Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
They rode hard through the forest, skirting the edge of Irenbis. Even in the night-covered sky, Thalia could have sworn she saw the smoke coming from the castle—saw the light from the fires as they cracked the infrastructure of the palace.
Their horses didn’t slow until they’d put enough distance between themselves and the castle that both Keegan and Cassius relaxed.
“Why the fuck would they do that?” Thalia asked. Her words came out in a sharp whisper. They were deep in another part of the forest, the leaves thick and droopy. She didn’t want to think about what sorts of creatures stalked through the night or if any more creatures had somehow spawned.
“I knew Lord Adrian was already angry, but the council meeting must have pushed him over the edge,” Cassius said behind her. Despite the blood covering his hands, they were a comfort she allowed a small part of herself to indulge in as they wrapped around the reins.
“He’s a fool,” Keegan said ahead of him. “Burning the castle will only anger the prince. It’s a grievance that won’t go unnoticed.”
“What’s going to happen?” Thalia pushed. Keegan looked at Cassius, and while she couldn’t see his face, she had a feeling he clenched his jaw.
“There’s only been one other uprising before,” Cassius finally said. “When Vampyrs pitted themselves against each other.”
“When was this?”
“Long ago. It was an uprising between the pure-blooded and half-blooded. But the courts reformed themselves to ensure no Vampyr could take control,” Keegan supplied.
“The courts have been rocky since the creature emerged,” Cassius rumbled, his chest brushing against her back.
“Lord Adrian has been unhappy. It was his men who were sent out the most into the forest to search for a cure outside of House Lorenzia.” Thalia swallowed, and Cassius squeezed one of her hands.
“House Lorenzia is all but gone. With the prince’s absence, I don’t know how long the other courts will be content to sit by and watch. ”
“I’d say considering tonight, that time has come,” Keegan said dryly.
“Aren’t the courts supposed to support House Lorenzia?” Thalia turned in her seat.
Cassius focused on the path, but he glanced down to meet her gaze. “Yes, the courts are all pledged to the prince. But with any rule, there are always usurpers.”
“Surely there must be some courts who are aligned with House Lorenzia still?”
“House Olvectus,” Keegan said, twisting in his saddle. “They’ve always supported the prince. No matter what.”
“What of House Avanerius?” Thalia asked, thinking of Lord Damien. “Camilla said they have always been aligned with House Lorenzia.”
Cassius shook his head. “They have been. But I fear if the courts start turning on House Lorenzia, they would side with House Gallinus only so they wouldn’t find themselves pitted against them all.
While the pure-bloods have always been more apathetic when it comes to matters of state and have served the prince, Lord Adrian’s influence has spread deep. ”
“Even though Lord Damien is on the prince’s council?” Thalia said.
“Even then,” Cassius admitted. “Regardless, House Lorenzia was beginning to crack. We’d hoped that the treaty with Agripa would staunch some of the grumblings, that it would show the people that we are trying to find a cure. We’d hope the rivers replenishing the springs would be taken as that.”
“Fear breeds distrust,” Thalia murmured.
Cassius cursed. “I should have thought of this sooner. I should have known that Lord Adrian would try to force a coup.”
Thalia heard the bitter regret coating his words and turned to face him.
She squeezed his arm, forcing him to meet her eyes.
“This isn’t your fault.” Cassius’s eyes flashed, something she couldn’t quite pinpoint in his gaze.
“What Lord Adrian did was because of his own desperate sense of self-righteousness. This would have happened regardless of whether the prince was here or not.”
“She’s right,” Keegan said over his shoulder. “Lord Adrian has always been brash. He wasn’t happy when you came along and joined the prince’s council. Less happy once you booted him off, not to mention this treaty between the humans. It was only a matter of time before he did something.”
Cassius didn’t relax, and Thalia squeezed his arm once more.
He stared down at her, and she nodded, just once, to show she understood why he felt the way he did.
His sense of duty, of honor, still bled even under a different set of skin.
And when she leaned her head back against her chest, it was also a message.
One that conveyed that she was there if he needed to talk, whenever that was.
“Where do we go from here?” Thalia asked. Cassius relaxed slightly as they navigated deeper into the forest.
“We should go back to the humans,” Keegan said.
Thalia stiffened. “No.”
“Why not?” The golden-eyed Vampyr turned over his shoulder.
Thalia swallowed, her throat suddenly sticking to the roof of her mouth. “My mother won’t care; she won’t help. She’s gotten the ore. Despite what still needs to be mined in the mountain, Agripa will have enough to last ten years or more.”
