Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
“You,” Lord Adrian snarled.
Thalia trembled, snatching the blade at her side, but not fast enough. Lord Adrian grabbed her, twisting her arm hard enough behind her back that she yelped.
Everyone stood, the Vampyrs in various shades of transforming as Lord Adrian pushed her into the room.
Cassius’s face had turned stone cold.
“This is what we get from the humans.” Lord Adrian’s unwanted breath was hot in her ear. “We cannot trust them. We cannot trust this treaty.”
“Think about what you’re doing,” Lord Damien said softly, his red eyes moving between them. “You toe the line of treason, Lord Adrian. The prince will not stand for it once he hears of how you threatened his bride.”
“If only the prince were here,” Lord Adrian hissed. He wrenched Thalia’s arm higher and she whimpered, but she didn’t drop her blade.
“Let her go.” Cassius’s words were hardly a whisper.
“Or what?” Lord Adrian snarled.
Cassius’s face hadn’t changed back. If anything, his cheeks had sunk in deeper, black veins running beneath his skin. “Julian wasn’t just banished.”
Lord Adrian stiffened, but his grip remained iron. “What do you mean?”
Cassius smirked, a thing of deadly cruelty. “I had a feeling you might react poorly when you heard of what he’d done. So, before he left Vaccarium, he was taken.”
“Where?”
“Let the princess go, and I’ll tell you.”
Lord Adrian faltered. “You’re lying.”
“Am I?” Cassius growled. “A single word from me and he will meet a fate more gruesome than death—a fate we’ve all been trying to avoid.
” Lord Adrian’s grip loosened slightly. “So I suggest, Lord Adrian, you let Thalia go. Unless you wish to see your son turn into a crazed beast and let loose upon your own House.”
Thalia’s shoulder twinged in pain, another whimper escaping her lips before the Vampyr pushed her forward hard enough that she stumbled.
Cassius caught her immediately before shoving her behind his back. Keegan and Camilla were at her sides, Lord Damien at her back, each closing rank around her.
Lord Adrian cast him a scathing look, nothing but hardened hatred in his eyes. He looked at the other lords. “You all are complicit in this.” Then the Vampyr fled, the few in his entourage scattering with him.
“This meeting is over. Everyone get out. Now,” Cassius rumbled.
All the lords shuffled out, along with their companions. But Lady Decima remained, either oblivious to the rage shaking Cassius or not caring.
“Did you need something, Lady Decima?” Keegan asked softly.
The lady inclined her head, her gaze on Thalia. “I know this isn’t an ideal time”—Cassius snarled, and Lady Decima continued undeterred—“but I must share before I head back to Perden.”
“What is it?” Cassius snapped.
“The Mages have had setbacks,” Lady Decima said.
Cassius stiffened, some of his rage leaving. “By how long?”
“Months.”
Camilla sucked in a sharp breath, and Keegan cursed.
Cassius finally looked at Thalia. He seemed to have gotten his transformation under control, although his face still rippled, turning ashy, then full of color.
His wariness set her anger spiking. He didn’t trust her with whatever information Lady Decima wanted to share. Cassius’s face darkened as he looked away. “Thank you, Lady Decima. I’ll be in touch shortly.”
The leader of House Olvectus inclined her head, then she left.
Thalia glanced around at the remaining members of the prince’s inner circle. “What did you ask of her?” She directed her question at Cassius, wariness be damned.
He flicked his gaze to her, his blue eyes iced over. The rage was back, but this time it was aimed at her. “Do you want to tell me what the fuck you were doing listening in?”
Thalia lifted her chin, ignoring the twinge in her shoulder as she sheathed her blade. “I heard the council meeting had been moved up, and I knew the courts wouldn’t share anything if I was in the room.”
“You could have gotten killed,” he said lowly.
“And I could have gotten killed when I faced that crazed Vampyr,” Thalia countered. “What the hell was that thing? And don’t you dare tell me that it was just sick. There’s something else going on. Something that has to do with the forest and … and some creature?”
The four of them glanced at each other but said nothing.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll just go into the forest and figure it out myself,” Thalia hissed.
“You do that, and you really have a death wish,” Cassius growled.
Thalia lifted her chin, refusing to back down.
“Cass,” Keegan said softly. “We should tell her.”
