by Sara Thorn
“Hey, Bree,” I said when I found her sitting out in the gardens amongst the wildflowers. I could tell that she missed the forest, and as much as she wanted to stay close to Quinn, she really wanted to get back to the wilderness. She wasn’t just sitting near the flower beds; she was sitting in them.
“Hey,” she said as she looked up and smiled at me.
“I was hoping you could shed light on something for me,” I said as I crouched down next to her.
“What is it?”
Her eyes looked almost orange in the sunlight. I wondered if she was using one of those fae glamours to change her appearance. Perhaps Quinn was giving her magical lessons to practice.
“I was reading an old manuscript that I found in the library room of the castle, and it mentioned something about a prophecy.”
Bree tilted her head to the side as she looked at me. I had no idea if a prophecy would even be something written in a book, so there was a chance that she could already tell I was lying.
“I didn’t know there was a library here,” she said. “I definitely want to see it. Books would make some of the time here pass faster.”
Whew. She believes me.
“I’d be happy to show you where it is,” I offered. At least the part about there being a library here was true. I had passed by its open doors a few days ago.
“What was the prophecy about?” she asked.
I hadn’t thought about it, but there were probably lots of prophecies in existence, and if she was really a seer, then she probably knew a great many of them. Assuming, of course, that any of them were real and not just complete nonsense.
“It was about a dhampir who would unite and rule over the human world and the supernatural world. Have you heard about that one?”
Bree stared at me, and all of the flowers around her seemed to suddenly bend their heads toward her.
Yep, she’s heard about it.
Chapter Sixteen
“Where have you been?” Cassius asked as he walked toward me and leaned forward to kiss my lips. “I was looking for you earlier this morning.”
“Oh, I was just out taking a walk. I like to drink in some of the fresh air before training, especially while the air is so cool outside.” That was all a lie. I had spent the last two hours in Boston with Quinn.
Cassius smiled at me. “I’m glad you’re back from your walk now. Do you want to train with me?”
“Sure,” I said, eager to work on some more moves with him. There wasn’t really any need to keep up with the warrior fighting skills since Mystreuce rested in peace now, but I never knew when something like “how to throw someone on their back” might come in handy.
I loved training with Cassius, mostly because our bodies were entwined the entire time. Even if it was fighting, it was still touching. It was the perfect day in the courtyard to be outside. All of the trees were blossoming, and even though I wasn’t quite sure how seasons worked here on Mystreuce, or even if there were seasons at all, it seemed a lot like springtime would feel back on Earth. The air was still cool, and the fragrance of new greens and buds was carried on every breeze.
“We’ll start with the warm-up combinations,” Cassius said.
I grinned because I loved the warm-ups. They were more like wrestling than fighting, which meant more touching. I was usually pretty good at them, too, especially once we got to the ground and I could use my thighs and legs to try to pin him down. Thanks to being a dancer, my lower body was pretty damn strong.
“You’re holding back this morning,” he said as I struggled to pin him.
I actually wasn’t, but for some reason, my legs weren’t really listening to me. It wasn’t until the sky started to look like it was tipping sideways that I realized something was wrong. I stood up to re-center my balance, but as soon as I did, it felt like the whole world got shaken up like a snow globe, and I couldn’t tell which end was up.
“Whoa,” Cassius said as I felt him catch me in his arms before I hit the ground. “Are you okay?” He knelt with me on the ground and held me propped up against his knee.
“I think I just got dizzy for a moment,” I said as I tried to fight the wave of nausea that had swept over me.
“Let’s take a break for today,” he said. He lifted me up and carried me back toward the bedroom to lay down for a bit.
On our way through the hallways, we passed Quinn.
“What happened to her?” he asked. His voice sounded much more alarmed than it needed to be, even Cassius looked at him strangely for the overly worried reaction.
“She’s fine,” he said to Quinn. “She just felt a bit faint during training.”
“Has it happened before?” Quinn asked.
Cassius stopped walking to look at him. “Why do you ask?”
Quinn suddenly looked nervous and didn’t even bother to answer Cassius before turning and walking away.
“That was strange,” he said as he resumed his walk toward the bedroom.
“Yeah,” I agreed. I wondered what was going on with Quinn. He had seemed fine a few hours ago while we were in Boston.
After a short rest and an extremely overprotective Cassius sitting by my bedside the entire time, I felt better and brushed off the lightheadedness as being nothing to worry about.
The first short visit to the human world had seemed so benign that when Quinn asked me if I’d like to go again, I had said sure. I knew that I should have told Cassius what we were doing, and I hated keeping secrets from him. But I also knew that he didn’t trust Quinn and that it would upset him. Besides, I had only planned on going maybe one more time and then focusing strictly back to things on Mystreuce. Mornings worked out to be the perfect time for Quinn and me to sneak away for a couple of hours because Cassius was usually busy helping the humans continue to build their little city. He and David were actually getting along quite well; never in a million years would I have thought that David would be cool with having a half-vampire friend. Actually, never in a million years did I think that any of this would happen.