“Surely she’d care about her daughter?” Keegan’s brows narrowed in confusion.
Thalia felt it then, a mere brush of Cassius’s thumb running along the back of her hand—a quiet understanding and reassurance.
It gave her the courage to say, “My mother and I have had our difficulties in the past. And frankly, given the tension between our two worlds, even if she did care about my safety in being returned to Agripa, she wouldn’t help you. ”
“So we’re on our own?” Keegan’s words were bitter.
“Not quite,” Thalia said.
The two Vampyrs exchanged a glance before Cassius’s chin grazed the side of her head. “What do you mean?”
Thalia shifted, pulling the satchel still strapped around her shoulders into her lap. She opened it, revealing the three sets of jars and poisoned teeth nestled inside.
“What is it?” Keegan asked, too far ahead to see what she carried.
“You went back for that?” Cassius’s words were a sharp exhale.
Thalia stiffened, closing up the satchel. “Yes.”
“I thought Keegan told you to get to the stables,” Cassius gritted out.
“I didn’t know what Lord Adrian or Julian would do if they found them,” Thalia snapped, suddenly wishing his arms weren’t wrapped around her waist. She didn’t want to dwell on the fact that her first thought in the moment hadn’t been for herself but on what would happen to the Vampyrs if Lord Adrian got the poison.
“Julian,” Keegan sneered. “If I see that prick again, I’ll rip his heart out myself.”
“I don’t think he’s going to be a problem anymore,” Thalia got out.
“What do you mean?” Keegan asked.
Thalia swallowed, already feeling Cassius tense behind her. “When I was leaving the chamber, Julian found me.”
Cassius tightened the reins hard enough that Feryena’s head jerked up. Thalia scowled, prying his fingers off the reins, only to save her poor horse. But that meant his viselike grip went to her waist.
Thalia ignored the shiver rocking down her spine. Now certainly wasn’t the time.
“And you killed him?” Keegan said in disbelief.
“No, I didn’t. But I think the creature did.”
“What creature?” Keegan shook his head in confusion.
Cassius sucked in a sharp breath. “It found you down there?”
Thalia nodded, and at Keegan’s exasperated face, she quietly explained how she woke up with the beast on her chest, its neck trying to re-form into a head.
Keegan looked like he was going to be sick. Granted, after sharing everything, Thalia felt her own nausea rise in her stomach.
“I burned the head,” Keegan said. “Right after you extracted all the teeth.”
“Well, it somehow is able to re-form,” Thalia countered, trying and failing to push aside the image of its skin twisting like vines.
“It would make sense, then, why it’s so hard to kill. It’s regenerating.” Cassius spoke.
“Which means that you have to burn everything for it to remain dead,” Thalia finished.
“Well, let’s hope it died in the fire, along with Julian,” Keegan muttered.
Thalia nodded her agreement. She didn’t want to think about how it had somehow found her, even in the midst of the chaos. The fact that it’d touched its nose to her chest in Irenbis, almost like it was taking in her scent—marking her.
“You said that Camilla can somehow use the teeth?” Thalia asked, and Keegan nodded. “Then we go to her. Maybe see if those Mages can do something about it.”
“Having the shifters on our side if it does come to the courts turning fully wouldn’t be bad,” Keegan mused.
Thalia swallowed. A war between the Vampyr courts would be exactly the type of intel her mother would kill to have. Her stomach twisted, her mission flickering like a candle about to burn out. “Isn’t the prince there anyways?”
Cassius stiffened behind her, the movement so subtle she wouldn’t have noticed if she hadn’t been leaning against him. “Yes.”
“Then we kill two birds with one stone. Take the teeth to Camilla, see if she can use them for something, maybe an antidote?” She’d heard stories from farmers who’d been bitten by snakes, how the venom used to poison them had also been used to cure them.
“So we head to Perden.” Keegan nodded.
Perden.
Thalia didn’t know what to expect from House Olvectus, but she had a feeling she’d discover a lot more than just shifters.
“Where are we?” Thalia squinted at the run-down inn before them. A light drizzle had started, the air hanging with a thick mist as they dismounted at the muddy outpost.
“Arein,” Cassius said, pulling his hood over his head. “Twenty miles from Irenbis.”
Thalia didn’t like that they were still so close to the capital, but given that both Cassius and Keegan seemed ready to fall off their horses, it would have to do.
“I’ll see to the horses,” Keegan said, grabbing the reins to lead them into the stable around the back.