Rise of Cassian Vale: The Forbidden Healer

Chapter 8

Julian Harrow walked into the ballroom the way he walked into every room in his life — like it already belonged to him.

He didn't rush. He didn't look around like a man trying to understand what had happened. He simply walked forward, one hand adjusting his cufflink, his eyes moving slowly over the mess in front of him.

Behind him came an older man. Gray hair, cut short, a plain gray training jacket that looked strange next to all the tuxedos in the room. He didn't hurry either. He moved the way someone moves when they've spent their whole life learning that speed isn't the same thing as power.

Cassian didn't know who the older man was but he easily recognized the third man that followed a step behind both of them. Broad shoulders, a dark suit that fit him perfectly. He was Damian Harrow, the Harrow's chief security that does all the family dirty works behind the scene and Cassian was one of his victims.

*This is getting interesting* Cassian chuckled.

Someone near the back of the crowd whispered, loud enough to carry.

"That's Julian Harrow."

"And is that Master Chen with him? I thought he only trained the family's own people."

"If Julian brought Chen, this isn't a party anymore. This is an execution."

Julian stopped a few feet from the wreckage. His eyes moved over Marcus, still sitting on the floor with blood soaked into his shirt, then over the scattered, groaning men near the doorway. He hadn't even reached Cassian yet when Lucia broke away from the guests near the head table and ran toward him, her heels slipping slightly on the marble.

"Julian." Her voice cracked as she said his name, and whatever composure she'd been holding onto all night finally gave out completely. She threw herself against his chest, both hands gripping the front of his jacket. "He hit me. In front of everyone. He broke Marcus's arm, his leg...he just... he wouldn't stop..."

Julian's arms went around her, one hand settling against the back of her head, and for a moment he just held her while she cried into his shoulder. His face, over the top of her head, didn't look shaken at all. It looked like a man doing some wicked calculations, working out exactly how much this was going to cost someone.

"I've got you," he said quietly. "You don't have to explain anything else. I can see it."

He looked past her, toward Marcus, then toward the blood on the floor, and something in his expression settled into place, cold and deliberate.

"Whoever did this," Julian said, his voice still gentle where it touched Lucia, "isn't leaving this house the way he walked in."

That was when his eyes finally found Cassian.

For a second, nothing in his face changed at all. Then recognition arrived, slow and total, and something almost like amusement moved across his mouth.

"Well," Julian said. "I heard you got out this morning. I didn't expect you to make quite this much noise on your first day of freedom."

Julian eased Lucia gently to the side, toward one of the guests who stepped forward to steady her, and took a slow step closer to Cassian, close enough that the men still on the floor between them seemed to matter less than the two of them talking over their heads.

"Julian." Cassian didn't move from where he stood. "I figured you'd show up eventually. Saves me the trouble of finding you myself."

For a moment the whole room seemed to hold its breath.

Then the whispers broke out at once, sharper this time, filled with disbelief.

"Did he just talk to Julian Harrow that way?"

"In his own fiancée's house?"

"He's out of his mind."

"Master Chen is standing right there. Does he not see him?"

"He got lucky against some hired security. Let's see how lucky he feels in a minute."

Julian let the noise settle before he answered, unhurried, almost enjoying it.

"That's an interesting thing to say," he said, "to a man standing three feet away from someone who could put you in the ground before you finished the sentence." He glanced sideways, toward the gray-haired man beside him. "Master Chen. I think our guest deserves a real demonstration. Something a little more honest than what he's seen so far tonight."

Master Chen didn't say anything. He simply stepped forward, slow and steady, his hands loose at his sides.

Julian kept talking, like he had all the time in the world.

"You beat up some men who get paid to stand around looking intimidating," he said. "That's not the same as fighting someone who's spent his whole life training for exactly this." He tilted his head. "Master Chen has been doing this for forty years. I'd like to see how well your prison yard tricks hold up against someone who actually earned what he knows."

"You could still walk away from this," Cassian said quietly. "Tonight doesn't have to be the night everything you own starts falling apart. I still have more plans for you and your family"

Julian laughed. It wasn't a real laugh. It came out short and hard, more breath than sound.

"You're threatening me? Here? In my fiancée's family's house, surrounded by my own people?" He shook his head slowly. "Seven years in a cell really did something to how you see the world."

He looked at Master Chen and nodded once.

"Break both his legs," Julian said. "Slowly. I want him awake for it. I want him to remember every second."

Master Chen moved swiftly.

For a man his age, he was fast, faster than anyone in the room expected, judging by the gasps that rippled through the crowd. He crossed the space between himself and Cassian in less than a second, his fist already driving forward, aimed low, right at Cassian's ribs. It was the kind of punch that could break bone. The kind that could stop a man's heart if it landed wrong.

Cassian caught it on his forearm.

The sound of the impact was sharp, almost like a slap, and for a moment nobody moved. Master Chen's eyes widened, just slightly. It was such a small change that most people in the room probably missed it. But Cassian saw it. Real surprise. The first honest reaction he'd gotten out of anyone that night.

"You're stronger than you look," Master Chen said. His voice was quiet, almost respectful, like a teacher noticing something unexpected in a student. He stepped back, resetting his stance, feet apart, hands raised again. "Good. This will be more interesting than I thought."