LUKE

Floating in darkness, Luke was having the best sleep he's ever had in his life. He was devoid of thought, emotions, and his memories. Just a body floating in nothingness. Time didn't exist here. Nothing seemed to matter. Luke just slept. The only constant that reminded Luke he was alive was something swelling inside his chest, something jagged and dangerous to touch. Luke didn't bother with it, so he hoped it wouldn't get worse.

Then, out for the oblivion, Luke heard someone humming. A single finger touched Luke's forehead and dragged this gentle caress down the length of his nose. Whoever was messing with him did this a few times, as Luke's senses fluttered back to the surface. His brow twitched. Just the smallest movement shook the dust off his bones. Feeling the ache of staying in one place, Luke couldn't move at all.

He squeezed his eyes, prying them back opened from feeling sealed shut. Luke's eyes fluttered as the blurry world around him came into focus. Resting at his bedside, holding her dainty chin in her palm, Iris Whitlock was smiling at him. "Hi, Button."

"Zipper?" Luke whispered.

However, this wasn't the last Iris Luke had in his life. She was younger, the Iris Whitlock in the portrait on the mantle, complete with the white fur shawl and electric blue chiffon evening gown with her best jewels. Sapphire replaced all the gemstones on her person, from the rings on her fingers, her necklace, and earrings. She swept up her stark white hair into an elegant updo. Classic Iris Whitlock.

Luke's bedroom had changed colors, too. Everything was a different shade of blue now, but mostly sapphire. Sapphire. The reality crushed Luke underneath its weight and he was finally choking on the lump in his throat. Still struggling to move, Luke was now having a hard time breathing.

Hushing him like a fussy toddler, Iris just smiled. Her shiny red lips spread wide the way they always did when she was up to something. Once, Iris gave him that mischievous look and by the end of the day, they were dressed to the nines on a houseboat with a private chef, where the captain let Iris steer the boat. All from lip service and knowing the right people. Iris wasn't afraid of anything as much as Luke assumed the world should be afraid of her.

She titled her head, gazing at him, "Don't you know you're not supposed to go to bed angry?"

"Am I dead?"

Adjusting her position, Iris went back to caressing Luke's face and fixing his hair. "After all that work to keep you alive, do you really think I'd let this ring kill you?"

She was still all smiles. Luke couldn't be further from that sentiment and Luke couldn't get up, couldn't shake the heaviness in his muscles. The sapphire had coated his body in cement, barely letting Luke turn towards his grandmother. "This was your doing. The fortress ring is inside of me, inside of my heart because of you."

"It is... I spent my whole life looking for a cure to the Whitlock curse." She got up from her chair, gliding through the room. All her movements were so smooth, so elegant, like she was dancing, and Luke could just barely hear piano music in the other room. Someone humming along. "That's how I stumbled into the magical objects biz... and while searching for how to fix my problems, I ended up learning how to fix everybody else's."

She smiled at Luke again. She'd always smile when he entered the room, when he came home from college, when she was there to pick him up from the airport, and all the other times. "The irony of it all was I never wanted a big family, but I ended up in a place where I couldn't get rid of anyone." Coyly, she raised her shoulders in a little pose. "I'm quite popular."

Luke narrowed his eyes. "So, I've learned. I've met Cass." Iris's shoulders slumped slightly, giving Luke an idea that she could feel remorse, and this wasn't all a joke to her. "You stole from him," Luke said. "Didn't even explain why."

Iris picked at the sapphire blue curtains. "I don't know how I feel about you calling him Cass. I can't believe you can even call him that, my goodness Button you must've bewitched that man." She glared at him playfully and said, "Just so you know, you will always be my grandson and no matter how much he will curse the day I was born, Cassian will always be my sour puss of a friend." She laughed to herself. "But now that I've seen it, I can't unsee it. Button, I never thought you'd be caught up in a whirlwind romance, but I love it for you. You've got the face and legs for it."

"I'm being serious."

"So am I! It sounds like a riot to be Luke Aster."

Luke's jaw tightened. She wasn't going to distract him. He had to know. Had to stay firm. "How did you learn about the ring? How did you know it could save me?"

"Cassian mentioned the ring in passing." She looked down at her own ring. "We were discussing something else, a different ring. Something that was stuck to a woman's finger and would zap anyone that touched it. He mentioned the Fortress Ring and his plans to hibernate for one thousand years."

"Even back then, he planned to sleep?"

"It was really a backup plan. Just in case his family ever found his horde."

