v. do you trust me?
He's starting to feel Cassandra pulling away from him.
"Disappointment" is one word for it, and it's the word that Helios choses to use. Another word would be "paranoia," but that would be far too honest.
He knows that she isn't her property — he isn't that self-absorbed — but he does need Cassandra to serve him. The volunteer selection tournament is a few months away, and while Helios wants it to be him and Cassandra in the arena at the end, she can't be getting so cocky.
"Do you trust me?" He asks her one day as they lounge outside Valhalla's locker rooms.
"What?" Cassandra's brows furrow.
"I feel like you've been ignoring me lately." Helios feigns sadness. "Makes me wonder if our connection means anything." It's no secret that she has feelings for him for whatever reason. He sort of prides himself on being as unromantic as humanly possible, but it seems to have had the opposite effect. People flock to him. It makes him sick. "C'mon Cass, I miss you."
"News to me." She bats her eyes and her voice turns light as a feather. Helios often calls it her "charming mode," not that it'd have that effect on him. "Am I not allowed to have other friends?"
"Of course you are." Helios wants to add, "just remember, I made you," but he doesn't. Instead he says, "I just worry they don't know what's best for you."
"We can't just take advantage of everybody. It's not fair."
"Life isn't fair."
Cassandra should know that. Helios has seen the way she panics when a trainer notifies her to visit her father in the hospital because "it might be the end." He's seen her argue the scholarship committee, begging to stay at Valhalla.
"Can't we at least try to be?"
Helios groans. "You never answered my question."
"Of course I do." She's turned "charming mode" off, so he knows she's telling the truth.
"Good."
He won't forget this infraction. He can still feel Cassandra slipping through his fingers like sand.
Speaking of fingers… crack… crack… crack…
Helios looks down at her hands and starts to conduct a symphony with his mind. Maybe a different district partner would be a good thing after all.
i mean are we surprised he's back? are we really surprised?