Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Footsteps outside her tent had Thalia jerking upright.
Cassius hadn’t appeared on the bedroll beside her, and sleep had yet to claim her. Everything beyond the tent was silent. Still.
Except a shadow passing by her tent—the figure of a woman.
Thalia eased off her bedroll, staring at the shadow before it faded away. Her heart rate quickened.
What the hell was a woman doing out here?
She moved toward the tent entrance, pushing aside the flap to peer into the camp.
The Vampyrs who were asleep on their bedrolls were eerily as still as the forest around them.
Thalia knew it was night only because of the slim sliver of moon filtering through the dense leaves.
Strange that the Vampyrs were still asleep, seeing as night was when they roused.
The five Vampyrs who were sitting around the campfire didn’t stir as she eased out of the tent.
A flash of emerald green caught the corner of her eye, and Thalia turned, only to see a figure dart around one of the silver trees.
There was something familiar about the green fabric—
Slowly, Thalia crept after the retreating figure, moving around the gray trunks and fallen logs.
The figure stopped, stepping into a shaft of moonlight, and Thalia caught sight of golden hair as familiar as her own. “Mother?”
The Queen of Agripa turned toward her, eyes wide. Her hands were bound, her mouth gagged.
“Mother—”
The queen bolted, fleeing from some unseen horror.
“Wait!” Thalia’s heart leapt into her throat.
She ran after the queen’s retreating form. Branches cut her face as she jumped over stones, her boots skidding in the soft mud of a stream.
“Mother! What’s wrong?”
Thalia couldn’t make sense of it, but something in her urged her faster. Her mother was in danger. The queen was in danger—oh gods, had the Vampyrs gone back on their treaty? Had they somehow captured the queen?
Thalia ran, not caring how far she’d ventured, only that the blind terror in her mother’s face spurred her on.
“It’s me! It’s Thalia, let me help you!” Thalia yelled, her breath coming in deep pants.
Her mother slowed, her gown dirty and torn as if she’d escaped from someone.
The queen doubled over near an outcropping of rocks, shaking like a leaf.
“It’s okay, it’s me.” Thalia reached for her mother, grasping her shoulder. “We need to get out of here before the Vampyrs find you again.”
Her mother’s wide eyes took her in, and Thalia took her knife, cutting the binds around the queen’s hands, then ripped the gag off.
“What the hell happened?” Thalia asked, scanning the queen for other injuries. This would be the Vampyrs’ undoing. Not only going back on their treaty but trying to kidnap the queen—
Her mother gripped Thalia’s face, eyes searching hers. “You came for me.”
Thalia’s heart squeezed. “Of course I came, but how are you here? Are you hurt?”
The queen looked her daughter over, hands falling away. “You are so foolish to have come.”
Thalia’s heart stuttered. “What?”
The queen’s face began to change, porcelain skin shifting into dark, hanging flesh, emerald eyes melting into milky-gray pools.
Her mother disappeared, replaced by a nightmare.
The creature was skeleton-like, with leathery skin that stretched across its frame. Arms too long for its body ended with scythe-like hands, and when it smiled, rows of razor-sharp black teeth glinted back.
The creature’s lipless mouth stretched; its nostrils—no more than two slits—flared. “You shouldn’t have followed me.” Thalia stumbled back, her heart rate spiking as the creature crouched on its back legs. “You should run.”
Thalia bolted.
The creature let out a strange, high-pitched screech, but Thalia didn’t look back as she fled. She dodged around tree trunks, her lungs to the point of bursting as she skidded over a small stream.
She had no idea where to go, which way the camp was—
Something tackled her from behind, and Thalia screamed.
The stench of rotting flesh filled her nostrils as the creature sent her tumbling down an embankment.
The breath knocked out of her lungs as she landed on her back. The creature pressed into her from above, and she gagged. Despite its thin frame, its weight crushed her.
“Why are you not still screaming?” The creature studied her, its milky eyes unblinking. “Your screams would taste most decadent.”
Thalia trembled as the creature brought its claws to her face. “Scream,” it rasped, its lips stretching into a grotesque grin. “For I wish to be sated.”
It leaned closer, its mouth eager to shred her flesh.
Thalia gritted her teeth and plunged her dagger into its soft side.
The creature wailed as Thalia twisted her blade. It reeled back, and Thalia scrambled out from under it.
She made it all of two feet before the creature was on her again. It flung her hard enough that her back cracked against one of the tree trunks. She let out a moan.
