Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Fresh air was what she needed. The only problem? Cassius had been serious about her staying in the castle.
She’d tried to go to the stables, only to be turned away by the guards at the door.
“Let me through.” Thalia lifted her gaze to the two guards. She couldn’t very well see their features behind their onyx helmets.
“Orders are for you to stay indoors,” the one on the right said.
Thalia’s lip curled. She was well aware of who’d implemented those orders. “Do you know where the prince’s council is?” They’d been called away for whatever reason she wasn’t allowed to know of.
“They are busy in the throne room and are not to be disturbed,” the guard on the left said.
Fine. Despite wanting to cool off with a ride on Feryena, maybe she could find more answers in the library without Camilla watching her like a hawk, now that the council was distracted.
Thalia didn’t run into any other Vampyr as she hurried through the castle, passing the strange armor and bare walls.
She needed to do two things when she got to the library. The first was researching sickness. Cassius had said the Vampyr who’d nearly killed her was sick, but she’d never seen such a sickness before. Not to mention Julian and Francesca had said they were holding out for a cure.
The second was to pen another letter to her mother.
Thalia silently cursed; she should have ensured that Cassius had sent out the first one and not assumed he would.
She pushed the thought to the side. For now, she made a mental note to get a map of Irenbis and Vaccarium.
At least that would help her figure out where exactly the other Houses were.
Thalia slowed when she reached the wing of the palace that led to the library. But instead of taking the right hall, her feet turned left, venturing to a part she’d yet to explore.
The hallway stretched with blood-red carpets, and sconces on the walls cast eerie shadows. But walking had helped clear her head.
Thalia slowed again as she came to a set of double doors.
She frowned. She knew the library wasn’t behind it, but without thinking, she pushed open the door.
She blinked, trying to adjust her eyes to the darkness of the room.
The bedchamber she’d entered was empty, and Thalia flicked on the lights. The ore in the glass lamps flickered, and Thalia’s eyes widened.
The bedchamber was massive, at least twice the size of hers, though the red wallpaper was similar to the damask wall coverings of her own room. The bed was a behemoth made of black onyx, with sheets the color of dying rose petals.
“What the hell?” Thalia whispered, journeying farther into the room. She moved to the drapes, tugging them aside to allow more light to filter in. Dust motes hung in the air before floating like snowflakes to the ground.
Thalia frowned as she took in the items of the room. There was a sitting area to her right, same as in her room, but larger. No adornments sat atop the marble fireplace mantel, although the fireplace itself was large enough she could crawl inside it.
She moved to the dresser. A thin layer of dust covered a bottle of cologne and a jeweled box carelessly arranged on the top. She opened the drawers, rifling around the pressed silk shirts and trousers.
Thalia’s stomach clenched as she glanced at the bed. Given the size of it along with the ornateness of the room, she had a sinking feeling she knew exactly whose room she was snooping in.
Without making a sound, she hurried to a door that opened into a study. The space was just as ostentatious as the bedroom, with a dark desk taking up the middle of the room. Floor-to-ceiling bookcases lined the back wall, and an arched window allowed the strangely overcast sky’s light to filter in.
Well, at least she had a map.
A map of all of Vaccarium stretched over the desk’s dark surface. Thalia took it all in.
It seemed that each capital city was marked by its House’s symbol.
House Lorenzia, indicated by the raven with three eyes, presided over the territory on the east side of the continent, just north of the forest that separated Agripa from Vaccarium.
To the west of House Lorenzia was House Avanerius, with its ram’s head with four horns; north of that was House Santorien and its ampithere.
At the tip of the continent was a fox with multiple teeth, identifying Perden, the capital of House Olvectus, along with the mountain it resided by.
Finally, above House Lorenzia was House Gallinus, marked by the stag with eight legs.
Its capital city, Cupisco, was situated deep in the heart of a dense forest—
I’m going to marry into the House that’s near the forest!
The breath knocked out of her, and she caught herself, spilling a pot of ink that bled all over the desk.
The black ink spread, blotting out House Gallinus in the process.
It—it couldn’t be possible. She would have connected the dots sooner. Oh gods, House Gallinus exported timber because of their woods—
Thalia took a sharp inhale through her nose, trying to calm her racing heart. There was … there was no way that House Gallinus was the House her sister had been engaged to.
Her mind whirled, trying to remember that night her sister had been murdered. Trying to recall the details of the Vampyrs who came—
Thalia squeezed her eyes so tight that spots danced. All she saw was Ariadna’s unseeing eyes; her neck, jagged and ripped open like an unstuffed doll.
Sweat beaded along her brow, and she pushed aside the bile gathering in her throat as the memory of that night hit her in full force.
“No, no, no,” Thalia screamed. Her hands were slick with her sister’s blood. It gushed over her fingers, making them slippery as she tried to reattach Ariadna’s head. Her beautiful golden hair, which had been braided with flowers, was soaked in viscous fluid.
“Get the queen out!” someone else screamed—maybe her father.
Too much was happening. The throne room erupted in chaos. Guards were trying to fight off the Vampyrs—the ones who’d fully given over to their bloodlust and were preying on the courtiers gathered for the wedding.
“We need to go.” Someone gripped her arm, a guard whose name she didn’t recall.
“Save her!” Thalia sobbed, tears mixing with the blood on her hands.
“Get them out!” another roared.
Thalia was hauled to her feet, her silk slippers soaked in the rising gore, her hem ruined and stained brighter than wine. Ariadna had picked out the gown herself.
“Get the queen and princess out!” It was her father, screaming at the guards as the Vampyr who would have been her sister’s husband faced him. The guards were trying to get the royal family out of the throne room, trying to seal the Vampyrs inside even though there were still innocents there.