This time when Quinn and I arrived in the city, I noticed that he was acting strangely.
“Are you okay?” I asked as I looked at the way Quinn seemed to be squinting in the daylight.
“Yeah,” he said. “Sun is just a little bright today. Your whole world takes some getting used to.” He laughed as if he were making a joke, but it didn’t seem as though he actually found it funny. When he looked up at me again, I caught a glimpse of his eyes.
“Quinn, your eyes,” I said as I leaned toward him. “They’ve changed.”
Threaded through the whites of his eyes were tiny, lacy black tendrils that looked like veins but darker. The etched around the outside of his pupils, making it look as though a drop of ink had met with water. Quinn quickly looked down again and began to rub his hands together as if they were cold, except it wasn’t that cold outside since spring was almost here.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked with concern.
“Nothing,” he said harshly. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine.”
I reached over to pull the collar of his jacket away from him and saw that the dark purple from the shadow magic had spread across his shoulders and was running up the veins in his neck.
“Quinn,” I whispered.
“I’m fine,” he said again.
“We need to go back.”
“What, why?” he asked. “We just got here.”
“You’re unwell.”
“I said I’m fine.” At the utterance of his last word, Quinn grabbed his face and covered it with his hand as if he were in pain.
When I reached to see what had happened, I saw the blackish blood seeping out from the corners of his eyes. “That’s it,” I said. “We’re leaving now. Take us home.”
“You are home, Mara,” he said in a pained voice. “Don’t you see that I’m trying to give you your home back?”
“Yes, and I’m grateful. But my home is Mystreuce no
w, and traveling here is not worth the cost of hurting you.”
Quinn laughed, and I felt immediately horrible when I realized that everyone, including me, had used him for his magic at one point or another. None of this would have happened to him if Cassius, Athan, and I hadn’t pushed him to use his shadow magic for our whims.
“Please, Quinn, take us home now.”
He did as I asked, and when we arrived back in Mystreuce, he was barely able to stand.
“Cassius!” I called from just inside the entrance to the castle.
Cassius came as soon as he heard my call for help, and when he saw Quinn’s condition, he immediately knew that Quinn was in trouble.
“What did he do?” Cassius asked me.
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
“Mara, if you want to help him, you need to tell me what he did that caused this.”
“He took me back to Earth.”
“What?” the look on Cassius’s face made my heart sink. “But you knew you couldn’t go there.”
“I know, I’m sorry. Quinn said that he could take me and that it wouldn’t have any harmful effects on either of us, but I think it has.”
“Yes, I’d say it definitely has,” Cassius scowled. “His shadow magic has become increasingly more powerful, and each time he uses it is at a greater cost to himself than the last. How many times has he taken you to visit your world?”
Again, I hesitated, not wanting to answer because I didn’t want Cassius to know that I’d been keeping it from him. But I had to tell him.
“Three.”
The look of disappointment on his face made me feel awful. Cassius picked up Quinn and carried him into one of the bedrooms, setting him down onto the bed and then calling for one of the fae healers to come and tend to him. Then he pulled me outside of the room to talk.
“When was the first time you went back to visit the human world?” he asked.
I thought for a minute as I tried to remember which day it was, but he interrupted before I could answer him.
“Was it the morning that you nearly passed out in training?”
“Yes, actually it was.”
“Dammit, Mara, you were told that you couldn’t leave Mystreuce. I just don’t understand why you won’t listen to me. It’s like you think I’m trying to keep you prisoner.”
“You did keep me prisoner here once, remember?” I shouldn’t have shot back with that, but I was just so upset about everything and worried about Quinn.
“That’s not fair,” he said, and I knew it wasn’t. “It doesn’t matter how innocent Quinn’s intentions were or not. Trying to make you happy by letting you enjoy a few minutes in your home world may nearly end up costing him his life. I’m surprised that you would allow him to do this for you, and even more surprised that you would keep it from me.”
“I know,” I said. “I shouldn’t have.”
“It risked your life, too,” he said as he stepped close to me and pulled me into his arms. “His shadow magic may have lessened the effects of Mystreuce’s pull on you, but you are still bound to this world, and no magic—shadow or otherwise—can override that. If anything, he was just coating a salve onto an open wound. There’s no telling what would happen if you went back again; it could very well end your life. Promise me that you won’t return.”
“I promise,” I said. I meant it, too; I shouldn’t have let Quinn do it to begin with.
When we went back into the room, the fae healer was there, and she was gingerly taking off Quinn’s jacket and shirt. The inky blackness from the shadow magic covered his entire chest and stretched up the length of his neck and beneath his chin. I walked up and leaned over the bed to take a closer look. The discoloration marred his entire torso. I slid my fingers beneath the top of his pants and pulled them down a little from his torso. I could hear Cassius shifting uncomfortably behind me, but I wanted to see how much farther down the magical corruption went on his body. I continued to pull it lower until I saw that I had nearly pulled the pants down to his upper thigh and the purplish-black was still spreading.
“What is this?” I asked Cassius as I turned around, completely horrified by what I’d seen. “I know it’s a result of the shadow magic, but what actually is it?”
