by Sara Thorn
Those were the only words that I ever wanted to hear. I didn’t ever want to hear anything else enter my ears again, for fear that it would lessen my memory of the words Cassius had just spoken by even the slightest amount. I wanted those words to linger in my memory always. I tilted my mouth against his as I kissed him and grasped his shirt between my fingers to pull him onto the bed with me. Quinn would be safe for tonight, and I would feel whole again with Cassius now.
A banging on the outside of the door rattled my thoughts and caused my heart to jump. “Cassius! Mara! Are you in there?”
“David?” I said from the bed.
Cassius went to the door, and when he opened it, David stood in the doorway, looking alarmed.
“Has something happened to Quinn?” I asked as I jumped down off the bed to come to the door.
“No, but something is happening to Mystreuce. You need to come to see this.”
We followed behind David as he walked quickly at a pace which turned into a run as we neared the front of the castle. When he pushed open the doors to the outside, we saw hundreds of people’s faces basked in the milky glow of moonlight. All of them were human, but none of them were people I recognized.
“Who are these people?” Cassius asked. His voice sounded every bit as alarmed as David’s face had looked. “How did they get here?”
“Yeah, that’s one of the issues,” David said. “They’re all from Earth, and they’ve all come through the entry points at the virtual gaming dens.”
“How?” I asked. Those gaming dens were all shut down, and Cassius had closed them when we last left.
“I don’t know, but I’ve heard them talking, and each one of them says they came through one of the dens.”
“Okay,” I said. “But this isn’t that bad, is it? I mean, Mystreuce is a big place, so surely there’s room for a few more people, aren’t there?” I wasn’t quite sure why we were panicking over this so much.
“Having more humans in Mystreuce isn’t the problem,” Cassius answered. “Exposing the existence of the supernatural world to the entire outside world is.”
“I don’t see how it would expose Mystreuce. Once they’re here, it’s not like they’d be going back,” I said.
“Well actually,” David interjected, “they already have been. More and more humans kept randomly showing up, so I tried to see where they were entering. While I watched them, I saw that some of them were going back and forth between the worlds; some even did so several times. That’s why so many more of them keep coming because they’re going back and telling their friends about it here.”
Yeah, I can see how this is definitely not good.
“We have just created our harmony here between our three races of people on Mystreuce. We cannot have this infiltrating and exposing our world and opening it to the random chaos of humans traipsing back and forth. We have to stop any more of them from coming or going.”
“How?” I asked.
“I’ll go back and see if we could have possibly left any of the access points opened and if they’ve somehow been re-opened, I’ll shut them down,” Cassius answered.
“I’ll go with you,” I said.
“You can’t. You can’t leave Mystreuce, and you don’t even have Quinn’s shadow magic to grant you even partial protection now.”
“Yes, she does,” Quinn’s voice called from behind us.
“You should be resting,” Cassius said when he saw him there. “You aren’t well enough to engage in this.”
“I’m fine,” Quinn said as he rolled up his sleeves, exposing his blackened arms, which now seemed to have a deep indigo sheen to them. They looked almost like the color of a raven’s feather when the light hit it just right to make it look like a deep midnight blue.
“If you use shadow magic again, you run the risk of it consuming you completely.”
Quinn chuckled at Cassius as he held up his hands. “I’d say that ship has already sailed, wouldn’t you? Besides, I heard what you said just now, and you’re right.”
I couldn’t remember ever hearing Quinn admit to Cassius being right about anything before.
“All of us have worked hard to free the people of this world and give them the chance to live in peace. If there is a new threat to that now, then we need to fix it. Otherwise, everything we’ve done and everyone who has made a sacrifice for us will have been in vain.”
I knew that he was talking about the loss of Sen and perhaps even a little about the loss of himself. He was right, and I couldn’t let Sen’s death be meaningless, either.
“Quinn is right; I want to go.”
Cassius rolled his eyes at me. Of course, he knew that I wanted to go, and I thought he also knew that he couldn’t talk me out of it if he tried. I just hoped he didn’t think I was trying to put myself in the middle of him and Quinn again.
“Fine,” he conceded. “Quinn, you’re capable of making your own decision and risking your life if you want. But at the first sign that something isn’t right with Mara, if your magic weakens and it can’t provide her enough protection there—”
“I’ll get her out immediately,” Quinn finished Cassius’s thought for him.
“David, you and Bree stay here and make sure these new humans stay put. Wine and dine them, do whatever you’d like, but don’t let them go back and forth between worlds. I also think you should keep them all rather herded together near the castle or even inside of it. Just don’t let them wander off too far out of sight.”
David nodded and hurried off to find Bree.
Quinn held out one darkened hand to each of us as he readied to send us back to the human world. Cassius and I both took one of his hands and then held onto each other as well. I noticed that Quinn’s hand felt differently to me now; the texture of his skin was strange. It felt scaly and slick. I didn’t have much time to think about it before we were back in Boston.
