Chapter 22: Slipping Into the Skin

  "A mask for home. A mask for the academy. A mask for whoever he took orders from. And beneath it all—"

  His stomach twisted.

  "What was underneath?"

  Because Cassian Starfall had been many things, but one thing was certain—

  He had been alone.

  Cassian flipped to another page. His eyes caught a note scrawled in the margins, the handwriting sharp, controlled, yet almost too casual—like an afterthought.

  "People are easy to fool. Smile where they expect warmth. Stay silent where they expect cruelty. Be everything and nothing at the same time."

  Cassian exhaled slowly.

  "Everything and nothing."

  That was what he had to become now.

  He closed the file and straightened. If he was going to wear the monster’s mask, he couldn’t just guess at it. He had to know how the real Cassian had operated.

  His gaze flickered back to the bookshelf, the diary sitting there untouched.

  "I need to go deeper."

  He walked toward it, fingers brushing against the spine. He had read it before, but now, he would read it again—not as an outsider, but as someone stepping into the skin of the monster who had written it.

  The deeper he went, the more dangerous this game became.

  But there was no turning back now ‘honesty i would rather be myself’

  “Brother?”

  Cassian froze, his fingers still resting against the old book’s spine. He turned slightly, just enough to see Sky rubbing the sleep from his eyes, his small frame illuminated by the dim glow of the bedside lamp.

  'He wakes up at the worst times.'

  The child blinked slowly at him, his face scrunched in drowsy confusion.

  “What are you doing, brother?” Sky yawned, rubbing his cheek against his sleeve. His gaze lazily roamed over the scattered books and files on the desk before narrowing slightly. “Why are you making a mess? My brother didn’t like messes. He was obsessed with cleaning.”

  Cassian barely held back a scoff but sound more like a chuckle

  'Yes, he cleaned things up so well. Cleaned out people’s lives by slaughtering them.'

  But outwardly, Cassian only let out a soft chuckle, reaching for one of the books and flipping it shut. ‘Useful book for me’

  “Just trying to understand him a little better,” he said smoothly, stacking the books neatly. “It’s… interesting to see what he used to read.”

  Sky tilted his head, eyes still groggy but perceptive. He glanced at the book in Cassian’s hands, his lips parting slightly.

  “How to Fake Emotions?”

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  Cassian’s grip tightened for half a second before he forced his fingers to relax.

  Sky’s brows furrowed as he shuffled closer, peering at the title. “Oh,” he muttered, as if the words had suddenly clicked in his still-sleepy mind. “Yeah. My brother read that one a lot.”

  Cassian swallowed. “Did he?”

  “Mhm.” Sky nodded, plopping down onto the chair beside the desk. “He used to say it was important. That if you can’t feel something, you have to learn how to show it so people don’t think you’re weird.” His voice was quiet, almost thoughtful. “He always said it like it was just a fact, like learning how to write or how to use magic.”

  Cassian watched him carefully.

  Sky continued, his fingers tracing invisible patterns on the wooden desk. “I remember one time,” he murmured, voice small, “I asked him if he loved me.”

  Cassian’s pulse ticked up slightly.

  “And?”

  Sky’s little fingers stilled against the wood. He looked up, something unreadable in his expression.

  “He smiled at me,” he whispered. “And he said, Of course I do, little brother.”

  A strange silence stretched between them.

  Cassian studied the boy’s face—searching, analyzing.

  Sky wasn’t a fool. He was young, but he wasn’t naive.

  And yet—

  Cassian could see it in his face, in the way his lips pressed together and his small shoulders drew inward.

  Sky wanted to believe it.

  Even if somewhere deep down, a part of him wondered if it had been real.

  Cassian exhaled softly, shifting his gaze back to the book. ‘Another interesting book for me’

  How to Fake Emotions

  How to act like you cared.

  How to blend in.

  How to pretend to be human.

  Cassian turned the pages slowly, skimming through the words, his mind calculating.

  This wasn’t just about learning how to be the real Cassian Starfall.

  It was about learning the person beneath the masks he had worn.

  And for that, he needed to understand exactly what kind of monster had been in control.

  Sky tugged at Cassian’s sleeve lightly. “Are you okay?”

  Cassian looked at him and forced a small, gentle smile.

  He didn’t have to fake it.

  Not this time.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  Cassian’s fingers tracked along the spines of the books, his thoughts tangled in a web he couldn’t yet unravel. The cold weight of the files still lingered in his mind—the twisted reports, the calculated murders, the detached way Cassian Starfall had viewed human life.

  And yet.

  Sky was alive.

  How?

  Cassian turned away from the bookshelf, his sharp gaze landing on the boy seated at the desk. Sky was swinging his legs slightly, eyes half-lidded with drowsiness but still perceptive, watching him in quiet curiosity.

  Cassian folded his arms. “Sky. You said your brother was the one who hid you in that run-down house, right?”

  Sky blinked, then nodded. “Yeah.”

  A pause.

  Then Sky tilted his head, as if searching for the right words. “He said… ‘I will come back later, I promise. Stay here. And if I don’t make it, you could say that it’s the best thing that’s happened to this planet. Bye, my sweet muffin. Tho I don’t know much about emotions anyway—bye, hide inside.’”

  Cassian’s breath stilled.

  His fingers, still hovering over the book’s spine, flexed before curling into a fist.

  "I will come back later, I promise."

  "Stay here."

  "And if I don’t make it, you could say that it’s the best thing that’s happened to this planet."

  Cold. Detached. A promise wrapped in indifference.