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CADE
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Cade still couldn’t get rid of the taste of that lava he had spewed onto Scorn’s floor. His mouth tasted like sulfur, and no amount of whiskey could drown out the flavor.
The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the edge of a meadow on the outskirts of a nearby town, dappling the forest floor with warm, golden light. They’d made a quick stop in the village for some whiskey, and he took a deep swig straight from the bottle.
Around him, the team sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Jer and Elena sat on opposite ends of a fallen log, while Rayka stretched out on the soft meadowgrass. Orro paced along the treeline, wearing a groove into the ground as he muttered to himself. Bunny had gone to hunt, and Cade kept a steady watch on the forest as he waited for his dragonling to come back. Now and then, he turned his attention to his friends and studied their faces as he leaned against a tree.
The warm afternoon sun cast long shadows over the quiet clearing. The air between the five of them felt thick, weighed down by all the things no one was willing to say.
Cade took another swig from the whiskey bottle, and he winced as the Remnant fused to his chest pulsed with a sharp, now-familiar pain. He exhaled slowly and let the burn of the whiskey distract him, even if only for a moment.
The others didn’t look at him. They stared down at the first few fallen leaves of autumn, faces drawn, eyes distant. The rustle of the breeze through the old oaks around them was the only sound to fill the air, and it did nothing to ease the tension tightening the space between them.
Through the fabric of his tunic, Cade’s hand drifted over the jagged crystal embedded in his skin. It hummed beneath his fingers, a constant reminder that even now, in the golden light of fall, there was no escaping the weight of what he carried—and of what he had to do.
Stealing from the goddess of Life, ironically enough, sounded like a death sentence.
“I don’t want to put you all in harm’s way,” he finally said, breaking the silence.
Everyone looked up at him, and for a moment, no one said anything. The twins shared a brief glance, as though they could read each other’s minds, and Elena slouched as she returned her gaze to her feet. Jer rubbed his hands together, unusually silent. Orro paused in his pacing and met Cade’s gaze, but he remained silent as well.
Rayka sat up and glared at Cade, as though he’d said something fundamentally stupid.
“I’m not letting you go to Elysia alone,” she snapped.
“It’s too dangerous,” Cade insisted with a shake of his head. “I got us into this mess. I’ll get us out of it. I can’t have you all risking your lives.”
“Shut up, you noble idiot,” Rayka said.
Cade shrugged.
Once again, the crew went silent, each lost in their own thoughts. The warm afternoon air hung still, broken only by the soft rustle of fallen leaves. The sun's light filtered through the trees, turning the ground into a patchwork of gold and red.
It should have felt peaceful, but it didn’t.
Cade took another swig from the bottle, feeling the burn slide down his throat. It didn’t help. The Remnant fused to his chest throbbed, a sharp twinge that flared with every heartbeat, but it was nothing compared to the other pain gnawing at him.
Hugh’s face floated into his mind. His mentor. His brother. The man who had shaped him, taught him how to survive when the world had tried to chew him up.
And now, Hugh had thrown him to the wolves—betrayed him in a way that made it feel like something had torn a hole in his chest.
He squeezed the bottle, glass creaking under his grip. Hugh hadn’t just turned on him. He had sold him out, handed him over like he was expendable. The memory of it twisted in Cade’s gut like a slow, poisonous churn that wouldn’t let up.
The others didn’t know. They sat around him, quiet, oblivious to the war raging inside his head. Hugh had betrayed them all, but for Cade, it was a knife between the ribs. Hugh hadn’t just been a leader. He’d been family, and that made the betrayal burn in a way nothing else could.
Everything they’d ever done together, everything Hugh had ever said, everything Cade thought he knew about the man—it all felt like a lie. Hugh’s voice still echoed in his head with all the wisdom he’d taught Cade over their time together. Years of trust, loyalty, and brotherhood had defined so much of who Cade was. Now, it all rang hollow.
He took another drink, hoping the whiskey would dull the edge of the memory.
It didn’t.
This time, Jer broke the silence, his voice barely above a whisper. “I can’t believe Hugh would betray us.”
Rayka’s eyes flashed with anger. “Believe it, Jer. He left us to take the fall, like we were nothing.”