Quinn stumbled back a bit, and I noticed Cassius hand gripping his and holding him steady. After he got his balance, Cassius let go, and we looked around the gaming den to see what was out of place. Quinn stood to the side and watched us as we check the rooms to make sure everything was secure.
“I don’t get it,” Cassius said. “Everything was locked up tight. There’s no way they should have been able to get through to Mystreuce. He looked over at Quinn, who was being unusually quiet and holding his arms as if they hurt. “You don’t happen to know anything about this, do you?”
“Why would I?” he said. “I was lying in a bed with the healer hovering over me, remember?”
“I remember,” Cassius said slowly. “But there’s only a handful of ways humans can get into Mystreuce, and fae magic is one of them. Your condition seems to have worsened rapidly over the past few days.”
I was going to tell Cassius to stop pestering Quinn, but then I realized he might have had a point. Just a few days ago, when Quinn and I went to Boston, his condition wasn’t nearly this bad. Now it seemed like it was running rampant through him.
“If you’re accusing me of letting all the humans into Mystreuce, you can forget about it. I’ve been too worried about my own affairs to meddle in the affairs of mortals.”
Quinn helped us to get between all of the other entry points that Cassius and I had used when we had recruited humans for the battle against Athan. Every single one of them remained closed, and there were no signs of anyone trying to get across to Mystreuce. By the time we had finished, Quinn had looked so exhausted that he was practically frothing at the mouth. He brought us back to the castle, and then he went back to his bed. David and Bree had managed to feed and house the new humans for the time being. And although it appeared that things were once again under control, I could tell that Cassius still felt very unsettled about things.
“There is an undercurrent that is not good here,” he said as we lay in bed that night.
“I know,” I whispered. “I can feel it, too.”
***
In the morning, it became
apparent just how fragile and delicate the peace on Mystreuce truly was. When Cassius and I walked out of our room and into the rest of the castle, vampires, humans, and fae all swarmed around, talking about their concerns that the end of living in harmony was near. The infiltration of the unsanctioned humans was beginning to create problems because, for some reason, they were all much more restless and aggressive than they should have been. Instead of trying to learn about the new world they’d just entered, they pushed doggedly into exploring it on their own and refused help or guidance. They wandered into fae homes without invitation and crept around the tunnels without fear of the vampires who dwelled there. It was as if they still thought they were in a game that they could just walk over without repercussion.
I went to see Quinn, not merely to check on him but also to see if he knew anything more about the situation than what he had told Cassius. Fae magic was one of the only other ways to access the outside world, and Quinn was one of the only fae with enough control over that powerful magic to do it.
“I know you think I did it,” he said before I had even fully entered the room.
“Well,” I said coyly as I sat down on the edge of the bed beside him. “The thought did cross my mind.”
“I have no idea how the humans got here, and I have no desire to stir conflict under Cassius’s rule, either, if that thought had also crossed your mind. Besides, I’ve moved on.”
“From what?” I asked.
“From you.”
The comment was unexpected and stung as though it were an insult.
“That came out a little more brackish than I meant for it to,” he said. “I’m sorry. I just thought it would help ease some of your worries if you knew that I’d developed feelings toward Bree.”
“Really?” That did surprise me, and I was a little hurt by it, although I knew it wasn’t fair of me to want Quinn not to have anyone simply because a part of me still wanted him, too. “That’s really great,” I smiled. “Bree is wonderful, and I’m glad the two of you found each other.”
“Your smile seems fake,” he said.
I laughed to cover up the fact that it kind of was. “No, not at all. I’m just tired and a bit stressed.”
It actually was good news to hear because it made me dismiss the thought that Quinn had any involvement in the sudden human infestation. He seemed otherwise content with Bree and was still a trusted friend. Regardless of past events, I trusted him; I always had.
Chapter Eighteen
As Cassius and I struggled to maintain the newly brokered balance of peace on Mystreuce, and David and Bree tried to keep the new humans from spreading additional chaos; I didn’t much pay attention to what Quinn was preoccupied with until I saw him slip through the entrance to the dungeons again.
I quickly left Cassius standing amidst a gaggle of quarreling fae to see what he was up to. I never told Cassius about how Quinn had gone to the dungeons before to speak to Athan. I just didn’t think it would do anyone any good and would only have exacerbated the situation between them. I should have told Cassius, though; I’d learned that lesson already, too.
This time, I stood at the bottom of the stairs and didn’t go any farther.
“I keep hoping that one of these times, you’re going to bring me an entire vat of fresh blood to drink,” Athan said.
I couldn’t believe he was still alive down here; I guessed if Quinn were bringing him enough nourishment to stay alive, then a dungeon wasn’t that much different than a tunnel underground.
“You’re lucky that I bring you anything at all,” Quinn said in return. “Now, tell me what you promised. Tell me the one weakness.”
“Did you open all the entry gateways?” Athan asked.
“Yes.”
Oh my God….it was him. Quinn did it, and he lied to me.
“Mystreuce is flooded with humans. They all think they’re inside a game.”
“How did you manage that?” Athan asked.
