also belongs to the Heavensblade clan."
The cotton-candy pink-haired girl beside him looked almost unreal under the amber lights... soft features, bright eyes, a smile that felt too perfect to be accidental. She had the kind of beauty that made people pause mid-sentence without realizing they'd stopped talking.
"Seraphyne," Flynn continued, "these are my other friends... Delvin Crowne, Amanda Noire, and Bea Ravenhurst. You've already met Casadin earlier at lunch. This is his club."
Seraphyne offered them a sweet smile and stepped forward to shake hands with Flynn's friends. Even men at nearby tables glanced over like the room had shifted around her.
"Hi. You can call me Siera," she said warmly. "And I hope we can be friends too."
"So you're related to Flynn?" Bea asked, curiosity flashing across her face.
"Bee," Flynn groaned, "I literally just said that. Do you really have to ask it again?"
Bea grinned at him, shameless. "Well, why are your relatives so ridiculously handsome and pretty... and then you…" She tilted her head, still smiling. "Never mind your face."
"Thank you for your compliment, Bee," Flynn said with thick sarcasm, then hooked an arm around her neck from behind in a playful chokehold. Bea just laughed, totally unbothered.
"Anyway," Amanda said after she shook Seraphyne's hand, "is it just you? Why didn't you bring Hailey?"
"Hailey isn't fond of bars," Flynn replied. "She stayed at the villa. She wants to keep Michael company."
While Flynn entertained Delvin's questions... and other acquaintances who drifted in, clearly fishing for information about Seraphyne... Casadin slowly excused himself.
Quiet. Smooth. Almost invisible.
He couldn't stay in the same space as Seraphyne for long.
Because he didn't believe this was normal. Not even slightly.
Why would an angel bother taking a human form just to mingle with young adults in a club? Casadin didn't buy it. Not for a second.
Evadne had said she and Hades were being watched... followed by angels.
So Casadin couldn't help suspecting that Seraphyne had been assigned to him.
And the strangest part?
That voice in his head... the same voice that had been screaming warnings lately... was screaming now too.
Stay away.
He didn't question it.
He simply obeyed.
But avoiding her was easier in theory than in practice.
As the night deepened, Casadin ran out of excuses to stay far from his friends. Everyone knew he had competent, trustworthy staff running Nirvana. He couldn't keep pretending he was "too busy" without looking suspicious.
At some point, after a few more drinks, Bea... slightly tipsy and fully fearless... leaned toward Seraphyne with a mischievous grin.
"So… what's your type in men?"
Seraphyne smiled and glanced in Casadin's direction... briefly, but deliberately.
Everyone saw it.
It looked intentional.
"Tall," Seraphyne said sweetly, "about… six-four. Firm build. Black hair." Her eyes flicked to Casadin again. "Maybe someone like Casadin."
Then she winked in his direction.
The table erupted... whoops, laughter, teasing chants. Delvin nearly choked on his drink. Amanda slapped the table. Bea gasped. Flynn looked like he wanted to crawl into the floor.
Casadin, standing near the pool table, only smiled a little.
"Sorry," he said casually, with no hesitation at all. "I already have a special girl in my life. And you're not my type."
The cheering somehow got louder... as if his rejection was entertainment instead of a boundary.
But instead of looking embarrassed, Seraphyne's smile widened.
Her confidence didn't crack.
If anything, it sharpened.
She left the group and walked straight to Casadin by the pool table.
Slow, graceful steps.
Like she already owned the outcome.
With an almost teasing ease, she took the billiard cue from Casadin's hand and looked up at him with that bright, charming smile.
"I'm a very patient woman," Seraphyne murmured. "And changing people's minds is my specialty."
Then she took a shot.
The cue cracked cleanly against the white ball...
And the room reacted instantly.
Four balls sank in quick succession, one after another, as if the table had decided to cooperate with her.
People around them shouted in awe. Someone whistled. Someone yelled, "What the hell?!"
Seraphyne turned back toward Casadin and walked slowly closer.
And Casadin felt it.
A shift in the air.
Something subtle, but real... like the atmosphere itself had thickened.
He saw it on everyone's faces, too. Men and women alike staring at her with a glazed, mesmerized look, like sailors caught by a siren's song.
Seraphyne lifted her hand toward Casadin's face, as if she meant to touch his cheek.
Casadin caught her wrist before her fingers could reach him.
Seraphyne blinked... genuinely surprised.
Like she hadn't expected him to resist.
