Day One- Cyrus

A morning with Cyrus & Cass.

March 20, 2024 Newsletter

“What are you doing?”

Cyrus paused at the sound of Cassius’s voice. He was back early this morning. That was inconvenient. But he’d already been caught with the bow and Fiera arrows, so no point in trying to make up a story now.

“I’m going to shoot flaming arrows at Scarlett,” Cyrus answered, looping the quiver across his chest.

“You’re… Why?” Cassius asked.

Cyrus shrugged, bending to tug on his boots. “Because she asked me to.”

A disgruntled scoff sounded. “Scarlett asks us to do a lot of things. It doesn’t mean we need to agree to them.”

The Bargain he’d made with her said otherwise.

Yep. That’s what he got for agreeing to do this while they were drinking two nights ago. She taunted him into a godsdamn Bargain, which meant if he didn’t meet up with her today and shoot a flaming arrow at her, he’d be cursed in some unfathomable way.

Over a fucking arrow.

At least she felt bad about it the next morning.

Sort of.

“Tell her that,” Cyrus muttered, straightening and finally turning to face Cass. Then he went still.

Cass stood in the doorway of their balcony, leaning against the doorjamb with his arms folded across his chest. He’d been out flying like he did most mornings and was still shirtless with his dragon wings out.

Inconvenient timing, indeed.

“Sorin will not let you shoot flaming arrows at his wife,” Cassius said, pulling Cyrus’s gaze away from muscles and back to his face.

“Sorin might be…out for a while.”

Cass’s eyes narrowed. “What did you two do?”

Cyrus sighed. “She hasn’t been able to catch an arrow out of the air again since the battle in the Wind Court.”

“For fuck’s sake,” Cassius sighed. “And this is your solution?”

“Well, regular arrows aren’t doing the trick. We’ve tried multiple times for months. We figured maybe one that was on fire would help.”

“Why would the two of you think that? When she has the same magic and more?”

“Maybe you should talk to her about this? She’s the one insistent on it.”

“Because she is arrogant with a deeply rooted need to prove herself,” Cassius snapped back, swiping a hand down his face. “You can’t shoot flaming arrows at her, Cyrus.”

“We both know if it’s not me, she’s going to ask someone else. Do we really want Kailia doing this? Or Razik?”

Cass’s hand fell to his side. “Razik would find a way to shoot three at once from different directions, make it dragon fire, and then shrug and tell her it was her fault when she was injured,” he deadpanned.

“Exactly,” Cyrus said. “But would he be wrong? About it being her fault?”

“By the gods,” Cassius grumbled.

“All I have to do is meet her down on the grounds and fire an arrow and the Bargain is fulfilled,” Cyrus said, trying to sound nonchalant about it.

“You made a Bargain over this?” Cass demanded.

“It’ll be fine.”

“Until Sorin stops you and you can’t fulfill the Bargain.”

“I already told you Sorin is gone. He went with Rayner to investigate a possible issue with some rogue Night Children,” Cyrus said, making his way to the door.

A hand gripped his elbow, attempting to tug him to a stop, but Cyrus spun, catching Cassius off guard. A faint oomph sounded when he had Cass shoved against the wall. He’d meant to remind him about the Bargain, but he’d forgotten about the whole no-shirt thing. Now his fingers were sliding along indents along Cass’s muscled torso and—

Dammit.

“You know I was back early today assuming you’d still be in bed, right?” Cass said, his voice low and so fucking enticing. “You’re only out of bed this early when Rayner is making chocolate pancakes.”

“If it weren’t for this godsdamn Bargain, I’d already be on my knees, Cass,” Cyrus replied in irritation, forcing himself to take a step back.

“Now I kind of want to fire a flaming arrow at her,” Cass muttered, inhaling a deep, frustrated breath of his own.

Cyrus smirked. “Want to come?”

Cass sent him a heated look. “You have no idea.”

Yeah, he’d walked right into that one.

He tossed the bow at Cass, who easily caught it as he pushed off the wall and fell into step beside Cyrus.

“I’ll let you fire the first one,” Cyrus said, holding the door open for Cass to go through.

Cass huffed a laugh as they made their way through the halls of the palace.

“You two made up the rogue Night Child threat, didn’t you?” Cass asked a few moments later.

“Of course we did,” Cyrus scoffed. “I figure we have an hour at most to make this happen.”

Cassius only shook his head as they stepped through a side door and into the morning sun, silver hair visible across the yard.

“Seriously? Your brought him? He’s as over-protective as Sorin,” Scarlett demanded, hands on her hips.

“Definitely taking the first shot,” Cass muttered under his breath.

Cyrus only laughed and handed him an arrow.