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“And how does that make you feel, Lucien?”
“It makes me feel like I dislocated a shoulder, because I did,” the fae male grumbled.
Nesta scoffed without looking at him. “You’re such a pussy.”
“Can’t be worse than being an insufferable bitch.”
From his spot in the corner of the room, Cassian’s jaw ticked at the insult, but he kept his mouth shut. The therapist, Helen, gave Nesta and Lucien a firm look. “What did we agree to about communication in my office?”
A few moments of silence, then Lucien muttered, “Sorry.” Nesta echoed him.
“Don’t say it to me,” Helen said in her smooth tone. “Say it to each other.”
“I’m good,” Nesta said.
“Nesta.” The low warning came out of Cassian’s mouth before he could help it. Helen turned to look at him for the first time all session. “And who are you again?” she asked, confused.
Cassian flustered, wanting to be left out of this as much as possible. “I’m her ride,” he said honestly. His massive dove-gray wings explained the rest.
Lucien snorted. “Is that what you’re calling it now?”
“Okay, I’ve had about enough of you—” Nesta grabbed for a couch pillow to smack Lucien with.
It was plucked out of her hand before it could make contact with Lucien’s scarred face. Nesta whirled on Cassian, glaring. “You promised you’d stay out of this,” she hissed.
“I’m paying for this session,” he said simply, the calm to her raging fire.
Helen was eyeing all three of them like she didn’t get paid enough for this, but she pursed her lips and waited until everybody had settled before speaking again.
“Now,” she said tersely, “why don’t we start at the beginning?”
***
It was Elain’s birthday party, and this year she’d wanted a rager. Lucien, ever the dedicated male, had set up a fine enough party using his dad’s money and extensive list of rich friends.
Nesta wrinkled her nose at a pair of grinding werewolves as she walked through the crowded living room, wondering where her sister was in the midst of all this. Cassian’s presence was a warm force at her back, keeping her from getting smothered by random Vanir on all sides. She self-consciously tucked the skirt of her minidress down, wishing she hadn’t worn white when so many…liquids were sloshing around.
In the dim pink light of the room, she caught a flash of gold and red near the cake table. Her eyes narrowed, locked onto its target, and she sped up her walk until she was face to face with Lucien Vanserra.
“Nice whorefest you’ve set up, kid.”
Lucien turned to her with a fake smile, ready to fight instantly. “Nesta,” he greeted sweetly. “Still beating that joke to death, I see.”
Years ago, when Nesta had been drunk and feeling particularly vengeful, she’d found herself taking Lucien’s father, Helion, to bed. Even now, she liked to remind Lucien of it every now and then by making stepmom jokes at him. And she wasn’t about to stop.
“It’s not a joke.” Nesta didn’t bother with the fake smiles. “It’s part of my very real multistep plan to marry your dad, make Cassian my lover on the side, become your stepmother, and ruin your life by inches.”
“I think you overestimate your ability to ruin my life any more than you already have.” Lucien poured something bloodred into a plastic cup. Was he drinking wine at a rager? Gods, she hated him.
“Where is Elain?” she snapped.
“With her friends. You know, because she actually has them.”
Nesta sneered. “When are you planning on breaking up with her so she can lead a better life?”
Lucien raised his cup in announcement. “Around the same time you plan on quitting being such a bitch.” And then, he tipped over his cup. Wine poured all over the front of her dress, dribbling into her cleavage and soaking her bra. He looked Nesta in the eye. “So, never.”
Nesta didn’t blink. She didn’t know where Cassian had gone off to, and she didn’t care. Without looking away from Lucien, she plunged her hand into the three-tier cake on the table— Elain’s birthday cake. “This,” she smeared the chunk of cake across Lucien’s face, “is why your family doesn’t love you.” She shook clumps of frosting off her hand.
If Lucien was hurt by her words, he hid it well with a smirk. “That’s not what your sister was saying last night—”
At that moment, Nesta headbutted him— she rammed into his torso and took him all the way into the wall, then the floor.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” he spluttered beneath her, trying to fend off her tiny hands as they slapped at his chest.
“Fuck you!” Nesta screamed at him.
If people hadn’t been watching before, they definitely were now. Out of the corner of her eye. Nesta could see Cassian appear at the edge of the crowd, spot Nesta beating the shit out of Lucien, and then immediately turn around to mind his own business.
Good. He knew better than to interfere when it came to Lucien.
Lucien, being taller and stronger, managed to shove Nesta off his body and into the cake table, but before he could pounce and elevate the fight even further, he was hauled backwards by a pair of small hands.
“What the hell is going on here?” dainty Elain Archeron roared.
***
“And where is Elain in all of this?” Helen asked.
“She stayed home, lest this get any more incestuous than it already is.” Lucien crossed his bare arms over his chest.
Cassian snorted at the word “lest”, because really, who used that in their everyday vocabulary if they weren’t Nesta?
Lucien narrowed his eyes at him, one russet and one gold. “What’s so funny, angel?”
Cassian had to reign in his smile. “You talk like Nesta,” he said. “And sometimes Nesta talks like you.”
“That’s stupid,” Lucien said at the same time Nesta said, “Don’t be stupid, Cassian.”
The pair glared at each other, only to instantly look away.