Casadin kept his grip light but unmovable, his smile calm, controlled, and sharp.
"I don't think so," he said pleasantly.
"I like a challenge," Seraphyne said with a smirk after recovering from her momentary shock.
"This is not a challenge, Ms. Warriors," Casadin replied. "It is called a boundary."
There was no humor left in his eyes now. None of the easy, natural charm that usually came to him as effortlessly as breathing.
"Really?" Seraphyne tilted her head, one brow raised. "Then look me in the eyes, Cas. Open your thoughts to me. Then tell me you are not affected by me in any way."
Don't let her in.
Casadin heard that warning again.
The air around them crackled with tension. The people watching from nearby tables and the edge of the game room seemed to be holding their breath. But unlike everyone else... who clearly mistook the tension for something flirtatious, something heated in a romantic way... Casadin felt only hostility toward Seraphyne.
He gave her his most charming smile and looked her straight in the eyes. Then he leaned in slowly until their faces were only inches apart.
"Your tricks do not work on me, Ms. Warriors," Casadin said, his smile sharpening into something maddening. "Try again."
The infuriating smirk on his lips made Seraphyne's own smile vanish.
She had made sure to lace her voice with charm... something that not even angels beneath her rank could easily resist. So she could not understand how a Damned like Casadin, now technically just a human stripped of angelic grace, was unaffected by it.
And Casadin did not miss the confusion in her eyes.
He was just about to say something else when a violent pain hit him so suddenly that he gasped and doubled over.
"Bro!" Flynn and Delvin shouted at once, both rushing toward him. Amanda and Bea did the same, their earlier amusement gone in an instant.
"Cas, are you okay?" Bea asked, all traces of drunkenness gone the moment she saw how pale he had become.
But Casadin's vision had blurred from the abrupt pain that tore through his chest. He looked up at Seraphyne, instinctively thinking she was the cause of it, but she was staring back at him with the same confusion everyone else wore. She looked just as surprised by whatever was happening to him.
Hades, please…
Casadin gasped again.
That voice... clearer than before... was not the warning voice that had been whispering to him all evening.
It was Evadne's voice.
Casadin straightened with effort, taking the hand Delvin offered to help him up.
"Are you okay?" Delvin asked, worry plain on his face.
Casadin forced himself to breathe more evenly, lifting his head and dragging in slow breaths until the blur in his vision lessened.
"I'm fine," he said, though the words sounded strained even to his own ears. "I just need to rest in my office for a bit."
He said it to keep them from panicking, but he did not stay long enough to explain anything further.
He left his worried friends behind and pushed out of the game room, crossing the edge of the main dance floor on the first level before heading toward the second floor, where the private rooms and his office were.
But before he could even reach his office, the pain hit him again.
He gasped and caught himself against the wall.
That was when he realized it was not purely physical.
It was emotional.
Was this the pull of the mate bond? Casadin asked himself as his trembling hands fumbled for the key to his office door. He got inside and shut the door behind him.
He knew Evadne was with Hades right now.
And yes, they could be intimate at that very moment.
Is this pain because Vee is with him?
Casadin shook his head hard.
No.
He did not believe that was it. He had already accepted Evadne with Hades. He had meant every word he told her. He should not be hurting simply because she was with him. That should not be enough to tear through him like this.
This was something else.
Hades, please stop… not like this…
"Princess…" Casadin whispered helplessly.
This time, her voice was unmistakably clear in his head.
And then he understood.
He was not hurting because Evadne was with Hades.
He was hurting because she was in pain.
The unbearable ache splitting through him was not born from jealousy. It was her pain flooding into him through the bond.
Casadin grabbed his phone and immediately started a video call in their three-person group chat so that both Hades and Evadne would receive it at the same time.
No one answered.
"Fuck!" Casadin shouted when another wave of pain slammed into him. A second later, he realized tears had fallen down his face. "Fucking shit, Hades! Answer the phone!"
He screamed at the screen as if Hades himself were standing in front of him.
Another surge hit him.
Casadin bent over again, clutching his chest.
"What are you doing to her?!"
He forced himself upright and, with shaking hands, reached for his car keys.
Then he felt it again.
Another sharp fracture of pain.
"Oh God, Princess…" he gasped.
It felt as if his heart were breaking open in his chest.
And he knew... without question... that it was her heart he was feeling.
Casadin staggered forward, his vision blurring once more. With everything in him, with every ounce of strength and desperation he had, he took another step and wished with all his might that the next one would bring him straight to where Evadne was.