She might as well just stab Luke in the stomach and twisted the knife. Cassian's worse fears ended up happening and he couldn't protect his home because of what Iris lodged in Luke's chest. Rhys nearly killed Cassian and what they needed was right there all along. The entire time. Luke didn't think he'd ever stop kicking himself.

"Do you regret it?" Luke asked.

"I was truly inspired," she said in a way where she didn't regret it a bit. She smiled, posing her shoulders up, so proud of herself. "I thought that there must a be a loophole. Magic is funny that way. It's pliable, like clay, and can be formed however way you'd like. Cassian said the ring protects his home. My home is you. What is the hearth of a person, if not the heart?"

That cocky smile faded, poisoned by the gravity of her choice. "I didn't know if it would work, but I had to try." She closed her eyes. "I was so stricken with grief at the thought of possibly losing you too—" She could barely get the words out. Luke could see the strain, the force, and the struggle to pull out every single word. "Family has always meant everything to me. When Darren and Emily were both taken at the same time, you were waitlisted for a heart transplant. I knew what I had to do."

"How did you do it?"

"I used all my tricks to sneak through the barriers. Used an illusion to keep Mingus from bothering me. As soon as I had the ring, I passed it off to Astrid, who had never met Cassian. Astrid knew a witch who specialized in medicine, and for a fee, he was willing to enchant the ring inside your heart and then put you back together again. It worked. You lived. I got to raise you and it was fabulous. So no, to answer your question, I don't regret a thing."

"But you lost Cassian."

"Even the fight with Cassian, I don't' regret it. I've never said I was a good person, Button. I've always maintained I'm your grandmother. Nothing more."

"Now what? Now what do I do? I can't wake up."

"That I don't know."

"Why did you tell me about all of this before?" He didn't want to raise his voice at Iris, but he had been holding all of this back for so long, it had to escape in a rush. "Why didn't you tell me about your life? I could've known you so much better. I thought I knew you, but I... I don't know anything about you."

"Button, you knew me better than anyone else. I was only really myself around you and Astrid. Only my family. I could only relax at home."

"But you never told me about your other life. Not knowing hasn't made my life easier."

"Now, that's where we disagree." She smiled again. It killed him to fight with her when she looked so incredibly happy to see him. "Button, you are not a warrior by nature. You're too damn kind and gentle. You believed in the cursed without knowing magic existed at all. After the funeral for Emily and Darren, you asked me about the curse and I knew, in that moment, I would never ever admit magic was real."

"If you didn't know, you'd never fully be able to believe it," she exclaimed, jumping back up and parading around the room, pacing back and forth. "I didn't want you to be afraid the curse was going to jump out at you at every corner! I wanted you to live. I wanted you to play Carnegie Hall. I wanted you to compose the music to my favorite movies. I wanted you to fall in love... and then fall out again and fall back in it and fall out of it again. I wanted you to make mistakes without the fear of your choices killing you. The day I found out you got into a fight, when you were at boarding school, I couldn't have been prouder. I wanted you to be a bruiser, Luke. That's what I wanted. I wanted you to seek happiness and yearn for more."

A tear slipped out of Luke's eye, spilling down his frozen cheek. That sounded just like Iris. Not one thing she said, Luke could find a reason to fight. He loved her so much he could hardly breathe. And this couldn't be over until Luke knew one last thing. He asked, "Were you happy?"

That wicked glint sparked back in her eyes. She touched his cheek. "Disgustingly happy." Bending down, she smoothed back his hair again. "Well, Button, it's time for me to go."

"Wait!" Luke yelped, panicking settling back in. He tried jerking himself up, but again, nothing happened. "Am I going to be trapped here for a thousand years? Won't I... won't I die before then?"

"Not with that ring, you won't."

"But the thousand years..."

"Still stands." She shrugged. "Unless you wake up. Unless you can unbreak your heart."

"How do I do that?" Luke asked, knowing that this would be it. This was his last chance to steal one last word from her. Know one final thought. He wanted more from her. He still needed her. He asked as much as he could, hoping to hold onto her just a moment longer, "How do I say goodbye to you? Where do you get your confidence? Why are you always so sure? Weren't you afraid of anything? How do I tell Cass I'm sorry? How can I keep him and somehow keep him safe? How do I keep everyone safe? And happy? What should I be doing?"

Iris smiled. She leaned down and pressed a kiss to his forehead, leaving a stamp there of her deepest love for Luke. He finally felt a spark of warmth after so long. She whispered, "I don't know, but you better wake up and figured it all out soon. I love you so much I can't stand it, Button. Goodbye. You were the best part of well—" She laughed hysterically, "Of everything!"

