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Cassiopeia A. Viotto,

I'm sorry. I'm not sure if I'm coming home with you, or if I made it home. I hope you did. I'll miss you if I didn't, but I missed you anyway, in all honesty. While you were gone, I kept looking at the stars – they reminded me of you so much, I couldn't help it. I found the constellation, your namesake, and thought of that night. I hope you can see the stars too, whenever you are. And I hope you have a nice Yule, with the rest of Club Lore. I don't know where angels go after they die, it feels like a question that I might have time to ponder later. It doesn't matter much now.

If fate allows, I'll talk to you about it later, and hopefully ask some less insensitive questions.

I left your presents here, all wrapped. The wrapping paper made me think of your wings. I've only seen them once. That night on Samhain. They're pretty though, I like them. I thought all angels would have white wings, but I've thought a lot of things about mythology, some of them unkind. If we do get back together, if I get to come home, I'd like to draw them, if you'd let me.

I hope the gifts will suffice for your birthday all the same. It's not fair that Julian and Yaşru already got one, and no one else did. So I hope you like them. I'm pretty sure you're fond of vintage things, at least when I was around you all more often I remember. I stopped by an antique shop to find something for you, there was this butterfly necklace – I thought of you. It needed a little cleaning up, and admittedly, for about two days I thought Erlik might have swallowed it (he did not, it fell in the cushions of the couch), but it's all clean now. I also trust that you will do my whiskey cookies justice, so the recipe is in there somewhere too, along with a few other baking recipes that are some of my favorites.

I know you're a reader, so I found one of those things – I forget what they're called, they go in between the books to hold them up. Are they shelves? That doesn't sound right. It doesn't matter, I'm sure you know what I mean. The bronze reminded me of those old ones we see in historical dramas, which I thought you'd appreciate.

You vanished long after it started getting cold, but I picked up some seeds for flowers for you anyway. I think you'd like them. I'm not sure if you have a favorite flower, but because you remind me of the stars, I picked star-flower seeds.

I know you love archery. I've never seen you do it, maybe other than that one time when we went out for a picnic before the cold set in too fast. I found a new set of arrows for you. I can't remember if you prefer recurve or compound bows, but I guess it doesn't matter. I hope you like them.

I love you, Cassie.

I hope you know you deserve to be loved. And I think you do know that, at least most of the way. Julian does care about you. He cares a lot, we all care a lot – obviously, we do, but Julian cares in a different way. I know that he hurt you, and I don't think you should just let it go. You deserve an apology, but more importantly, you deserve to feel desired and loved and wanted. Maybe with time, he can do that for you.

I certainly fucking hope so. For his sake and yours.

He's very smart Cassie, but Christ, what a goddamn idiot.

It doesn't matter, you have good judgment for everyone except yourself sometimes. I'm really sorry about Samhain. They were really nice earrings, I wish I hadn't lost them. I hope you know though, that even after I left, getting ready with you and Adelaide was a memory I held onto. Oh – and if I'm not around, or home, to tell you this, Julian was so staring at you that night – he acted all dramatic after you asked Kelsey to dance. I thought it was hilarious at the time, but you know, things happened. I never got around to telling you. I just thought you should know.

I love you, Opi.

I know you don't love the nickname, but I hope I can get away with it just this once.

I'm sorry if I didn't make it; I'm glad you did.

– Sulli Chevalier

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Cassiopeia could only watch in horror as the Fae, the one who'd forced Sulli under contract, drove the sword into their chest. Her heart stilled, hands trembling as desperation clawed up her throat. The cry of pure, devastated, horror crawled from her mouth.

Yaşru, who'd been holding Sulli's head and body up until Cassie had come over, stared in complete shock as their body twitched, and then went limp, eyes dead and lifeless, staring up at the ceiling she'd been caged in not long ago. Dominicus, thank god he was an aerial shifter, had managed to get up to the cage to release it, freeing her branded, aching wings from the iron while Sulli had been distracting Sedna.

Sulli.

No. Don't leave us.

Blood poured from the second wound, dripping onto the floor as it began to pool underneath where the club had knelt next to him. Warmth flared next to her as Magnus slowly, slowly looked toward Arden. The breath of silence was more than enough to know what he was going to do.

Before Magnus could even reach Arden, Madden pinned him to the ground "Magnus-"

"Xe killed Sulli!" The voice was sharp, borderline broken, caught in waves of jagged cliffs of emotion. "They just killed them!"

"It's a fucking contract- Sulli was going to die anyway!" Madden's voice cracks at the end, and Cassie knows it must be taking all of his strength to hold Magnus down. "At least this way they didn't die in complete agony!"

Arden seemed unamused, of all things, removing the sword with a sickening sound, before dropping it aside Sulli's body. "Death was their mercy."

