Chapter 43
Chapter Forty-Three
“I don’t think I can move,” Thalia murmured, the rain softly pattering against her window.
Cassius chuckled, his arm a comforting band around her waist. “You were ravenous last night. And this morning.”
Thalia flushed, looking over her shoulder.
She’d lost track of how many times he’d buried himself inside her.
How many times she’d tasted his blood until she was sure she’d gone mad.
Only pure exhaustion made them stop. But when morning came, Cassius had woken her with soft kisses along her shoulders, until his tongue had found its way between her legs and she’d screamed his name as she came.
Cassius smirked, a hint of fangs showing. She resisted the urge to prick her finger against them. She cupped his face, feeling his stubble against her palm. “Me? I’m not the one who initiated that.” She nodded to her legs tangled in the sheets.
“I told you.” His voice turned rough and gravelly. “I’ll never get tired of the taste of you.”
He kissed her, and she let herself get lost in him before pulling away. “We shouldn’t do this right now,” she whispered.
Cassius raised a challenging brow.
“I mean it.” She tried to be serious, but couldn’t stop her lips from twitching as he nipped at her neck.
“Cass?”
“Hmm?”
“What are we going to do about my mother?”
Whatever heat was between them died instantly. Cassius slowly raised his head. She didn’t think either of them had really forgotten what had happened the night before.
He sucked in a sharp breath. “We need to take care of that bitten.”
And by take care of, he meant kill.
Dread swirled in her belly, but she pushed it aside. She knew it would be a mercy, but that didn’t stop her stomach from clenching.
“It’s under the chapel?” Cassius asked. Thalia nodded, and he got up, gathering his discarded clothes.
“What are you doing?” she asked as he tugged on his pants.
“Going to take care of what needs to be done.”
“Like fuck I’m letting you go alone.”
“You said she’s in a cage? I’ll be fine.”
Thalia’s heart leapt. “If my mother catches you—”
“She won’t, because you’re going to be distracting her.”
“How?”
Cassius strapped on his sword, his deft fingers tugging on the buckles. “Tell her there’s more she needs to know.”
Thalia faltered. “What?”
“Feed her partial truths.”
Thalia shook her head. “About what? Cass, I don’t know—”
He stepped in front of her, taking her hands in his. “Tell her that you know where the sickness stems from.”
Thalia’s eyes lifted to his. “Why? She can’t know about the creature. She’d try to send her men to capture it.”
“I know. But they won’t be able to get through the forest. The distraction could give us time to get to Vaccarium and figure out what she wants to do with the old trenches.”
Thalia’s stomach knotted tighter, but she slowly nodded.
Cassius squeezed her hand, moving to leave, but she held fast. “If the bitten isn’t there, you don’t go searching for her. You come back here, and we leave.”
Cassius’s face softened, and he bent to kiss her, his lips seeming to memorize her.
Thalia didn’t want to think about whether it was a goodbye or not. “Trust yourself,” he whispered. Then he left, and Thalia just hoped his faith in her was well placed.
Thalia knocked on her mother’s door.
The white wood gleamed, and she ignored the two soldiers standing watch outside. Thalia waited, picking at the skin around her nails.
Immediately she scowled, but she forced herself to smile as Kamith opened the door.
“Thalia.” Kamith inclined his head. “I was just advising your mother.”
Advising or fucking?
Based on his disheveled head and the fact that his doublet wasn’t buttoned properly, she had a feeling she knew. It made her stomach knot further.
“I’d like to speak to her. There’s—there’s something she needs to know.”
Kamith held up a hand to wait a moment and closed the door in her face.
Thalia huffed, her fingers picking her thumbs, until the door opened again. She glanced at Kamith as he left, then turned her attention to the woman before her.
The queen sat in her sitting area, a set of tea laid out before her.
She wore an emerald gown, the color rich on her pale skin.
But in the hazy morning light, Thalia noted that her skin appeared even more haggard than the night before.
The lines around her mouth were more pronounced, as were the circles under her eyes.
She looked old. Far older than Thalia remembered.
“Kamith said there’s something you wanted to tell me?” the queen said, her words clipped.
Thalia shuffled into the room, taking a glance around. The last time she’d been in here, her mother had given her the order to take down the Vampyr kingdom.
Thalia swallowed, tucking her hands behind her back so she wouldn’t pick at them. “I—I know what causes the sickness.”
The queen looked up, interested. “Oh?” Thalia nodded. “And why are you just now telling me this? Had a change of heart?”
“You could say that.”
The queen raised an unbelieving brow. “According to the gossiping servants, it seems that your heart hasn’t changed at all, given last night’s escapades with a certain Vampyr.”
Thalia’s cheeks heated with embarrassment, but she pushed it aside. “And what of your own escapades with your adviser?”
The queen waved a hand. “Please, don’t be a child.”
Thalia stiffened but bit her tongue to keep her retort in.
The queen looked at her again. “Well? Get on with it. What causes the sickness you’ve been so eager to avoid discussing?”
Thalia’s fingernails pierced her palms. “A creature.”
The queen froze, her eyes slowly sliding to her daughter’s. “A creature?” Thalia nodded. “What sort of creature?”
“One that dwells in Chaménos, the forest bordering our realms. It’s nothing like anything I’ve ever seen. It’s nothing like anything in this world. They say it was made.”