The creature gripped her throat, lifting her in the air. Thalia’s breath stuttered as its claw tips pricked her skin.
“You should have screamed,” the creature snarled, raising its free hand to gut her like a pig.
The creature froze.
Its eyes widened and it looked down just as something began protruding from its sternum.
A fist covered in black blood pushed its heart out of its chest cavity.
Thalia’s eyes widened, and the creature lost its grip on her throat. She fell to the ground in a gasping heap. She stared up just as the hand disappeared and the creature’s milky eyes went dark. It collapsed next to Thalia, unmoving.
Cassius stood over her, his face set in nothing but hard wrath, holding the black, shriveled heart of the creature. She scrambled backward.
“Stay back!” Thalia searched for her discarded blade. Cassius dropped the heart next to the cooling corpse.
He froze. “Thalia, it’s me—”
She spotted her dagger, her fingers shaking as she gripped the handle, pointing it at Cassius. “Prove it.”
Cassius paused, bloody hands upraised. He glanced down at the creature’s body, then understanding flashed in his eyes.
“Our first kiss was in the castle stable right after you beat up Marcus because he told me you fancied me. You were hiding in Helios’s stall, too embarrassed to talk to me. I kissed you then.”
Thalia’s blade lowered, the adrenaline fleeing as she realized it was Cassius before her, not some creature posed to trick her.
“What was that thing?” Thalia croaked. She hadn’t gotten up. In fact, she didn’t think her legs worked properly.
“They’re called the Nestos. They’re one of the few creatures in this forest that can communicate.” Cassius’s face was careful. “How did it lure you?”
Thalia glanced up; her heart still hadn’t returned to normal. “I saw my father.”
Surprise flared, then something like deep regret flashed before it was gone in an instant. Good. She hoped he regretted his betrayal—the lie he spoke when he swore he’d fight the creatures who’d killed her father. Hoped it haunted him as much as it haunted her.
Cassius studied her a beat longer, and Thalia wondered if he knew she was lying, could hear her heart skip a beat, perhaps knew there was something deeper going on. But he didn’t push as he offered her a bloody hand. “We should get back to camp. It’s not safe out here.”
Thalia ignored the hand, getting shakily to her feet. “How do you know the way back?” What is he even doing out here?
“We’re taught the safe paths of the forest and which to avoid.”
“We.” Thalia’s lip curled, and she couldn’t stop the sneer from twisting her features despite the death she’d just narrowly avoided.
Cassius stiffened, looking over his shoulder. “If you have any wish to survive this world, insults will not get you far.”
“And you know this so well?”
Cassius whirled to her, eyes glowing faintly. “I know that your tongue will damn you quicker than your blade.”
“You don’t know me,” Thalia gritted out.
Cassius raised a brow. “I don’t know you?” He stalked to her, and Thalia took a step back to avoid their chests brushing. “I know you better than you know yourself.”
Thalia’s heart climbed as he leaned closer.
“I know that you hate honey in your tea. I know that your favorite color is blue. And not the blue of the sky—blue like the lakes in the south, where the water is so clear you can see the rocks at the bottom.”
“Shut up,” Thalia whispered, but Cassius kept advancing.
“I know that you would rather spend the day riding Helios than be at court. I know that you hate when Katrina sings those awful songs.”
“Stop it.” Her chest rose and fell, her heart beating against her rib cage.
But Cassius didn’t stop. Her back pressed against a tree as he continued, speaking low, “I know that you would rather cut off your own arm than continue to see Agripa fall into ruin.”
Thalia lifted her chin. “Well, perhaps I should cut it off, then, seeing as you had a hand in its suffering.”
Cassius’s face seemed to ripple like a pebble cast over a stream. Thalia blinked and it was gone. “I did what I had to do.”
“You did nothing,” Thalia hissed. “You betrayed your kingdom, you betrayed me.”
“And you hate me because of it,” Cassius said lowly.
“Hate is not a strong enough word for what I feel for you.”
He smirked, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “When you’re ready to hear what really happened that night, I shall be glad to share it. Perhaps when you’re no longer blinded by your own rage.”
Thalia’s fingers tightened around her blade. It would take nothing to cross the distance between them and plunge it straight into his heart. “Fuck. Off.”
Cassius took a step back, cold air rushing between their bodies as he said, “You’d do well to mind your tongue when you meet His Highness. He’s far less forgiving than I.”
Then he turned his back and stalked into the night.