“I know, but... why?” Jer’s frustration was clearly mounting. “What was he trying to do? Of all the places to ditch us, why in the middle of a heist?”
“I don’t know,” Cade admitted. “Orro? Any ideas?”
Orro crossed his arms and leaned against a tree, his focus on the ground as he brooded. For a while, he said nothing, and his eyes glossed over.
Anyone else would’ve thought he was ignoring them, but Cade knew better. That was Orro’s expression every time he thought about strategy and risk. Cade had learned over the years to just keep his mouth shut and wait for the man to speak when he was ready.
Admittedly, patience wasn’t one of Cade’s strong suits, but the glares Orro gave when interrupted were almost deadly enough to make flowers wither and die.
After some time, Orro rubbed his eyes and sighed in frustration. “I can only think of one possibility.”
“Let’s hear it,” Cade said.
Orro’s gaze flicked briefly his way, and the assassin shrugged. “We didn’t see any guards, right? That was probably the intention. Hugh likely had his new team clear the humans and move their bodies, leaving only the sentinels for us to fight. That makes it far easier and more likely to succeed, all without tipping us off to things being wrong. Think about it—if we walked into that heist with no opposition, we would’ve immediately figured out what he was up to. An easy heist usually means something is about to go wrong. You called it, Cade, back on the stairs. You knew before any of us did.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
“Didn’t do us much good, did it?” Cade asked.
“Will you stop with the self pity already?” Elena snapped. “You’re the one who stole the Remnant from him. You’re the one who saved our lives from Scorn, Cade. Without you, we’d all be dead.”
At that, the group went silent once more.
Rayka wrapped her hands around her legs and pulled her knees to her chest. She stared down at the grass beneath her. “Do you think there was really a buyer?”
“I do,” Orro answered. “Hugh knew elements of the temple that he couldn’t have known about unless he had a powerful source. Someone who’d been in there before.”
“Fair point,” she admitted.
Orro resumed pacing and absently rubbed his jaw as he walked the groove he’d worn into the forest floor. “If he’d gone in without us, stole the gem, and then escaped, it would be obvious who did it. He would’ve been hunted to the ends of the continent and beyond. He’s too smart for that. He needed us as scapegoats. Plus, if his buyer thinks the heist failed and that the culprits were killed, even though he got away, they would assume that he’s dead. A god isn’t going to admit when something is stolen, at least not if they can cover up the loss from the other gods, so there’s a good chance no one outside of the temple would know the Remnant was gone. The buyer wouldn’t think to come after him, and he would get away with the prize. It’s actually a pretty solid plan.”
Elena shook her head in disbelief. “So we were just pawns in his game? That’s messed up.”
“The twins were with him the whole time,” Rayka snapped, her temper apparently getting the better of her. “How could you not see it coming? How come you didn’t sense that something was off?”
“How in the hells were we supposed to know?” Jer said, his arms crossed defensively. “He was being an asshole, but he’s always an asshole.”
Elena nodded. “He was one of us, Rayka. He fought beside us. We had no reason to suspect him.”
Orro, ever the silent observer, finally spoke. “I should’ve listened to you, Cade. You knew something was off, but I didn’t realize it until it was too late.”
“Yeah,” Jer said with bitter sarcasm. “Let’s blame you, Orro. That’ll solve things.”
“This is serious, Jer!” Rayka said curtly.
Elena glared at Rayka. “I’m giving you this one chance to back down. This isn’t Jer’s fault, or mine, or Orro’s. Hugh's betrayal says more about him than it does about us.”
But Rayka wasn't done. “We should have seen it coming! We're supposed to be smarter than this.”
Orro grumbled under his breath. “He played us, and he did it perfectly. That rat bastard.”
“There must’ve been signs,” Jer pressed. “Small things. Things we missed.”
“Or chose not to see,” Elena added, her voice tinged with regret.
Orro scanned the group. “Guys, this isn’t helping.”
Cade, ever the talker, didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know how to interject, or calm them down, or what the right thing to do even was. The team was fraying, coming apart at the seams—and it was painful to witness.
The bickering continued, but Cade tuned it out. He couldn’t help it. Numb as he was, he lost himself again in thought.
Cade stood off to the side, observing the chaos with a measured gaze. Tension rippled through the air, thick enough to choke on. Every face around him twisted with anger or frustration, their voices climbing higher, each of them snapping at one another like frayed threads on a tightening rope.
