by Sara Thorn
"The shadow magic will kill you," she said from beside him.
"I know."
"Aren't you going to try to do something to stop it?" she asked.
"What is there to do? I have tried to push it out of me, and it refuses to go. I have tried to embrace it in the hope that it would slow its deadly crawl into me, but that did nothing as well. I've even tried to exert so much of it at once in an attempt to blow up its power like a bomb that it nearly ended me at that moment. Nothing has worked. There is no way to get away from it once it has taken such deep root. I should never have used it to begin with."
"It's not your fault," Bree said. "You thought you could handle it. From what Mara and Cassius had told me, you were forced by Athan to use it, which was also not your fault."
"That is true," Quinn said. "But there were plenty of times that I wasn't forced and called out to the shadow magic on my own. Who's to say which of those times was the breaking point that let it begin to consume me."
"It doesn't matter. It is still not your fault. The curse your father put on you put this in motion long before you had a chance even to understand it. You would have found the shadow magic anyway and been drawn to it regardless. It matters not how you got to this point, only what can be done to get you past it."
"Ah, you know about my curse," Quinn said with a despondent smile. "How did you find out?"
"I know many things," Bree answered cryptically.
"I believe that to be true," he said with a nod. "Well, there is nothing that can be done to get past it."
"So what are you planning to do then? Just sit here in the dying forest until the shadow magic chokes the last breath from your lungs?"
"Yes."
"What about Cassius and your plans to attack him and seek your vengeance for what he has done to humiliate and dishonor you?"
Bree wasn't trying to go against Cassius, and she didn't want Quinn to launch an attack, but she needed to do or say something that would provoke him into any action other than resigning himself to waiting for death.
"There is no point in it," Quinn answered. "There is no point in anything anymore."
Bree stood up and tried to pull Quinn to his feet alongside her so she could at least get him out of the dreariest part of the woods and maybe back to the fae where they could provide some sort of guidance. But as soon as her hand touched him, he yelped in pain. Not only had her temporary solace worn off, but the agony to follow it was magnified tenfold. She couldn't move him if he didn't want to budge. It would cause him more discomfort than his body could tolerate.
Without knowing what else to do, Bree sat beside him again in silence and waited. She didn't know what she was waiting for exactly—maybe an idea to come to her, perhaps someone to find them that could help, or possibly just the slow creep of death that would inevitably take him. Whatever it was that would come, she would wait beside him.
The forest echoed Quinn's capitulation as what was left of the remaining leaves from the trees fell into the putrid water that had gone from a clear, opalescent sparkle to a murky and clouded goo that reeked of the stench of decay.
"Mara," Cassius said to me as we got up from the bed in the morning. "I would like to take you someplace today."
In the brief period of calm that followed our intense intimacy, Cassius had returned to his human side and carefully pulled his dhampir qualities beneath the surface again. I told him that he didn't need to do that; I was equally in love with both man and beast, and we had no need to rehash that issue over again. But he assured me that he knew that now, and the reason for letting his human appearance usurp the other was simply because that was the way he was most comfortable in his own skin.
"Where is it?" I asked.
"I'd like to tour the land with you today to see what progress has been made in all of the areas that have been rebuilt since the fall of Athan. I was thinking that we could visit all three places—the fae forest, the human village, and the vampire's underground city—to see what the people have done without having had a fear of a constricting rule above them. I have heard whisperings that the groups have done great things, and I thought it would be good for us to go see them for ourselves," he said.
"And what about Quinn?" I asked. It wasn't that I didn't want to go to see the places Cassius had mentioned, but I knew that Quinn’s time was running out, and helping him couldn't be forgotten."
"We can go there, too," Cassius said with an expression that was more sympathetic than I had expected. "We can visit that infected part of the forest last so that, as long as Quinn doesn't pose a danger to you while there, you can talk with him."
"Thank you," I said as I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him.
I was happy that he was at least considering, instead of rebuking, the possibility of helping Quinn. Maybe the night of lovemaking as a dhampir had allowed him to feel the importance of not being trapped inside your own skin and that somehow that had lessened his resentment toward Quinn and brought about some compassion and understanding.
"Where should we go first?" he asked as he took my hand and we walked out of the bedroom.
"How about the human village?" I suggested. "It's been a long time since I was around my own people."
Chapter Seven
The human village was incredible. I always knew that people back on Earth who had a predisposition to creative venues such as art, dance, literature, and other such things would be able to make an amazing world if they were free from the institutions that governed them. I was right. The group of humans who were here had managed to do the most amazing things.
They had taken the land outside of the castle and enriched it with structures and gardens that would make any city back in their own world pale in comparison to what they had done here. They were a group of peaceful and productive people who had built the equivalent of an entirely new colony on a new world. Cassius and I walked among them as they showed us the things they had done and created. None of them wanted to leave Mystreuce, and they all seemed to be happy and peaceful within the sustainable village they had created for themselves. We talked with some of them and heard stories about how some of the fae and even some of the vampires had been invited into their land to comingle and enjoy the differences of each other's company.