“Well.” Helen inhaled a deep breath and looked at her notes. “There are a few things I’d like to touch on during this session, especially after what I’ve heard about this birthday party.” She glanced up at Nesta and Lucien. “You two used to be fairly good friends. Can you pinpoint when the animosity began?”
“Well,” Lucien pretended to think, “it might have something to do with the time she fucked my dad.”
Nesta scoffed. “Like you sleeping with my sister is any better.”
“Which happened first?” Helen asked.
Nesta was silent, which was answer enough. Cassian would have rather been anywhere else than discussing Nesta’s past sex life, but he knew she needed this.
“Nesta, what was your reasoning behind this?”
Cassian knew this answer, but he didn’t know if Nesta would admit it.
Her blue-gray eyes burned with indignant rage. “Do I need a reason? I liked him, I was of age, so I slept with him.”
Lucien shook his head. “I’m surprised you stopped at my father. You could’ve gone through all my brothers, too. Remember that crush you had on Eris?”
Nesta gasped, looking at Lucien with horror and— embarrassment. Cassian narrowed his eyes, torn between being offended on his girlfriend’s behalf and being intrigued by this new piece of information.
“You promised you would never tell anybody,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically high. Lucien squinted at her. “Are you crying?”
“No!” Nesta blinked furiously.
“There’s nothing wrong with crying,” Helen assured her. “But Nesta, I have a feeling you’re not being entirely honest with us, and we can’t get anywhere without honesty.”
Nesta glared with red eyes at the wall, and Cassian met Lucien’s gaze and held up his hand in a wait gesture.
Once Nesta was decidedly calm, she let out a breath and grumbled, “He was my first friend.”
Lucien glanced at her, surprised, but didn’t say anything.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “When we moved to Crescent City, he was my only friend, and I thought we liked each other. I thought we understood each other, but then he— ” she swung her glare around to Lucien, “was just using me to get to my sister.”
“That’s not—”
“This is Nesta’s turn to speak, Lucien,” Helen cut him off.
Nesta was talking to Lucien now. “The showing up at my house late with beer, hanging around with me all the time while your friends were out having a life— it was all so you could get closer to Elain, because she trusted anybody I liked and you knew it.”
Lucien’s mouth tightened. “That’s why you slept with my dad? Because I took Elain out on a date and you wanted revenge?”
“You forgot about me as soon as you had her. We were drifting apart long before I did anything with Helion, trust me.”
Lucien was quiet for a long time. “It’s true that I liked Elain from the day you all moved in down the street,” he finally said. “But she was never my friend the way you were. And just because I liked spending time with her doesn’t mean I didn’t like spending time with you. It’s comparing apples and oranges; I loved you both.”
Nesta blinked. “But you don’t anymore?”
Lucien didn’t answer, and eventually Helen cleared her throat. “I’m really proud of the progress we just made, but I’m afraid our time is up.”
Cassian sat up at that. “You can’t cut them off here, they just had a—” he waved his hand, “breakthrough or something.”
“And it was very powerful,” Helen nodded. “Which is why I suggest going home and reflecting on what we learned today until our next session.”
It was Nesta and Lucien’s turns to sit up. “There’s another session?” she demanded.
“As many as it takes until you two are at a healthy place with each other again.” Helen smiled in a polite way that surely made Nesta feral, Cassian knew. He had a suspicion that his pockets wouldn’t see the end of this.
Lucien was already getting to his feet and stretching. “Yeah, maybe we should just hug and make up now and call it a day.”
At the look of blatant disgust on Nesta’s face, he rolled his eyes. “Or maybe not, damn.”
Helen got up and smiled that fake smile again. “See you next week.” She turned to Cassian. “Should I email you the invoice now or later?”
***
Despite the day’s revelations, Nesta and Lucien didn’t last a minute once they left the therapist’s office. Or rather it was because of the recent revelations, that they felt the need to return to normal.
“You look like such a douchebag in those shirts,” Nesta snapped.
“It’s just a shirt!”
“WHERE ARE THE SLEEVES?”
“Like I’m going to take fashion advice from someone who’s boyfriend only wears black like it’s wartime!”
Cassian didn’t think that was fair. His shirt was dark gray today.
Nesta and Lucien’s voices blended into one jumbled shouting match as they furiously walked out of the building.
“You know what, don’t even bother calling me for our weekly recaps this time.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
“I’m blocking your number right now.” Nesta was digging her phone out of her bag.
“Good,” Lucien seethed. “Text me when you get home safe before you do it!”
“Fine!”
“Good!”
They spun on their heels at the same time, Lucien storming away in one direction while Nesta did her furious little speedwalk towards Cassian in the other.
At the end of the street, Cassian gathered Nesta in his arms as he prepared to fly them home. “Why can’t you just tell him you care for him like you do with your sisters?”
Nesta braced her hands on Cassian’s biceps and glared. “Because he’s not like my sisters. He’s a male.”
Cassian’s lips quirked up in amusement. “So like a brother?”
Nesta grumbled something unintelligible, but she didn’t deny it. Cassian had a feeling she wouldn’t be blocking Lucien’s number anytime soon. Still, he was proud of the progress she had made today.
Dropping a kiss onto her hair, he spread his wings wide and shot them into the sky.