Cassie's voice is stuck deep in the back of her throat, mouth agape as she stares at the dead body in front of her. That's her sibling, her friend. How could someone take them from her? Gently, she reached up, brushing their eyes shut and skimming the strands of hair back so they were out of their face.

What should I do?

That deep, weighted sense of failure has settled low in the pit of her stomach, wrapping chilled hands around her throat. It's suffocating. This was her job. She was supposed to be a healer, more than that, she was a prodigy. Surely, she should have been able, should be able, to do something.

Cassie's eyes wander to the blade that's been cast aside in favor of the argument. Beside her, she feels the slow pull of Julian's eyes shift between Yaşru and her. Yaşru looks like he's in shock- but Cassie knows that something could have snapped inside him all the same, at watching a sword be driven into Sulli's chest. And if that was the case, if Yaşru picked a fight, Julian would have to stop him.

Angel tears heal almost anything, it's true.

But an angel's blood. An angel's life.

Well, that's self-explanatory.

Cassie's eyes dwindled across the silvery blade, temptation chewing at her stomach. She'd have to wait till they weren't looking, and she'd have to do it fast. Give her life for Sulli's - it was only fair, they'd done the same thing God knows how many times in looking for them. Her fingers twitched, narrowing her eyes over to the dropped, discarded blade on the ground- Adelaide's dagger.

Venom sunk deep into her heart, consuming her thoughts in a wave of abyssal fury. This was her fault. Cassiopeia felt more than sick, she felt betrayed. Adelaide had been like a sister to her, she'd loved her. How is it possible that Adelaide couldn't love her back? Didn't even like Sulli enough to not try to kill them. Sickeningly, a wave of psychotic satisfaction hit her square in the face. Addy was dead.

Unfortunately, so was Sulli.

Julian was distracted now, and Cassie drew in a breath, shifting almost unnoticeably where she knelt, palm sliding into the blood to steady herself against the ground. Her wings shuffled, pinning to her back, readying herself to grab the dagger and to slam it into her own heart.

Who would get her blessing- perhaps her brother or her mother and father would once again. They'd made fine parents, for the most part. They'd done their best. Admittedly, her brother raised her far more than her parents ever had. Not to mention, he'd recently gotten engaged to a very beloved angel indeed. She'd been invited to the wedding and was tempted to ask Julian to be her date- at least, she had been tempted before everything had happened.

Imogen Nefeli would indeed make a lovely sister-in-law. It was only a pity that Cassie never would get the chance to meet her. Still- she would make an adoring mother, based on how his brother loved her.

Cassiopeia took a breath, slow and steady, expecting it to be her last, and launched over Sulli.

Her fingers had barely brushed the blade when she felt herself tackled from behind. Desperately, her hand wrapped around it, but a stronger one braced both of her wrists, holding them against the ground. Legs had situated securely over her hips, and Cass looked up to see the very handsome, very pissed-off, face of Julian Laurent.

The emotion that she'd been fending off rose from her chest, breaking the sworn silence her body had involuntarily taken. "Julian- No, Julian, get off of me-"

"I'm not letting you kill yourself just so you can save them!" He sounds so angry. With her – she doesn't know. Hopefully not. It doesn't matter, she doesn't care if he's angry.

"I have to save them!"

"They're already gone!" His voice sounds strained. "Cassie, please, I can't-"

"It's my job – It's what I'm here for, you have to - just let me go!" She squirmed against his grip, knowing there wasn't much use. Emotion bubbled from her chest, tears pricking the corner of her eyes. "I need to save them- I didn't- they can't be gone yet-"

"Cass-"

"They can't. Humans already die young- they, they're only twenty-two, they didn't deserve this-" The sob stings her chest, nausea and fatigue hitting her like a wave. Everything hurts, suddenly. Her wings, her wrists, her heart. "Julian, please."

"Cassiopeia." She's stopped fighting against him now, it's too hard, she's too tired. The dagger slumps in her hand and she feels his hand slide up towards hers, pushing it away. He doesn't look half as angry as he did a second ago, but it's hard to tell in her tears. Julian's voice is soft - and she's become vaguely aware that the arguing around them has stopped. "I will not lose another person today. I can't do it. Okay?"

She drops her head back. It no longer matters how much fight she puts up. Now everyone knew what she was going to do- they were smart enough to keep her from any dagger or weapon for that matter. Blood mats her hair, she can feel it seeping in between her feathers. Cassie can only squeeze her eyes shut, letting the tears slip down off her face sideways. The grip on her wrists loosens, and Julian sits up a little more, careful to maneuver around her as silence falls over the group.

Sulli is gone.

Their body is so mutilated, she's not even sure they'd be able to bring them back to the human plane.

It's not fair.