He could see it—how one wrong word could push someone over the edge. At any moment, someone could storm off into the forest and disappear forever. He could feel how close they all were to losing control.
But he didn’t know what to do about it.
Hugh had always been the peacemaker, the one who could throw out a biting insult and somehow smooth everything over at the same time. It was a skill, really. Hugh's sarcasm cut deep enough to shut people up without setting off more fires.
Cade felt a pang of anxiety coil in his chest. They needed to pull together, not fall apart like this. They had a heist to pull off, and they couldn’t afford to be at each other’s throats. The problem was that he wasn’t sure how to wrangle the mess of emotions spilling out in front of him.
This wasn’t his strength—getting people to calm down, to see reason. That had always been Hugh’s job.
But Hugh wasn’t here, and without him, the team was crumbling.
Cade had to step up.
Not entirely sure what he could do to diffuse the tension, he stepped forward and forced a deep breath into his lungs. His mind raced, weighing his options, but there wasn’t room for hesitation anymore. If he didn’t take control now, they were done for.
“Enough.” His voice cut through the noise, sharp and steady.
All eyes turned to him. For a second, the chaos stilled, and he could feel the weight of their stares. He had to get this right.
“We’re not doing this,” he continued, his voice low but firm. “Not here. Not now.”
Jer scoffed. “What else can we—”
“I get it,” Cade interrupted. He raised one hand in reassurance and met Jer’s gaze. “You’re pissed off. So am I. But if we don’t pull it together, we’re dead before we make it out of this.”
The silence stretched, tense and fragile, but they all knew he was right. Cade held his breath, watching the lingering anger flicker in their eyes. He didn’t know if they would listen, or if they even had it in them to rally. But he had to try. Hugh wasn’t here to fix this. It was on him now.
“We can’t blame each other for this. Or ourselves,” he added. “We're on the same side, remember?”
He paused, letting the weight of his words settle in. Eyes dropped, shoulders slumped—some measure of guilt trickling into their expressions.
Cade continued. “We need to focus. This heist on Life’s Remnant is the biggest one we’ve ever tried. If we’re going to succeed, we have to do this as one. Together.”
A moment of silence followed. It was delicate, fragile—like a porcelain vase teetering on the edge of a table.
He glanced around, hoping to see some sign of unity, but everyone just glared at the ground. Bitter. Angry. Resentful.
Betrayed.
“Look, Hugh is gone,” Cade said, unable to mask the bitterness in his voice. “We can’t dwell on him anymore. We need to focus.”
“Focus?” Elena scoffed. “On what? Stealing a Remnant from the goddess of Life? Have you seen her tournament arena? Everyone says it’s a death zone!”
“Ironic,” Jer muttered under his breath.
“Well… yeah,” Cade said, steadying himself. “We’ve got to get a Remnant, whatever the hells that is. Sure, it’s almost certain death, but we’ve got to be a team on this.”
Orro frowned. “Certain death, huh?”
“Probably,” Cade said with a shrug.
“You are really not selling this,” the assassin muttered.
A small chuckle broke the tension, momentarily lifting the weight from everyone’s shoulders.
Cade continued, “Look, Hugh’s plan was good because he thought it all through. We need to do the same. We need a plan, and we need to stick together.”
They fell silent, each of them thinking hard about the next steps. Eventually, they turned to Cade, waiting.
“So, what’s the plan, Cade?” Jer asked.
Cade hesitated, his usually sharp mind drawing a blank. “Uh… yeah, guess we should come up with that, huh?”
Rayka rolled her eyes, but there was a hint of a smile there. “Way to inspire confidence, brother.”
Cade grinned sheepishly. “We’ll figure it out. Together.”
Without Hugh’s sources and expertise, it fell to Cade to come up with the next steps. He would have to lead the charge. That was his job, now.
In the end, they needed each other. They’d been a team for years, and if they fell apart, he was afraid of what would happen to the people he cared about most. Cade knew he had to shepherd them during the dark times, just as Hugh once did.
This—the team, their wins, their failures, their unity—it all rested on his shoulders, now, and he wouldn’t let them down.
Even though he had no fucking idea what he was doing.