Midnight City (boyxboy)

|Twenty Three: You Should See Me In a Crown|

"You're insane," Theo said after hearing the plan. They stood in Celeste's study, where the book was open to the place the final missing pages should have been. Sam flicked through the worn pages, rubbing the dust that came off on his fingers. How long had this been in the library?

Leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest, Cassius told him, "You don't have to come. You have a choice, Theo. I gave Sam and Celeste the choice as well."

He did. He explained that he would go alone if his friends didn't feel comfortable in the Faerie Realm, as it was dangerous. But of course they had shut the idea down immediately. There was no way they were sending Cassius to go alone on a suicide mission. Not after his past with Odessa. Even without the history there, nobody knew the horrors that lurked within Five Point Peak. Cassius' royal status would give them an advantage, a way inside and past the guards, but once they were in they couldn't let their guard down for even a second.

"Sam's going?" Theo laughed incredulously, waving an arm in the angel's direction. Scowling, Cassius pushed himself off the wall and braced himself on the table, shooting a menacing glare towards the wizard. His face was stone cold, a rock that certainly wasn't going to be budged by his friend who seemed to want to argue with Cassius every chance he got. Theo was becoming more and more irritating by the second, even if he had offered to help translate the book with Celeste.

"Do you have a problem with that, Theodore?" Cassius asked, an iciness to his tone.

"What happens when Odessa, or any other faerie for that matter, spots an angel in their realm? You think they won't slaughter him on the spot? Or better yet take him prisoner and hand him straight to your father," Theo argued, watching something flash in the vampire's eyes before they went back to their penetrating gaze. Then the wizard turned to Sam, spitting out, "You have a death wish."

"Celeste said she would glamour me. I'll hide my wings and she'll use magic to get rid of this stupid aura around me." He gestured to himself, the way his body shone with golden-white light, purity- Theo recognised. But he never said anything. Sam was special in all kinds of ways, and bringing that up in conversation would just lead to more questions that would go unanswered.

"Really? You honestly think that'll work?"

"We have to try," Cassius clipped. "Now Celeste, I need you to portal me to the manor. I have to change," He ordered, running a hand down his plain, black t-shirt that he always wore. However he made sure to inform people he did own multiple variations of black t-shirts, and wasn't a disgusting slob that never changed.

He remembered Celeste making a joke about it after they hung out the first few times. Once he knew she wasn't going to pickpocket him if he happened to turn away for a second. He learned to love the wizard, liking that she was one of the few people that looked at him like a normal person. Even Theo reprimanded him for his reckless actions, telling him to act more like the Prince he was supposed to be.

With a wave of her hand a portal appeared, small magical bursts flying from the edges as he stepped inside. But it didn't close behind him, she kept it open for a few short moments before the vampire reappeared again, this time dressed incredibly different.

An audible gasp escaped Sam's lips, eyes raking up and down the vampire's body shamelessly. He gulped. And Cassius smirked, adjusting the golden, bejeweled crown that sat atop his head. An expensive, luxurious black suit adorned his slender frame, gold and silver details hand-stitched with shimmering thread. Though he was already the tallest in the room, he looked as though he had become an entire person taller than all of them, as though he was looking down on his subjects who were lesser than him. Worthless compared to the gem he was.