Epilogue
Three months later
“I swear, are you even listening?”
Thalia jerked, banging her knee against the top of the desk in her office. She hissed, shaking her head to try to clear her thoughts. But it was rather hard considering the sensation currently traveling up her thighs. “What?”
Camilla stood before her, golden eyes narrowed. She held a cream letter in her dark hand, but Thalia couldn’t make out the wax seal. “I said that House Gallinus will not be attending your coronation.”
Thalia shook her head once more, trying to calm her rising heartbeat. “Oh.” She ignored the huff coming from between her legs. Her heart rate spiked.
“How do you want me to reply?” Camilla tilted her head.
Thalia paused, chewing the inside of cheek.
House Gallinus seemed more opposed to her upcoming coronation than any other House.
After Lord Adrian had slunk back to Cupisco, he’d been …
quiet. But that didn’t mean winning over the other Houses had been easy, even with the cure now spreading throughout Vaccarium and the bitten Vampyrs being cured.
It had taken months and countless meetings with the other Houses to regain some degree of their trust. At least for now they seemed resigned to the fact that she’d be ruler of Vaccarium, but she still had a long way to go if she ever hoped to be seen as their true ruler.
Later. She’d deal with that later.
“Just leave it,” Thalia finally said. “I’ll figure it out—” She sucked in a sharp breath, fingers tightening on the arms of her chair. Tiny fires erupted along her skin, setting her core molten. She tried to clamp her thighs together, but there was a pressure currently keeping them open.
Camilla raised a brow but set the letter on the desk. Before she left, the shifter turned. “Oh, tell Cassius to hurry up. The Houses will be here tomorrow, and we still have a lot to prepare for.”
She left, closing the door to Thalia’s new bedroom behind her.
Thalia shoved back her chair, yanking up the hem of her dress. “You couldn’t have waited until after she was gone?”
Cassius sat back on his heels, a faint hint of fangs gleaming. “And waste what little time we have before the shitstorm arrives?” Thalia glared at him, and he smirked. “Forgive me, Princess, for wanting to ensure you’re entirely relaxed and taken care of before your coronation.”
He leaned forward once more, blue eyes set with such intent that Thalia resisted the urge to open her legs again.
“Camilla’s right,” Thalia got out, staring at the letter on her desk. Cassius paused. “There’s still so much to do before the rest of the courts get here.”
Cassius flicked his gaze up, challenge evident on his handsome face. “Good thing I work fast.”
Thalia couldn’t help the smirk that came to her lips. Cassius started pushing the folds of her gown aside, but she stopped him. “How do I reply?”
“Don’t.”
Thalia gripped his wrist, forcing his attention back to her. “I can’t not reply, Cass. All the Houses were summoned. House Gallinus is choosing to ignore it—ignore me.”
Cassius’s brows narrowed, but he rose, grabbing the letter Camilla had left behind. He leaned against the desk, scanning the contents.
Finally, he said, “Well, Lord Adrian was at least … polite in his refusal to show. I doubt he wrote it, given the flowery prose.”
Thalia snorted, but all humor died as she stared at the wax emblem of a stag with eight legs on it. “The other Houses will recognize this as an act of defiance.”
Cassius set the letter aside. “The other Houses are not as stupid as House Gallinus. They know you are the reason we have a cure.”
Except they didn’t know to what extent.
Having to explain to the other Houses that the only reason Thalia was the cure was because her mother had dabbled in dark magic and created the creature in the first place wasn’t something that she, or the prince’s former council, was keen to experience.
Especially with the tentative peace between the humans of Agripa and Vaccarium still on unsure footing.
As if Cassius knew where her mind had wandered, he asked, “You still haven’t heard from them?”
Thalia chewed the inside of her cheek. “I sent a letter. To both Reina and Marcus. But there’s been nothing.”
Cassius shifted. “Have they tried to stir up anything in Agripa?”
Thalia shook her head. Before the queen had gone to Chaménos to try to stop Thalia and the Vampyrs, she’d spun a web of lies about Thalia murdering her adviser and attempting to take the crown by force. But the queen was gone—dead. Buried in Chaménos along with the creature.
The remaining members of the queen’s council didn’t really know what had happened when Cassius and Thalia went to the castle three months prior. Only Reina and Marcus knew the true extent of what had gone down in the queen’s sitting room. Yet the lies that Thalia’s mother had spread went deep.
