CHAPTER 214: THAT’S NOT WHAT I’M INTO

Everyone else slowly got up, with Fiona coming out of her tent first. She glared at Lucian, and smiled at Cass. She clearly wasn’t forgiving Lucian so quickly, and Lucian flinched. He didn’t like having his ’partners’ mad at him.

If he didn’t like it, he shouldn’t do shit that made them both pissed at him. Cass also wasn’t his fucking partner.

Lord Ridgewood came out next, glancing at Cass and Lucian before joining Fiona and helping her make breakfast. Lady Ava came out next, glancing at Cass and Lucian before going to help Fiona with breakfast. She had a slightly twisted look on her face, looking like she wanted to say something, but didn’t.

Cass didn’t mind. He pulled out some food from his bag, formed a ball of water, and set to work eating and drinking slowly, making sure that no one else was reading the book that he was reading.

Lord Ridgewood finished up making breakfast as Lady Ava and Fiona stepped away for a moment to speak to each other. Cass kept an eye on them, just to make sure that they were okay but was distracted as Vespertine showed his face.

Vespertine had a rather serious face as he came out of the tent that he had been sharing with Lord Ridgewood. As Lord Ridgewood had come out first, Cass knew that was where they had both been sleeping.

Vespertine looked as rough as Lucian did, but he didn’t hesitate. He came over, sitting down on the same bench that Cass was sitting while Fiona and Lady Ava spoke to each other quietly, a few paces away from the others.

"I hope you know that I feel the same way as Lucy, but...please don’t piss on me." Cass started choking on a cookie at the soft words that left his mouth. Cass gave him a horrified look once he gathered himself enough to speak.

So Vespertine had been awake to hear what they had been speaking about. Whey the hell was he bringing that up while Cass was still eating?

"That is never going to happen! It’s not one of my kinks!" Cass declared and Vespertine gave him a strange look. It was almost comical with how badly his face was beaten. It did look like his wounds were healing faster than Lucian’s though, and that didn’t make sense to Cass.

"Kinks? What does that mean?" Cass felt his face warm as he realised that he’d fucked up. He glanced over at Lucian, who had been pretending like he wasn’t listening, but turned when he realised Cass was looking at him.

"What does that mean? Is that...something from the other world?" He asked and Cass felt like every hair on his body was standing upright. It was strange. So fucking strange to hear them speak of it. He didn’t think it would matter to him who spoke of it, it would still be just as awkward. Strange.

"Uh, yeah." Cass said and Vespertine and Lucian remained seated, still staring at him. Cass covered his face with a hand and groaned. Fuck. He just knew that neither of them were going to drop it until he explained it. "Shit." Cass muttered and felt Vespertine shift next to him.

"Is it a bad thing?" He asked quietly. "I’m sorry. I didn’t realise..." He trailed off when Cass uncovered his face and it was burning red. Both Vespertine and Lucian blinked, staring at the bright red face of Cass.

"It’s just embarrassing. If I hadn’t slipped up, I wouldn’t have to explain this to you." Cass muttered and Vespertine slowly raised his hand to his face, covering his mouth. He nodded.

"I’m sorry that it causes you so much...uh, grief, but I would like for you to explain it to me. I would like to know more about this other side of you." Cass’ heart twisted, and he let out a sigh. Damn it. He didn’t have to explain it to them.

He knew that in the back of his mind, but he was the fucker who said it, and he hated when others had used words that he didn’t understand when he was a kid. It wasn’t something that he liked to do.

"Have you heard of a kink in a rope?" Cass started and both men stared at him.

"A...kink in a rope?" Vespertine repeated and Cass nodded.

"Yeah. Like...something not quite right with the rope. It can be straightened out, but it’s there every once in a while. The word kink comes from...that. A kink in a rope." Cass said and Vespertine scanned him.