Still, things seldom are fair. The world is so very cruel sometimes. Sulli was more than a good human, they were a good person, a good being. They were a part of Club Lore, regardless if they believed it or not. Samhain had been horrible; it'd been more than mortifying, and Sulli had been scared.

Could Cassie really fault them for that? Of course, it hurt in the moment, but in complete honesty, she can't blame them for their reaction. The sword might have been a tad dramatic, but Sulli is jumpy, especially when it comes to emotional connections.

Magnus had been silenced, his eyes scanning over Sulli's body. Golden smoke drifts through colored irises. Kelsey was beside them, still reeling from the fact that his two daughters were in fact not dead- but they might as well be, being at the hands of the Kwons. Madden had wandered over towards Adelaide's corpse, lifeless and left on the cold ground to rot by Sedna's. Cassie's heart ached for him. Surely, Madden deserved love- deserved to feel loved. All of her friends did.

Sulli deserved it.

But in the end had they known? Had they felt loved?

The ploy, to stall Sedna, to give Sulli that time they were so clearly searching for – it meant nothing to each of them, but Sulli hadn't known. They didn't even have time to explain it. She's not even sure what they heard before the sword had been driven through their body, pinning them to the ground much like you would a pretty butterfly.

"Yaşru." Magnus' voice comes out dry, whether that be from emotion or from the cold he'd been kept in, Cassie isn't sure. All she is sure of is that she wants to lie here on the ground forever and die beside Sulli so that at the very least they can have their wish.

You asked me what my worst fear was. On my list. It's dying alone. That's why I came.

Cassie doesn't want them to be alone.

"Yaşru-" Magnus repeats his name, more hurriedly this time. His fingers are twitching over Sulli's arm, before they reach over for the dagger that Cassiopeia had let go of. Briefly, Julian's hand catche's Magnus' wrist too, and they share a brief, non-verbal argument before Julian relents, and Magnus draws the dagger to his chest. "Give me your arm." His eyes lock with the məçkəy's across from him. They're pleading, in a way, more so than Cassie has ever seen them look. Yaşru doesn't hesitate, although his face shifts into a mix of confusion and poorly-disguised grief. His holds his arm out to Magnus, who hovers the blade above it. "Hold still."

"What the fuck-"

"Hold still, Yaşru - and for once in your life, fucking trust someone other than yourself."

"Oh yeah, 'cause you're definitely the most trustworthy person here."

"Fucking cunt, I'm trying to save Sulli!" He sounded desperate- and Yaş's face shifted. Magnus didn't bother with waiting for the question, he shook his head, dragging the blade over his arm. Deep, wicked blood immediately spread out of the pale skin, curving around the muscular structure, and dripping into Sulli's grossly disfigured corpse. "You have necrotic blood, Yaş. And I- I've never done blood magic before, but surely-"

"You're going to try and bring them back??" Kelsey sounds both alarmed and enthused, "Is that even a good idea? What if they aren't the same?"

"Maybe their soul is still around- if we can just- persuade it back-"

"What about the contract?"

Arden, who'd been irritatingly silent, thought about that for a second, then shrugged. "Wording is everything to the Fae. Sulli did die. If they come back, it doesn't erase that death. And i- I would like to...uh.." He shifted, looking up the the sky. "Sulli wasn't a bad human. So. I wouldn't mind if they came back."

"Oh god, you got attached to someone you made a contract with! You just stabbed them!"

"To put them out of pain!" Arden protested, and Dominicus shook his head.

"Does it really fucking matter?? You could have said like, sorry, to them first or something-"

"I'm not really that sorry, though."

"Crom Dubh-"

Cassiar shook his head, pulling at his necklace. "Who cares?? Who the fuck cares- if that angry guy thinks he can save them-"

"Angry guy??? Is that all tieflings are to you?"

"Stop it! All of you!" Kelsey stood, snapping towards them. "Shut up, already! You're all acting like this is about you- quit it! Sulli just got themselves killed saving us, so why don't you at the very least, show some goddamn respect to their body!" Cassie pressed herself up on her elbows, watching Kelsey - his form had grown a little, shifted as whips of angry arcana lashed back and forth across the ground. "Stop it. You're acting like children. My daughters behave better than you a lot- Sulli is dead- this isn't about any of you! Magnus-" he whipped to face the tiefling, who'd faltered awkwardly in his previous argument. Kelsey seemed to relent a little, sighing as he rubbed his face. "Magnus, do you think it could work?"

"I think it's worth trying, isn't it?" He looked around, but Cassie watched his eyes specifically drift to Julian. And the others soon followed. Julian glanced around them, not looking uncomfortable quite yet, but was one step from it.

"Does it put you in danger?"

"I don't know."

"Does it put Yaşru in danger?"

Magnus shook his head then, "It shouldn't."

"Shouldn't isn't very comforting."

"Yeah, well neither is the corpse of my friend lying in front of me, Julian."