And even though by birthright, Thalia was the next ruler of Agripa, that didn’t mean she could waltz back to Agripa and take the throne.
Agripa was being ruled by the remaining members of her mother’s council, but Thalia continued to send ore.
Continued to keep up the treaty her mother had signed when she bound her daughter to the prince of Vaccarium.
“I thought that Marcus would be more inclined to listen to my side of things.” Thalia pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t know what sort of lies my mother told Reina for her to … act the way she did.”
Her mind flashed back to that day, to the way Reina stood protecting her mother against her. The memory made her sick.
Cassius gently grabbed her hand, pulling it away from her face. “They can’t ignore you forever.”
“It feels like they will,” she muttered.
Cassius made a face. “Once all of this is over, we’ll go back. Explain ourselves.”
“And if they don’t accept me as ruler?” Thalia flicked her gaze to his.
Cassius threaded his fingers through hers. “At least they’ll know the truth. At least they’ll know that Vaccarium has no desire to further the war between our peoples. Agripa can rest easy knowing that the Vampyrs will continue to send ore and leave them be.”
Thalia sighed. Yes, she supposed Cassius was right. But one problem at a time. “Are the rooms set up for everyone who will be arriving?”
Cassius nodded, squeezing her hand. “Yes. Keegan and Lord Damien have it all sorted. Don’t worry about that. The Houses are spread out throughout the castle to avoid … any future disagreements.”
Thalia snorted. House Lorenzia had been rebuilt in a short few months in the aftermath of Lord Adrian’s attack.
She supposed the magic the Mages wielded was good for one thing: speeding up construction so that she and the prince’s former council didn’t need to stay in Perden with the rest of the Mages and shifters.
But it would be the first time in months that all the Houses saw House Lorenzia. Saw that the prince and his home had not died within the fires set by Lord Adrian but had risen from its ashes.
Thalia had her work cut out for her.
“I suppose I should see what else needs to be done,” Thalia grumbled, preparing to stand.
There’d be a whole week of feasting and dining before the coronation, which would happen during the full moon.
She was still confused on all the customs that would go into a Vampyr coronation, but she figured she should find Camilla so they could review it all … again.
“Or we could do something … else,” Cassius said.
Thalia raised a brow. “We don’t have time for something else.”
Cassius smirked, the sharp point of his fang setting a fire in her belly. “I’m not referring to that. Although, glad to know where your priorities lie, Princess.”
She huffed out a breath. “Then what are you referring to?”
“The courts won’t be here until tomorrow. But there’s something I think we should do first. The rest of the council agree.”
Thalia made a face. “What is it?”
Cassius held out a scarred hand. “Let me show you.”
Thalia wasn’t sure how long she sat in the carriage as it rumbled away from the castle of Irenbis, but all of a sudden it rolled to a stop and Cassius pushed the door open, hopping out before he offered her a hand.
Thalia sucked in a sharp breath. “Why are we here?”
Chaménos stretched before her, its silver trunks and crimson leaves twining together to create a wall of impenetrable forest.
Cassius met her stare. “Do you trust me?”
Thalia nodded without hesitation, even though the forest sent a chill down her spine. “Always.”
Cassius offered a small smile, although he seemed to fidget as Feryena was brought forward. “Good.”
But he didn’t say anything more as she mounted and he swung up behind her. He clicked his tongue, and Feryena set off, heading into the tree line.
Thalia grew tenser the deeper they went.
She could practically smell the smoke from the fire her mother had started, feel the heat of the flames as they licked at her and Cassius’s heels. As the poison from the creature slowly began driving him mad—
“Easy,” he murmured, his lips brushing against her temple. “Nothing bad is going to happen. I have you.”
Thalia swallowed, forcing herself to relax into him. “I wish you would just tell me what we’re doing here—”
Her words died as they broke through the trunks and Cassius pulled Feryena to a stop.
Five pools stretched before her. But instead of remaining dry patches of earth scorched from the burning of the creature’s eggs, they were full of glittering water.
The incinerated trees had re-formed, either from the Mages’ help or the forest’s own pockets of wild magic.
Flowers had bloomed, white and full petaled, each one nearly as big as her head.
They hung from the branches of the trees like dewdrops, their fragrance tickling her nose.
“What the hell?” she got out as she realized they weren’t alone in the forest. Keegan appeared, as did Lord Damien and Camilla. They all stood around a pool whose surface sparkled like liquid starlight.