Chapter 9: The lesson you invited yourself to.

The shattered pieces of porcelain lay scattered across the marble floor. No one moved.

Every rifle remained aimed at Iris. Her palms began to sweat, her eyes wide in shock.

Cassian simply looked at her. As seconds ticked by, his expression never changed.

"Leave us." He said staring at her with a pinning gaze.

The guards slowly lowered their weapons, the frail young woman was not a threat for, but they stared at their boss, surprise on their faces.

"...Boss?" The leader of the guards began. But Cassain cut him off before he could land.

"I said leave."

The chief guard signaled the others and within seconds, the hallway emptied until only the two of them remained.

Silence streched between them. Cassian looked once at the broken vase.

Then back at Iris's bare foot, then finally her face. She suqirmed under his gaze she now realised she was barefoot when his eyes ran over her.

"You enjoy disobeying me." He stated stepping closer, closing the ten steps gap between them.

Iris's pulse pounded against her ribs as Cassian walked toward her.

She took an unconscious step back.

Then another and another until her shoulders hit the cold marble wall.

There was nowhere else to go. She was trapped.

Cassian stopped just close enough for her to notice the gold flecks on the bottons on his shirt. She purposely avoided his eyes repeatedly counting the number of buttons visible on his shirt.

His dark eyes searched hers.

"You disobeyed me." His voice was quiet. His fingers snaked around the strands of hair on her neck and tilted her face up to look at him.

Iris inhaled sharply, her eyes meeting his in almost defiance. This man was her hope of getting what she wanted, but his personality made her think she was trying to solve some kind of puzzle.

"I..." She swallowed, forcing herself to hold his gaze. "I wanted to know where you were going. You left me with no answers.”

"You've gotten your answer, no?."

"I was merely curious." She spat back. She paused for moment, something flickered across his features. Amusement?

A corner of his mouth lifted ever so slightly, his eyes remained rooted on her. "Curiosity gets people killed."

"It also gets them answers." She almost mumbled not sure of herself.

His face darkener then returned to being stoic.

"You watched a man die today." His hand titled her head back to face him with enough force to prove a point but not hard enough to hurt.

She held his gaze, her eyes becoming calm and knowing. "I did."

"And?"

Her throat tightened. "I'll never forget it." The image of her family's death flashed in her eyes. The fire, the gunshots…violence is not the solution.

Silence stretched between them. Cassian studied her for another moment before speaking again, his grip tightened. "Good."

She almost quitked a brow.

"That's a good thing?"

"No." He uttered, his eyes never leaving hers.

"Remembering is what separates survivors from corpses." Without another word, he stepped aside.

"Come." He said swiftly letting go of her hair, cleaning his hand that held her hair with a handkerchief from his pants pocket.

She blinked. Trying to understand what he meant and wondered why he cleaned the hand which held her like he wanted to get rid of filth.

"...Where?" She spoke after a minute.

"The lesson you invited yourself to.”