The genasi relented a little, crossing his arms over his chest, but his eyes wandered over the others before they fell back to Cassiopeia. "Cass." The nickname was unfamiliar on his tongue, but not unkind in her ears. "What do you think?"

"Me?" It came out more shocked than it should have. Truthfully, Cassie did on occasion give her opinion or advice to Julian, whether he asked for it or not. It just was a rare occasion that he took what she said, especially about humans, seriously. Not in an unkind way, per se, but in the way where he seemed to think he knew best regardless of what others thought. Julian gave a short, simple nod, and Cassie mimicked the motion. "I think it's better to risk it than for all of us to live with the regret of not trying."

"Oh thank God-" Without missing a beat, or waiting for Julian's response, Magnus turned back to Sulli's body, pressing both of his hands against the gaping wound in the center of his chest. "Uh- guys- Cassie, while I do this, do you want to try-"

"Yes." It came without hesitation, and despite the burning ache in her wings and limbs, she pushed forward, settling on the other side of Sulli to take their hand. Cold humanity sunk through her bones, chilling her rushing blood. There was something different this time than it had been when she was trying to heal them.

Before, it had felt like wounded suspense, like the only thing she could do was stall inevitable death. Wave after wave of incoming, unavoidable tragedy pummeled her healing back to the point where there was no path to invade through. This time the sea of decay was calm before her. No bridge, but it was quiet, it was peaceful.

Magnus had closed his eyes, keeping his hands pressed over where necrotic blood had dotted pale flesh. In a moment a ringlet of warmth encircled the three of them, crackling between the stones and kissing the edges of Cassie's skin with a tolerable heat. 

"Memento vivere."

It's Latin. Cassie remembers a few words from her old studies, but it comes back to her in moments of summoning. Verbal components of spells can be critical - she's never seen blood magic in progress before, but the words sent rippling through the sea before her. She can feel it. In the distance, something burning her way. The coiled circle responded to the words the same way, and she watched Magnus' brow furrowed in concentration.

"Non timebo mala. Invictus maneo. Dum spiro, spero."

He sounded desperate, and the warmth of the circle had grown more intolerable. Beads of sweat dropped over his cheeks and forehead, Sulli's chest rattled before them, and Cassie gripped their hands tighter, seeking for a way to reach them. The sea had begun to steam before her, slowly, steadily evaporating so she could advance.

"Aut viam inveniam aut faciam."

Cassie recognized that phrase. She'd heard it before in class.

"Inis vitae sed non amoris. Mors tua, vita mea. Flectere si nequeo superos, acheronta movebo."

Cassie had it. Her own eyes snapped shut, the sea was almost gone now, and a land bridge, one embroidered with glowing brimstone, had at last come into sight. It stung as she bounced across it, arcana stretching to latch onto the darkness eating away at Sulli's soul.

Heal.

Bursts of gold and white skittered over the earth, plummeting like stars into the void. She could feel the hand in hers - Sulli's hand - warm slowly. The heat at her back was pricking- sparks of flying magic hitting bare skin every now and then, but she didn't dare voice it, didn't dare stop the ritual they'd found themselves so deeply in now.

"Consummatum est."

It was said with such finality, that the chill that ran through Cassie's blood was chased off, replaced with burning brackets of fire and flame. The fire dispersed into the floor, the remaining soft glow darting towards Sulli, before vanishing into each of the wounds, sealing them up. The contract on their shoulder had been burned away, and soft red marks scoured along their body, but all was silent as Magnus dropped his hands away, and Cassie removed hers as well.

Sulli's chest hitched and rose.

Relief sunk deep into Cassie's heart, heavy with exhaustion and emotion, and Magnus nearly wilted, dropping his head onto Sulli's chest to listen for the pulse. She wouldn't dare say anything, but it's entirely possible tears began to slip from his cheeks.

A hand rested on her shoulder after a second, and Cassie turned her body, sore from being caged for so long, to see Julian's hand outstretched towards her. "Are you alright?"

No. How could I ever be alright?

Still, she took the hand, overwhelmed with the edges of relief, paranoia, and fear. She nearly slipped upon standing, and Julian's hand fixed to her waist, offering her a much-needed support.

At last, she spoke, dropping her head into the safety of his chest.

"I want to go home."

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WYN

twenty-fourth chapter!

I TOLD YOU I WOULD FIX IT (ish)

I hope you all enjoyed it very much, hopefully, Sulli wakes up soon and the blood magic worked. (we'll see)

Also, Julian, I'm watching you rn- Cassie deserves a real apology.

Regardless, this is the beginning of our final arc - so a lot of the upcoming stuff will be tying up loose ends and the finale of everything. Thank you all so much for reading, and I hope you enjoy your characters getting a chapter from their perspective! <3

Love you all! Drink some water and treat yourself kindly.