Something flashed in the queen’s eyes, but it was gone in an instance. “Made?”
Thalia nodded once more, and something tugged in the center of her chest. A strange pull she couldn’t place.
“Something created it. The Mages—” She faltered, then pushed ahead. The Mages weren’t a secret, not one whose existence would be threatened, anyway. “They said that this creature was made by magic, that some Mage must have turned to darkness to create it.”
Thalia paused, watching her mother. The queen had just sunk against the couch, eyes contemplative.
That tugging was insistent now, as if a string were tied around Thalia’s breastbone.
“You don’t seem shocked,” Thalia got out.
The queen flicked her attention back to her daughter. “The Mages are of no concern to me.”
“You know about them?”
“Everyone from Vaccarium knows about them.”
Everyone from …
Thalia sucked in a sharp breath, the tug intensifying so hard she could barely think. Maybe that was why her mother’s words weren’t making sense. “What?”
The queen stood, pacing slightly, then she turned suddenly. “And this creature, what does it look like?” Thalia shook her head, mumbling off the description. “And the prince?”
Thalia’s head spun. “What about him?”
“You say he’s often away from court? That you haven’t seen him?”
Thalia shook her head. “No. No there’s always an excuse as to why he’s gone—”
The queen let out a laugh and clapped her hands, a smile breaking across her face. “How excellent.”
“What are you talking about?”
The queen crossed the floor, and Thalia didn’t know how to react as her mother gripped her hands, nearly giddy with joy. “You have done very well, Thalia.” The queen smiled brighter than the sun. “Very well indeed.”
“I don’t understand.”
The queen shook her head, her hand cupping Thalia’s face.
“Never mind that. The prince is gone. For good. The courts will soon fall if they aren’t already in chaos, based on what you’ve told me.
The creature’s poison will spread, especially once I’ve captured more Vampyrs and turned them thanks to the bitten under the chapel.
We’ve done it, Thalia. We’ve destroyed them. ”
Thalia’s stomach knotted like a noose. “You mean to send an army of bitten Vampyrs into Vaccarium?”
The queen stepped back, making her way to the window.
“I thought that once the prince had been cursed, the lack of rule would lead to a civil war. But I suppose I should have realized that there needed to be more. Then Reina captured that Vampyr, one who seemed … different than the rest. I knew it wasn’t well; I’ve been having Marcus look into the old trenches to see if we might continue to push through under the forest.”
Thalia had gone cold, her fingertips numb. “There are children there.”
The queen turned. “What?”
“Children.” Thalia’s voice harshened. “In Vaccarium. Innocents. You mean to slaughter an entire populace? For what? Because of what happened to our family?”
“Our family was the least of my worries.”
Her words stopped Thalia short. The callousness with which the queen spoke, as though her own husband and daughter were of little consequence, shocked Thalia’s senses. “But they—they were murdered.”
“Yes.” The queen’s eyes sharpened. “By the very creatures who killed my own kin.”
“What are you talking about?” The tug on Thalia’s chest had her stumbling forward. “Your family lives in Mandecium.”
“My family,” the queen said slowly, “lived in Vaccarium before the prince decided that my father had grown too powerful. Before he decided to have both my mother and younger brother beheaded alongside my father. I fled my home and escaped to Mandecium. I was taken in by a family there who I didn’t know were so influential.
Who would later pawn me off to your sire like a brood mare in exchange for money,” she spat.
Horror mounted as Thalia stared at her mother. At someone she didn’t recognize. “What was your father?”
Not who. What.
The queen’s eyes seemed to glow. “A Mage.”
Thalia’s throat tightened hard enough that she choked. “Did you make that creature?”
The queen cocked her head. “No. At least not intentionally. I’d hoped to strike the prince down, and in a way, I suppose I did.”
Thalia could hardly breathe as the queen ran a hand over her bodice.
“It was actually your friend Marcus who gave me the idea. In searching for a solution to the ore, he’d discovered some very interesting books within the library, ones that had been given to us when the Vampyrs and humans of Agripa coexisted.
They talked about the magic of the Mages.
I’ll admit, I wasn’t very keen on my father’s teachings, and after his murder I’d nearly forgotten everything he’d taught me.
But those books opened my eyes to the pockets of magic left over.
But using it drained me. Nearly killed me. ”
Thalia’s mind flashed back to five years ago when her mother had gotten so ill Thalia had thought she’d die. She’d always assumed it had something to do with their depleting ore, but now …
Thalia was going to be sick.
Everything made sense. The reason the prince had been so absent, why his council kept changing their stories. Perhaps they’d known what had happened but were trying to keep the panic from spreading.
The creature who terrorized them in the woods was their own prince.
“But now we get to sit back and watch as the Vampyrs destroy themselves, as the poison spreads.” The queen sank into her couch, triumph flashing across her features. “Thank you, Thalia. I am proud of you.”
Thalia felt her whole world shifting.
A knock on the queen’s door had her jerking.
Kamith poked his head in. “Your Majesty, I have what you asked for.”
“Good, bring them in.”
Them.
Thalia shook her head, and her world completely slipped out from under her as two soldiers dragged Cassius into the room and Reina stepped in with the bitten Vampyr.