“I used fae magic and a magically distorted version of the virtual reality game. The humans are already heavily under the influence of the new reality that I have created for them, the only one that they can see, one in which I am the ruler of the worlds. They will do anything I ask them to do and listen to no one else.”
“Clever,” Athan snickered. “For a fae.”
Quinn made a hissing sound at him. “Now, tell me what I want to know.”
“Ah, yes, you want to know what one weakness can truly kill Cassius. Remind me what I get out of this bargain again?”
“You get to stay alive.”
“I think I might want more than that.” Athan’s tone sounded very similar to the arrogant air that he used to put on while he was the ruler of the vampires.
“For now, you get to stay alive,” Quinn said again. “I’m guessing that most everyone else has long since forgotten about you and assumed you to be dead. Had I not glamoured the guard into thinking you were already dead, he would probably still be at his post guarding the entrance to you down here. Give me a reason that you are no longer of value to me, and I will happily kill you.”
Athan grunted and then backed down. I suppose he wasn’t really in much of a position to bargain.
“I’ll accept that for now,” Athan said. “But in the future, I will come seeking recompense.”
“Tell me,” Quinn demanded. His voice sounded less like him lately. He sounded harsher and more vexed.
“Cassius has only one weakness—magic.”
I was pretty sure up until this point that I had been the only one to know about Cassius's weakness. Apparently, Athan knew of it also, and now, so did Quinn.
“That information is not nearly as useful as I thought it would be,” Quinn said. “All vampires can be affected by magic, although on some occasions, it is more successful than others.”
“You’re not listening to me,” Athan sneered. “Dhampir can only be killed by magic. And the one form of magic that they are completely defenseless against is shadow magic.”
“So you’re telling me that if I were to use shadow magic against Cassius, there would be nothing he could do to stop me? That seems too easy.”
“Doesn’t it, though?” Athan laughed. “I always thought so myself. Big, powerful Dhampir and so easily taken out by a little bit of shadow magic. Yes, that is exactly what I am telling you. You could drop Cassius dead where he stood, using the one thing that you very obviously have plenty of. I can see it crawling beneath the surface of your skin, enough shadow magic to wipe out Cassius and take everything you want for yourself.”
I was paralyzed at the bottom of the steps. How could this be happening? How could Quinn, my trusted friend and Cassius’s ally—despite the fact that they were rivalrous with each other—how could he betray us like this? How could he betray me like this? There must have been some other explanation. He must have been playing Athan for some sort of other reason than this.
I was not paying attention; I was too shocked by what I had just heard to have noticed my footing on the bottom step. And as my heel slipped off the edge and sent me tumbling out into the corridor, I saw Athan’s eyes silently chastise me from within his prison cell. I looked up and saw Quinn, who was stunned to see me sprawled out there across the floor in front of them both.
He made a move toward me, and I scrambled to my feet more quickly than I thought possible. I ran up the steps as fast as I could, taking two or three at a time until I reached the top. I reached my hand out through the open doorway, but felt Quinn grip my shoulder just as I thought I had made it out and into the corridors of the castle. I was going to scream, but a hand reached toward mine before I had to and tugged against Quinn’s pull in the opposite direction as if I were a ragdoll caught between two bickering children. When the hand tugged me hard enough that Quinn lost his grip on me, I fell forward onto the floor and saw whose hand had been holding me—Bree.
Quinn stood at the top of the steps behind me, staring at the both of us, first me and then Br
ee. He didn’t make a move toward either of us before Bree helped me to my feet.
“Bree, oh my God, I’m so glad to see you,” I blurted out with Quinn still standing behind me. “Athan is alive down there, and Quinn is helping him—or he is helping Quinn, I’m not really sure what is going on. But he’s going to kill Cassius, and I have to—”
The blank look of apathy on Bree’s face suddenly made me realize that she already knew all of this. Of course, she does. Quinn had taken her under his wing, and she already knew what he was doing. I wondered if he actually did care about her or if that was all just part of his rouse, too. I wondered if she thought that he cared about her and believed him, and if that was why she was standing there, staring at me without the slightest indication that she was going to go get Cassius to help. My guess was that Quinn had seduced Bree into his plan, whatever it was, and had promised her a great deal of power if she agreed to help him and go along with it.
But instead of just handing me back over to Quinn—which I was prepared to fight them both if I had, too—she took my hand and started to lead me away from the staircase.
“Bree,” Quinn called.
She flipped around, still holding my hand in her small, soft palm. “Can’t you see what the cost of the shadow magic is doing to you?” she yelled at him. “It’s shaping you into something unrecognizable.”
Quinn stared at her and said nothing while she waited for him to give her some sort of response, some indication that he knew that what she was saying was true. When he didn’t say anything, she turned back around, and we walked away from Quinn, leaving him standing at the open entrance to the stairwell.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I walked next to her through the hallway.
“To find Cassius,” she said. “Enough is enough.”
I opened my mouth to tell her that I agreed, but suddenly a sharp pain went through my stomach and made me stop and buckle to my knees.