The queen joined Thalia, her crown lost, eyes white with fear. She grabbed Thalia hard enough to bruise.
“Ariadna!” Thalia yelled until her vocal chords shredded. She turned, trying to get back into the room, trying to get to her sister.
But all she saw beyond the guards forming rank around the two of them was her father.
Her father, whose eyes widened as he stared down at his chest—at the hand protruding from it.
Then his spine splattered to the floor, and he collapsed.
“No!” the queen screamed.
The doors to the throne room closed, leaving only chaos trapped inside—
“I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Camilla’s bright voice appeared behind her, far too cheerful for the misery hanging over Thalia’s neck like an axe.
“A servant said they saw you heading to the library, but this clearly isn’t the library, so what are you—” The shifter’s words died as Thalia slowly raised her head.
She hadn’t even realized tears were streaming down her cheeks until the water landed on her curled fists. “Who were they?” she got out.
Camilla’s face flashed. “Who was who?”
“Don’t play dumb,” Thalia snarled. “Who were the Vampyrs that came thirteen years ago to Agripa? Which House were they a part of?”
Camilla froze, glancing at the ruined map on the desk. “Do you really want to know?”
“If you do not tell me this second, I will carve it out of you.” Thalia jerked away from the desk, her hands sticky with ink—with the phantom weight of blood. “Who were they?”
The shifter didn’t back down as Thalia stopped before her. Camilla’s eyes hardened. “House Gallinus.”
Thalia felt the words land, punching deeper than a blade. She turned, the walls spinning and warping like the dirty edges of a mirror.
“Thalia?” Camilla’s words came in and out, the shifter’s voice garbled as if she spoke underwater. “Thalia?”
Thalia bolted.
She ran out of the room, her boots skidding across the stone. Her anger fueled her, each footfall reverberating up her leg, filling her lungs with white-hot rage. She skidded around the corner, her shoulder barking as she slammed into the wall with enough force the sconces shook.
No one stood watch outside the throne room. But Thalia didn’t care, not as she burst through the doors and her eyes landed on the one Vampyr she sought.
“You.” Thalia locked eyes on Lord Adrian. The leader of House Gallinus stood off to the side, watching something that was going on in the middle of the room.
Thalia didn’t care.
She’d gut the lord from head to navel, pulling out his intestines for the vultures to pick at. Then she’d sever his head and spike it on the castle wall for all to see what her wrath had brought.
She’d taken one step toward the Vampyr when someone blocked her.
“Get out of my way,” Thalia growled at Cassius.
“What is the meaning of this?” Lord Adrian hissed in outrage. It only stoked the fire inside Thalia more.
“I don’t know what happened,” Cassius said lowly, all memory of their heated exchange the night before forgotten. “But come with me and you can tell me. I can fix it.”
“Fix it?” Thalia barked, her laughter acidic on her tongue. “The only way to fix it is to kill him.” She flung out a finger, her hand shaking so badly it wavered like the edge of a knife.
“Trust me, I would like nothing more than to kill him too, Princess. Unfortunately killing a lord would cause chaos in the courts.”
“I don’t care.” Thalia’s eyes burned, her arm dropping to the side. “Kill him.”
Cassius took a step closer, the scent of his skin breaking through her rage. He still smelled like the sun and earth. “Tell me what happened, and maybe we can come up with something else that won’t cause civil war.”
“He was—he killed—” Thalia choked, her eyes blurring so hard she could hardly see the Vampyr who’d damned her family.
“Cassius.” Keegan’s cautious voice spoke somewhere in the room. Shuffling echoed, and a deep grunt that Thalia couldn’t place.
“I don’t know who he killed, but I can guess,” Cassius said softly, gently taking her arm. “But you can’t be in here.”
At Cassius’s words, Thalia finally took in the room.
All the prince’s council except Camilla were there, along with Lord Adrian and … another Vampyr.
This one knelt in the middle of the room, and Lord Damien stood above them. The red-eyed Vampyr had transformed, his skin sunken in and ashy. Veins ran beneath his thin flesh, his fangs exposed, as he stared at the Vampyr on their knees.
“What’s going on?” Thalia got out.
“You need to go,” Cassius said again in that same gentle tone, trying to guide her out.
“What the hell is going on?” Thalia jerked out of his grip, stumbling past him.
She hadn’t noticed that the Vampyr on the ground was hunched over, his left hand splayed out on the ground.
His hand was broken, each finger twisted and bent at an odd angle, and blood was pooling, soaking the throne room floor. In his right hand was a hammer.
“Get her out!” Lord Adrian hissed again. “Lord Damien, finish this.”
Thalia watched in horror as Lord Damien’s face rippled and the Vampyr on the ground raised the hammer before smashing it onto his already broken hand.
The Vampyr groaned, tears streaking down his face as he raised the hammer again and brought it down with a sickening crunch.
“Stop this,” Thalia whispered, frozen as the Vampyr continued to ruin his hand. He had no control of his movements. No control to stop whatever torture he was under. Just like she’d had no control when that Vampyr killed her sister. “Stop this now.”
“You wished to be a part of this world? To be ruler?” Lord Adrian said between the sounds of bones shattering. “You wished to call this place your home?” Lord Adrian flashed a snake smile, his own features rippling. “Welcome to it.”
“Thalia, please.” Cassius grabbed her arm, tugging lightly. His face was pained, but something else flashed in his irises—deep-rooted anger. She didn’t know if it was directed at her or at someone else in the room.
All the fight left her as Cassius began to lead her out.
“Now, where did you see the bitten?” Keegan’s voice was soft, almost like he felt sorry for what was being done. But she didn’t hear the other Vampyr’s reply as the throne room doors shut, sealing the prince’s council inside.