The fae healer answered me instead of Cassius. “Shadow magic uses the essence of the wielder to cast its power. It takes root inside the caster with each magical transaction performed. What might have started as just a speck of a magical remnant inside of him grew with each cast that he made, which wasn’t his own. Being forced or coerced to use shadow magic is not something that fae can tolerate, not even powerful fae like Quinn. Now the shadow magic has rooted itself firmly within him. Think of it like the roots of a tree that have invaded his body. If you pull out the roots, the entire tree dies. It would be difficult to separate this from him now without killing him.”
There had to be a way to heal him and get the shadow magic out.
“Does it hurt him?” I asked, fearing what the answer would be.
“Oh yes,” she said. “Very much. Imagine if suddenly you had roots growing inside of you where veins should be.”
“We have to do something,” I said to Cassius in a panic. “What do we do?”
“The first thing that I’m going to do,” he said. “Is make sure this doesn’t get any worse or happen to anyone else. Starting this moment, I ban all further use of shadow magic in Mystreuce.”
“Don’t you think that is a little extreme?” I asked. “I mean, it’s not the shadow magic itself that was bad, just the way that he was forced to use it. Quinn wanted his ability to use the different magics, and he was teaching Bree how to use them responsibly. I don’t think he’s going to like it if—”
“He might not even survive the night, Mara. I don’t care whether he, or Bree, or anyone else likes it or not. The point of the matter is that shadow magic is dangerous, and it shouldn’t be allowed here.”
“You’re dangerous, too,” I said pointedly.
I wasn’t trying to pick a fight with him, and I certainly realized that Quinn was in a lot of trouble right now. I could see how dangerous shadow magic could be when it fell into the wrong hands and was misused. But I just couldn’t support the idea of banning something entirely just because you didn’t understand it and thought it could be dangerous. Everything here was dangerous.
Athan sitting in the dungeons below us was dangerous. My being bound to this would was dangerous. Cassius and I being together was dangerous. Surely, the shadow magic that Quinn loved so much wasn’t any more dangerous than anything else. We just needed to find a way to rid him of how much it had afflicted him and then make him promise not to use it carelessly or for the wrong reasons again. I knew that Cassius was just trying to keep everyone safe, but I thought he was overreacting and letting his jealousy for Quinn cloud his judgment.
I looked back at Quinn as he lay on the bed with his eyes closed and the healer pulled the blankets up over the exposed portions of his body.
“He’ll be okay,” she said. “I’ll stay with him tonight.”
“Come on,” Cassius said as he slid his hand in mine. “We should talk.”
Chapter Seventeen
The fire in Cassius's bedroom at the castle crackled and spurted blistering-red embers up into the hearth.
We did need to talk and about more than just Quinn.
After he stoked the fire more, Cassius stood at the hearth with his hand holding the mantle and his head dropped as he looked into the flames. “Why couldn’t you tell me?” he asked.
“About going to Boston with Quinn?”
“Yes.”
“I knew that you would be angry and worried, and to be honest, I didn’t want you to stop me from going.”
“You’re right,” he said, and I watched his shoulders heave as he sighed. “I would have been angry and worried. Hell, I still am angry and worried. But Mara, you should feel that you can tell me anything.” He let go of the mantle a
nd turned around. “This is isn’t going to work unless you know that you can tell me anything and everything.”
“This?” I said. This was what I had really wanted to talk about and what had been gnawing at my mind for days. “And by ‘this’ you mean you and me?”
“Yes, of course, that’s what I meant.”
“I thought you had already established that it wasn’t going to work,” I said bitterly.
“What? Why would you think that?” He looked so surprised that it shocked me.
“Because you said that you didn’t know how it could work between us, and then you basically pushed me off for days.” I was mad, and maybe that was part of the reason I had agreed to let Quinn take me home all of those times. I was angry, and just like a child having a temper, I wanted Cassius to notice it and to come to pull me out of my corner and tell me that he didn’t mean what he had said.
“Mara,” he said as he walked toward where I was sitting on the side of the bed. He lifted the hair that was hanging by the sides of my face and twirled it in his fingers until it looked almost like the black tendrils in Quinn’s eyes. “I said I didn’t know how, but I never said we wouldn’t make it work.”
“What?” Was it actually possible that I completely misread this whole situation?
“I will do anything to be with you, even if that means finding a way to get you to see your home again. There is nothing that I would ever let keep us apart from each other. As for pushing you away, I didn’t mean to. I thought you needed space, and so, as hard as it was for me to do, I gave it to you.”
“You really didn’t know that the magical ceremony would bind me here, did you?”
Cassius shook his head. “No, and I vow to find a solution to the issue.”
Now that I believed him fully, I didn’t even have the desire anymore to go back to my world. I felt more and more like Mystreuce was where I belonged. I just didn’t want to feel trapped.
“You and I will always be together,” he said as he gently kissed the side of my face. “We are like planets and moons, circling each other forever. No matter how hard we might try to pull apart at times, we are always drawn together and cannot help but give in to it.”