"From how you used it, I doubt it is just that simple." He said and Cass shook his head. Yeah. It wasn’t that simple. He glanced over to where Lady Ava and Fiona were speaking still, and was glad that neither of them were listening in on this conversation. That felt like too much. He probably would have said fuck it and left them in the dark.

"No. I’m just explaining how it started. Now, er, in the other world, it refers to...someone’s sexual preferences." Cass mumbled, his face warm. Vespertine’s eyes went wide.

"Sexual preferences? How did it make that jump?" He asked and Cass shrugged.

"I don’t know. I’m not a damn linguist! I just know that that is what it means!" Cass snapped, flustered and hating that he had to have this conversation so damn early in the morning. Especially with these two. Vespertine shifted closer.

"Okay. So, what did you mean when you said you didn’t have that kink?" Vespertine asked, his voice quieter. Cass felt his face warm again and he wanted the ground to swallow him up. Fuck this.

"It refers to how I don’t like piss like that." Cass muttered. "I don’t have a piss kink. That’s uh, I don’t like piss. Sexually. Or at all." Cass felt like he was in a damn fever dream for even having this conversation.

"Oh. Okay. So that is why you would never piss on me? You wouldn’t get satisfaction out of it?" Vespertine fucking clarifying wasn’t making this situation any easier for him.

"If you get it, then stop bringing it up!" Cass snapped quietly, not wanting to bring anyone else into this conversation.

"I didn’t realise this was such a hard conversation for you to have. Do you have a hard time discussing things of a sexual nature? Like kinks?" Vespertine’s voice pissed him off. It sounded like he was looking down on him. Cass snapped his head back, his face uncovered but when he met Vespertine’s eyes he found that it was all in his head.

Vespertine wasn’t making fun of him. He was genuinely asking if he had a hard time with these kinds of conversations and Cass felt himself frown.

"My family didn’t teach me anything, and I certainly haven’t learned anything since." Cass told him and that only made Vespertine look ill. Lucian coughed.

"You read romance novels." He pointed out, and that seemed to surprise Vespertine. Cass sighed, snapping the book he’d been reading closed and shoving it into his bag before Vespertine could see the cover and glared at Lucian.

"Everyone knows that those are unrealistic." Cass told him and Lucian gave him a confused look.

"That doesn’t sound right. What’s wrong with them?" Lucian asked and Cass opened his mouth, about to go on about how it was unrealistic because there was no way people like that could exist in real life, when he shut his mouth.

He had a sneaking, suspicious feeling that if he spoke his true feelings right now, it would only drag out this conversation more.

"I’m tired of this topic. I’m not speaking on it anymore. Make sure you two eat since it’s a big day." Cass said, getting to his feet, shoving the rest of the cookie into his mouth and stomping away.

He didn’t need to stay around and deal with this. He could just leave.

~

Fiona had a pretty good plan for what would happen when they went into the boss room. The likelihood that the creature that was the boss monster had to do with undead was high, and there was a high chance it was something that could summon more undead.

With that being said, she wanted some kind of protection for everyone. Vespertine was going to continue with the mind protection he was doing, while Cass was going to focus more on general protection. The likelihood it was going to be a more open space meant that he could use more of his powers. The larger, more intricate and showy spells that Lord Blackburn had always been prone to.

Something Cass was glad he was still able to do.

Lady Ava was going to continue to remain around Cass for protection since she could use her magic from afar, but Cass was going to be given the ring to see how it worked and cause him less pain. The rest?

They were going to rotate who would be taking the taunting of the Boss whenever they got tired. Then, depending on how the Boss reacted, one would be helping guard the other three, while the other was dealing damage.

It sounded like Lord Ridgewood would be the first on the taunting roster, and Lucian would be the one dealing damage right away. Fiona was going to be holding back, checking in on everyone, kind of ’floating’ between the two jobs.

Cass felt a fire burning in his gut. He had a lot he needed to get out, and honestly? This seemed like the perfect time to do so.