It was a strange thing to walk amongst the humans and feel as if I were an outsider. My time here in Mystreuce and interactions with Cassius and Quinn and everyone else made me feel more like a part of this world now than I felt of my own. It was strangely underwhelming to be around other humans because I found myself feeling more otherworldly than my kind. Cassius seemed to pick up on it, too, because he kept holding my hand and squeezing my fingers as we walked.
"Are you okay?" he asked once we had left the human village and were headed toward the vampire caverns.
"Yeah," I said. "I'm fine. Why?"
"You seemed a bit distant and disappointed while we were in the village with your people."
"I'm not disappointed at all," I said while we walked. "They have done a remarkable job in such a short amount of time. It's nice to have an entire sect of people who are at peace here, too. It surprises me, to be honest, because humans on Earth really weren't that peaceful. I think we lucked out with a good group of them here."
"Then what is it that seems to trouble you?" he asked.
"It's not that I'm troubled," I said. "It's just that they don't feel like my people anymore. Is that weird?"
Cassius laughed. "No, not at all. You are and have always been, much more than the human Athan found you as on Earth. You were meant to be here in this world with me. You were not ever meant to stay with that race; you were destined to outgrow them. I truly believe that. Why else would Mystreuce have chosen to bestow such power onto you?"
"I'm pretty sure you did that when you appointed me consul here," I said, "not Mystreuce."
"No," Cassius said as he shook his head. "Even I am not more powerful than the will of this world. I may have given
a suggestion for it, but Mystreuce gave you the power."
His words made me feel better.
When we got to the entrance of the vampires’ caverns, it was immediately apparent that things had changed drastically since either of us had last been here. Even the entrances to the caves below were redone to look more like entries into elite nightclubs that descended into the depths below the surface than the previous tunnels that used to seem so cold and imprisoning. There were now multiple nighttime passages that led to the surface so the vampires could come and go as they pleased and comingle with both the humans and the fae.
When we reached the caverns below, I was blown away by what I saw. I thought Cassius was too. Instead of the stark, cave-like halls that stretched off like empty ant tunnels in either direction, the vampire caverns looked like a super-cool, goth, underground city. There were places to gather and entirely new sections carved out of the earth in which they had built a library and even a café. The days of the vampires needing to force and rely on the fae to harvest and deliver their food and provide them with entertainment and an outreach to the surface world was over.
The vampires had made friends with both of the other sects and had been able to access the above-ground world whenever the sun wasn't out in order to gather and provide for their own needs. Such a thing completely changed the dynamic between vamps and fae. The vampires spoke kindly and respectfully of the fae now, and there was no further need to try to control them. Like the humans, the vampires had talents and skills that they hadn't ever been free enough to use since Athan had kept them suppressed for so long. There was now art painted along the walls and cocktails being made in an open bar area where one of the vampires played on some sort of flute as another one danced. They were finally able to be themselves, and it was a wonderfully impressive thing to see.
But there were always some who sought to steal others’ joy or crush the happiness around them with a desire for control, even within their own people. There were whispers of rumors heard as we walked the caverns and talked to the vampires, stories about old prejudices that lingered in the minds of some. The tales spoke of vampires who didn't like the idea of interacting with humans and fae and wanted to go back to the old ways of keeping their own people to themselves.
"How can they be so close-minded?" I asked Cassius as we walked along the corridors together and started to make our way back toward a passage to the surface.
"I don't know," he answered. "Athan was their ruler for a long time, and sometimes people get so indoctrinated by mindless leadership that they cease being able to think for themselves when they are finally freed from the brainwashing. They want to go back to the old ways, even if they weren't good ways, because it’s comfortable and familiar to them. Don't get me wrong; there are plenty of the old ways that should be held onto as a part of our history and origin here on Mystreuce. But prejudices against the other peoples who have just as much claim to this world as we do is definitely not one of them."
"See?" a girl's voice came from out of the shadows. "I told you he was on our side."
Cassius and I turned to look in the direction where the voice had come from. Surprisingly, a young fae girl stepped out from the shadows of the corner. She was trying to pull someone else with her who remained affixed to their hidden spot out of the light.
"Come out," she said. "This is our chance to talk to them. Don't blow it."
Cassius and I stopped to look at her and see if someone else would emerge as well.
"I'm Sylva," she said as she put her hand up against her heart and nodded. She looked young and slightly mischievous. I wondered what she was doing down here in the vampire caverns. It wasn't long before I found out.
Out of the dark corner came a very reluctant vampire. She tugged at his hand as he hesitated to come fully into view.
"This is Norr," she said. "My boyfriend."
I didn't think anything of the proclamation. To me, a fae and a vampire being coupled seemed every bit as normal as Cassius and me being connected. But in retrospect, I guess even we’d had our issues to contend with at the beginning. Cassius, on the other hand, appeared shocked. He looked as if he knew how much trouble and persecution this young couple might still face, even though the old ways were changing and giving way to something new.