“I agree,” Lord Damien said, sinking into one of the chairs. It was the first time the pale Vampyr seemed almost tired. “Whether you like it or not, she’s part of this world now. To keep her in the dark further could only endanger her more.”
“Tell me what?” Thalia looked around.
Cassius finally met her gaze. “There’s a reason you were able to track me through Agripa.”
Thalia stared at him, unsure why he was bringing it up now. “What was the reason?”
“I was hunting those who’d turned.”
Thalia couldn’t interpret his words. “You were hunting other Vampyrs?”
Cassius shook his head, his auburn hair sliding with the movement. “Those things are not Vampyrs. Not anymore.”
“What are they?”
“They’ve been turned by something else. A half-crazed animal whose hunger is insatiable. They are the ones who have been causing the Scarecrows in Agripa.”
Thalia’s throat bobbed, her mind flashing to the cellar and the Vampyr who was eating lambs and skinning them. “What is turning them?”
Cassius paused, and Lord Damien supplied, “A creature. Something more terrible than even the Nestos or anything you might have encountered here.”
Thalia flicked her gaze to each member of the prince’s council. “And it dwells in the forest?”
Cassius hesitated, then nodded slowly. “It seemed to have spawned from Chaménos, but with Lucarius having been bitten here …”
Lucarius must have been the sick Vampyr he’d killed. “That’s why you were all so worried, traveling through the forest, why you were so adamant about being quiet?”
“The creature likes to hide in the forest. It makes it near impossible to find. Even our best trackers have difficulty pinning its exact location, and it seems to have a particular fondness for the environment,” Keegan said miserably.
“Can’t you stop it?”
Cassius shook his head. “We have tried, but when we have managed to stumble upon it, it is not easily killed. And those who’ve gone up against it …”
“Are they turned?”
Cassius met her stare. “Its bite causes Vampyrs to go mad. They become rabid, not knowing who or what they are, only that they must feed. But whatever is in the creature’s bite, once it’s in a Vampyr’s system, they can spread it to others.”
“That’s why you said that Julian and Francesca had endangered your people,” Thalia breathed out. “And why Lord Adrian let me go at the thought that his son would be turned into one.”
Cassius’s face hardened. “And it was a good thing he bought the lie.”
Thalia swallowed, her stomach twisting at the thought of what could have happened if the lord hadn’t believed Cassius. “Francesca said they were trying to find a cure. Is there one?”
The muscle in Cassius’s jaw flickered. “Not that we know of.”
Thalia shook her head, her mind whirling with too many questions. “You said the prince was looking for a cure up north with the Mages. Was the story about the barrier cracking even true?”
Cassius met her gaze, something like regret flashing over his features before it was gone. “A Mage did cast a spell to allow us to roam during the day, but no. The shield in place is fine.”
Thalia thought she’d be angry at Cassius for lying yet again, but only curiosity filled her stomach.
“You can’t kill the creature?” Thalia asked.
“Its hide is near impenetrable,” Keegan got out bitterly. “It uses the forest as its own personal battleground. But that’s not the worst we’re now facing.”
“What do you mean?”
Cassius finally sank down onto a chair. Heaviness lay around his shoulders, as if great millstones were wrapped around his neck. “It seems the creature has discovered a way to breed.”
Thalia’s stomach knotted. “Breed?”
“It has birthed or spawned two more of its kind. One was spotted near Cupisco,” Keegan supplied. “The one near Cupisco was small; a number of Vampyrs were able to bring it down, but not before a handful were bitten.”
Good gods.
“What happened to those who were bitten?” Thalia was almost afraid to ask.
Cassius met her gaze. “They were killed.”
Thalia’s heart stuttered, and she closed her eyes. When she finally opened them, Cassius studied her. “And there is no cure, truly?” she asked.
“The water from our sacred springs in Chaménos seems to slow the madness down. At least push off the inevitable for a few months,” Lord Damien said, his own frustration lacing his otherwise stoic demeanor.
“That’s why you really needed our rivers,” Thalia stated.
“Yes,” Cassius sighed. “The springs are the only thing that is giving us some hope that there might be a cure out there. If they dried up, the Vampyrs who’ve been bitten would succumb to their madness sooner and could very well spread it to others quicker.”
“Then why didn’t you tell my mother all this?”
“You of all people should know how the humans in Agripa feel about the Vampyrs.” Cassius’s face flashed in wariness.