CHAPTER 374: OUR LOVE TERRIFY THEM-II

Cassius turned at the sound of Atlas’s voice, his crimson gaze falling on the man’s frantic expression. Those wide, terror- tricken blue eyes carried the look of someone who had stared into death itself, and found something far more unbearable.

For men like them, who lived not for themselves but for the fragile warmth of their soulmates, death was hardly the worst fate. No, true torment lay in watching the one they loved slip toward the grave again and again.

"What a wretched fate we share," Cassius murmured, striding toward the bedchamber. His long coat slipped from his shoulders as though it weighed nothing, falling to the floor in a crimson heap. He looked every bit at ease, in contrast to Atlas, whose pulse thundered with dread.

Atlas blinked, regaining his senses just enough to realize he still had the poor guard in a vice grip. The soldier’s arms were mottled with bruises. With a stiff exhale, Atlas released him, muttered an apology, and clapped the man’s shoulder in thanks before turning back. His voice broke against the silence.

"Circe— tell me, is she—?"

"Alive. For now." Cassius’s answer was blunt, and the lack of reassurance in his tone made Atlas’s stomach twist.

Atlas spun toward the door, but Cassius’s voice cut clean through his frantic momentum.

"You can’t see her. Not yet. So wouldn’t it serve you better to sit here with me?"

Their eyes locked. Atlas faltered, his breath unsteady. He knew Cassius was right, if anyone knew Circe’s true condition, it was him. To rush blindly would help nothing.

Cassius smirked, lifting a teacup with lazy elegance as though this were nothing more than an idle evening. "Come now. Sit. Let us talk— man to man."

Atlas considered bolting, tearing down the hall until he reached her side. But even he could see the truth: Cassius was no enemy to underestimate. To ignore him now would be folly. With reluctant heaviness, Atlas lowered himself into the seat opposite, his jaw tight, waiting for whatever came next.

"Arabella and her sister have managed to mend Noah’s wounds, but he has yet to stir. Arabella believes it rests solely on Circe’s will now, whether he chooses to wake or not," Cassius began, answering the question that weighed most heavily on Atlas’s mind. He knew too well the torment of waiting in the dark, uncertain if a beloved life was slipping further away. "The coffin of ice that once held you is now Noah’s refuge, preserving him while his body repairs itself."

"I see..." Atlas blinked a few times, relief and dread warring in his eyes. He was shaken, but not entirely bereft of hope. "But I doubt you came all this way just to brief me on Circe’s condition."

Cassius gave a faint, wry smile as his gaze drifted to the reflection trembling in his teacup. "Arabella insists that speaking one’s feelings can heal unseen wounds. I wonder if she’s right."

Atlas tilted his head, his voice steady but without mockery. "I doubt you’re someone who knows how to bare himself so easily."

"True enough," Cassius admitted with a languid shrug. "And trust is a rarer coin still. I can’t confide in Arabella, this matter concerns her too closely. And as for showing her the ugliness I keep hidden..." He let the words trail, a rare vulnerability flickering through his tone. "That will take time."

Atlas felt the weight of honesty settle between them. He had spoken to Cassius countless times before, but always through masks, illusions, half truths crafted for convenience. Today, for the first time, it felt as though he was speaking not to the prince of shadows, but to the man concealed beneath.

"So you’ve chosen me as the one to hear your feelings?" Atlas studied the young vampire carefully. To any outsider, Cassius appeared no more than a decade younger than himself, but Atlas knew better. In truth, he was old enough to stand in the place of Cassius’s grandfather, a figure the Crown Prince had never truly known nor been granted. And in this moment, with the stillness of the chamber pressing around them, Atlas could not help but feel as though Cassius was unconsciously seeking that very absence.

"Why not?" Cassius leaned back in his chair, his voice a languid drawl, yet heavy with something far sharper beneath. "You suffer as I do. That is rare enough."

Atlas said nothing, only watching.

"Sometimes," Cassius went on, his gaze flickering toward the distant candlelight, "I think myself fortunate beyond reason, that I have found someone who loves me as I am, with all my darkness and all my ruin. Yet in the same breath, I curse the misfortune of falling for such an angel."

His hand hovered over his teacup, but did not touch it. Instead, he allowed a faint, humorless smile to curl his lips.

"It feels," he murmured, "as though each time our hands meet, the heavens themselves scream in anger. As if angels cry out in outrage, furious that I would dare to steal one of their own from the skies. And sometimes—" he exhaled, a soft laugh tinged with bitterness "—I almost believe them. That our love is something that terrifies the world itself."

"I didn’t take you as a poet," Atlas smiled with a chuckle before he nods, "But yes, I did wonder if I had stolen the most precious gem in the world and now punished for doing so. Sometimes I wonder if Circe is an untouchable creature and it’s a punishment I have to suffer for daring to try loving a creature that others could never even dream to gaze with their naked eyes."

"See, so it does take one in the same position to understand my words," Cassius let out a dry chuckle. "When you knew that you were dying," his voice then turned solemn in time, "Do you also think about simply going against all Circe’s wish and marry her?"

Atlas looked into his eyes and his grin widened, "Of course, a man in the end is simply a wild beast. How many times have I thought it would be easy to go against her wish, lock her in the castle and have her as my wife? But in the end," he sighed as he closed his eyes, "When I saw those green bright eyes wet with tears, glassy with hesitation and fear, how could I ever do anything to hurt her?"