Norr reached out his free hand to Cassius slowly, who took it and grasped his fingers as he shook.
"Why were you hiding there in the shadows?" I asked, unsure why they wouldn't be out in the open like most of the others.
"Our parents aren't very fond of us being together," Sylva said. "We've tried to talk to them, but they seem pretty hell-bent on either keeping us apart or making our lives miserable."
"Yours too?" Cassius asked Norr.
The young man nodded. Surely, they were old enough to make their own decisions. I wanted to help them, but I wasn't quite sure what to do. Besides, we had bigger problems to deal with right now than a forbidden affair between young lovers. I got the feeling that Cassius felt the same way as he started to move toward walking away again.
"Follow your heart," he said. "That is the best advice I can give you."
Sylva smiled at him and seemed appreciative of his suggestion, but Norr just looked at Cassius skeptically and pulled Sylva closer to him as they retreated into the shadows again.
When we had gotten back up to the surface, I was still a bit troubled by the plight of the two young lovers. "Do you think we should have done something to help them?" I asked.
"What would you have suggested that we do?"
"I don't know. I guess that does seem a bit silly. It's just that they reminded me a little be of the two of us, and I felt bad leaving them there in a corner, hiding away from people who would try to stop them from loving each other.
There wasn't much more time to think about them as we walked along the path to the fae forest. We would visit the fae first, and then on our way out of the woods, we would stop to see Quinn. It wouldn't be hard to find where he was since the demise of the area of forest that he was in had spread and widened.
"Maybe we should stop here first," I said as I looked toward the sickened woods.
"We won't be long in the fae enclave," Cassius assured me as we kept walking.
Since I had just recently been here to the fae dwelling, I was less surprised by it this time but still equally as impressed by its stunning beauty. Cassius spoke with some of the fae, and I spotted the woman I had spoken with the last time I had been here. When I left Cassius’s side to approach her, she seemed more worried than she had before.
"You haven't been able to help him," she said once I had reached her.
"Who?"
"Quinn. He is dying now, and the forest is dying with him. There is no more time left; he will not survive the night."
I turned without responding to her and ran to find Cassius. "We need to go find Quinn now," I said with a palpable alarm that I could hear in my own voice.
"Why? What's happened?" he asked as he looked around the enchanted glen.
"The woman I spoke with before told me he wouldn't last the night. Please, Cassius, we need to go now."
Cassius took my hand and politely excused us from the presence of the fae who had been gathered around to speak with him. It was curious to me that none of them seemed at all bothered by the fact that one of their own would die. I was sure they must have known. After all, the fae woman I had spoken with twice now knew. She must have told some of the others about Quinn's condition, and they were either too afraid or too impervious to his fate to want to do anything about it. Some of the expressions on their smiling faces looked so falsified and practiced that they seemed as if they were carved out of unmoving stone.
"Do you have any idea at all what you intend to do once we do find Quinn?" Cassius asked while we walked at a hurried pace back toward the diseased area of the woods.
"No," I said honestly. "I was hoping that you might."
"Me?" he said with shock. "Quinn hate
s me. I'm the last person you should be looking to for guidance with this situation."
"But you're the one person I look to the most for guidance," I said.
When we got to the edge of the darkened tree line, Cassius grabbed my arm before I stepped inside. "Okay, what about this," he said as I turned to listen to his idea. "You said the fae woman told you that your magic might be able to help Quinn, but you don't really understand or know how to use it yet."
"That's not really helping," I said. "All that does it make me less confident that anything is going to be able to save him."
"But what about Bree? We've seen how powerful her magic is, even if it is a little unpredictable at times. She knows how to use shadow magic, too. What if she can manipulate the shadow magic that’s inside Quinn? He might be too overrun and weakened to stop it, but maybe Bree isn't. Maybe she can pull it out of him."
"But wouldn't that then just hurt her?"
"I don't think so," Cassius answered. "Quinn had the odds stacked against him with being cursed and Athan forcing him to use the shadow magic without there being an equal transaction for wielding it."
Right, I had almost forgotten. All magic comes with a cost to be paid.
"Bree doesn't have either of those things, and she's stronger than he is right now. It also took a long time for Quinn to get to this point. We stand a much better chance of dispelling it from Bree before it does any damage to her than we do of trying a handful of other ideas with the short amount of time that Quinn has left to hold on."
"I don't even have a handful of other ideas," I said. "So yeah, let's do that. But I have no idea where Bree is, and time is running out."
"I don't think that finding Bree is going to be an issue," Cassius said as he pointed toward a running stream just past the line of trees.
There, sitting by the water next to Quinn, was Bree. Quinn's head was slumped against her shoulder, and the two of them were sitting perfectly still with their backs toward us.
I only hoped that we weren't too late.