She faded away then like someone vanishing in a fog, the echo of her laugh slowly following behind. Luke looked around his sapphire prison. From an early age, they considered Luke a "grandma's boy", who did every little thing his grandmother told him to do... but now, she wasn't here to show him the way. It was up to him. Luke had to do this himself. Alone.

#

CASSIAN

Cassian was too tired to fly back home from New Zealand. He chartered a private plane and slept through it, but he wouldn't call it restful. He'd close his eyes and just shift and toss and turn and think too much about going to sleep to actually partake. All his thoughts doubled in volume, hundreds of worries building a big enough wall to crush him. Cassian wasn't doing well.

He really couldn't take it anymore.

He had to see Luke again.

Even if it meant returning without the ring. He searched up and down Iris's New Zealand home. Tearing her Florida condo apart, Cassian didn't mind if Iris came back to haunt him. And yet, still nothing. Months and months of work to come up completely empty. Cassian could only assume that crazy old woman ate the thing, and he was going to have to dig through her ashes to find it. Iris Whitlock was laughing somewhere. Cassian knew it.

From the airport, Cassian's car service picked him up from the runway and started the trek back home. Well, back to his castle. No matter how much he longed for his horde, Cassian knew this wouldn't make him feel better. There was no relief doing this. A glutton for punishment, Cassian took out his phone. Still no new messages. From anyone. Before his flight, he even took a chance to send Astrid another message:

CASSIAN: [Astrid, I don't want to overstep my boundaries, but I can't stop worrying about Luke. I don't like the way we left things. Can you tell me how he's doing? And how are you? One word would silence me.]

No reply.

Just because he expected this didn't mean it didn't hurt any less, but Cassian couldn't blame Astrid. She was always going to side with Luke. She had to. He was family. The only light in all this darkness was knowing he didn't have to worry about the curse anymore. Luke was safe.

"What in the..." the driver said, pulling up to the edge of the castle's boundary. Sometimes people were surprised to where Cassian was asking to be dropped off. After all, to mortals, the castle looked like it was completely crumpled, but they weren't getting paid to care. They were paid to drive and honestly, were usually happy to drop Cassian off and hurry away. This time, the driver seemed more surprised than usual.

Sitting up, Cassian looked through the windshield just as the earth shook. The driver cursed.

Harry, the Sasquatch was running down the driveway at full speed, head down with a look of murder in his eyes. "Stop the car," Cassian insisted, and the driver slammed on his brakes. Jumping out of the car, Cassian stumbled into a run and the driver slammed it into reverse, speeding back the other way.

More than a little confused, Cassian raised his hands, hoping to somehow calm Harry down. "What are you doing here?"

Harry didn't slow down. He slammed into Cassian and if he were a weaker monster, that might've broken every bone in Cassian's body. Wrapping Cassian up in his arms, Harry let out a sob closer to a roar and rocked Cassian back and forth. Cassian's shoulder was flooded with tears.

"What happened?" Cassian asked.

A little way away, Kostas was also running. More like stumbling and fast walking as he tried holding his side to keep all his internal organs from spilling out. "C-Cassian! Finally!" Kostas heaved a sigh as he approached, collapsing against them both. He'd only look more ragged if he was pushed down a hill that landed him the bog. "Where have—" Kostas took another deep breath, his eyes red from strain with matching eye bags. "Where have you been? We have to go. There's no time to waste."

Roaring again, Harry nodded and squeezed Cassian even tighter.

"What? What do you mean?" Cassian tapped Harry's shoulder. "Put me down, big guy. What's going on?"

"It's the manor," Kostas said breathlessly, holding his side. "Some sort of crystal has overrun it. We can't get in and nobody's come out—"

Cassian's eyes widened. His shoulders raised. All the air left his lungs, and he thought his heart finally stopped beating. "What did the crystal look like?"

"Um," Kostas said. His brows were permanently pinched together. "It's like a dark blue, like a sapphire, I suppose—"

Not another word later, Cassian flung himself backwards, hot air bursting from underneath him as his wings ripped through his clothes. Transforming into a dragon, Cassian didn't ask permission to scoop Harry or Kostas up in his claws. Tearing through the sky, Cassian was flying faster than ever before in his life. He needed to get home.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Update 3/5. We're going back!! And we got to see Iris one last time 🥲 Iris would've given Luke her own heart, if she could. But enough talk! We gotta get back home ~

Let me know what you thought about the chapter? What was it like to see Iris in action? They also didn't have time to explain, but Harry found the manor covered in crystal and found Kostas by smell. He was able to communicate that they needed help, so Kostas figured out to find Cassian's house! They've been there for a week, waiting for Cassian to come home! LOL. It's been around three months since Cassian left 😬