Azriel asks Cassian whether Nesta can truly find the Dread Trove, and Cassian admits he hopes she can but does not want her forced into danger. When Azriel argues that Nesta should scry, Cassian pushes back, explaining that the last time she tried, the Cauldron looked back at her and Elain was taken. Because Cassian knows Nesta is volatile and traumatized, he insists that pressuring her now will only make her resist, so Azriel reluctantly agrees to let her try other options first.

The conversation then turns to Feyre’s pregnancy and Rhysand’s coming child, and both males are openly happy at the thought of becoming uncles. Azriel asks Cassian whether he wants children, and Cassian realizes how deeply he does, especially because he wants to give his future family the love and security he never had. The exchange reveals Cassian’s buried longing for a real home and family, while Azriel stays distant and evasive about his own desires.

After Azriel leaves him to his thoughts, Cassian cannot stop thinking about the unfinished encounter he had with Nesta. He is driven both by desire and by a need to repay the pleasure she gave him without receiving the same in return. Acting on that impulse, he goes to Nesta’s room, where she is reading in bed, and his presence immediately shifts the mood from wary to charged.

Nesta tries to protect herself with sarcasm, accusing Cassian of treating their earlier intimacy like a mistake and asking whether his friends would object. Cassian denies that she was ever a mistake and makes clear that whatever he wants from her has nothing to do with the Inner Circle. When Nesta says this must stay separate from training and everything else and be only sex, Cassian agrees, even though the intensity between them suggests far more than either of them is willing to admit.

Once Nesta gives her consent, Cassian kisses her fiercely, climbs onto the bed, and begins undressing her. Instead of taking his own pleasure, he focuses entirely on her, kissing and licking her body before kneeling between her legs to repay the debt he believes he owes. He pleasures Nesta with his mouth and fingers until she reaches a powerful climax that leaves her overwhelmed and stunned.

When Nesta reaches for him afterward, Cassian steps away instead of letting the encounter continue. He dresses, heads for the door, and tells her, “We’re even now.” By leaving after giving rather than taking, Cassian honors the bargain they just made, but the encounter also makes clear that their attraction has become too strong to dismiss.