I stayed in the fae quarters while Quinn healed. Cassius would come to visit at least once every day, and he would tell me about what was going on outside of the little infirmary that I was focused on. He said that Athan was still plotting and scheming and that now there were whispers that the fae were up to something, too, although he didn’t know what it could be. And even though he was understanding and steadfastly watching over us, Cassius seemed to be getting frustrated that I hadn’t returned to him for what was now going on a couple of weeks.
Quinn was slowly getting better, and it wouldn’t be too much longer now before I could return to Cassius’s room and to the events that were happening in the rest of the caverns. Tonight, he had informed me that he was throwing another party. It had been too long since he had hosted a festivity, and the other vampires were beginning to get suspicious that Cassius was focusing his attention elsewhere, which would eventually prompt Dregon to start snooping around again.
“You should come and dance at the gathering tonight,” Cassius said as he came to sit next to me beside Quinn’s bed.
“I can’t,” I said. “Not yet.”
“Does he sleep all the time?” he asked as he looked at Quinn.
“Not all the time. He seems to be finally having more waking hours than not.”
Cassius stared at my hand as I rubbed Quinn’s temple. “Why do you run your fingers through his hair like that?”
“I feel like it helps him sleep,” I answered. “Don’t tell me you’re jealous?” I grinned, thinking that Cassius would laugh off what I had meant to be playful banter.
But he didn’t laugh at all, in fact, he scowled. “I could make you dance at the party tonight,” he said gruffly. “I could order you to attend.”
I was shocked to hear him say that and upset by the tone in his voice. “Yes,” I said. “You could.” I lifted my hand from Quinn’s forehead and reached for Cassius’s hand instead. “Cassius—”
He quickly stood up from the chair and shook his head as he stormed out the door.
“What was that about?” Sen asked as she came into the room shortly after Cassius had left.
“I’m not sure,” I answered. “I think he isn’t fond of my spending so much time with Quinn.”
“I think he isn’t fond of the feeling of having a weakness,” Sen said.
“Are you guys talking about me?” Quinn said softly as he woke up. He was finally able to open his eyes since the swelling had gone down.
“Quinn!” I said happily. I helped him sit up in bed and carefully gave him a gentle hug. “God, I’m so glad you’re okay!”
“I’m pretty happy you didn’t die, too.” Sen smiled at him with a cheeky wink.
“I’m certain that I owe that fact to you,” he said as Sen leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. “What would I ever do without you, little sister?”
“Die, probably.” We all laughed out of sheer relief that he had avoided that fate.
“What have I missed?” he asked, taking the water cup from Sen’s hands.
“The usual,” she answered. “Parties, plots, and the encroaching uprising of our people.”
I wasn’t quite sure if she was being serious about that last part.
“You need to finish recovering before you can jump back into anything, though,” she warned him. “You’re no good to anyone dead.”
The three of us spent the afternoon talking. Sen and I caught Quinn up on everything he had missed while he was asleep, and he told us a watered-down version of his experience in Athan’s prison. At times, he paused before continuing and then veered off into another part of his recount. I think those were the parts that were too horrible for him to tell us.
After a while, we started to hear the bustle of some of the fae around us getting ready for Cassius's party. Some of the fae were going to entertain, and some were going to serve. I wondered for a moment if Cassius would be sitting on his throne with his leg draped over the side as he usually did, and if he would have several beautiful vampires running their hands over him as he pretended to be an oblivious, drunken fool. I pushed the thoughts from my head since they started to make me upset and focused on the fact that I was with friends tonight and would be able to go back to Cassius tomorrow, now that Quinn was near fully recovered. The fae corridors were quiet for a while, as most everyone was attending the festivities.
“Sen, come quickly!” a voice screamed from outside the room, breaking the peaceful evening of reprieve we’d been enjoying.
She got to her feet and ran outside to see what had happened. When she popped back into Quinn’s bedroom a few minutes later, her face looked troubled. “Mara, I think you need to come,” she said.
“What’s going on?” Quinn asked as he started to make his way off the bed.
“Nothing, everything is fine,” Sen reassured him. “Honestly, you need to stay in bed.”
Quinn wasn’t about to argue with his sister because he knew she was right, and he trusted her assessment of whatever was happening outside the door. I got up and went with Sen. When I got to the common area, I saw several of Cassius’s fae servants with blood dripping from cuts in their cheeks and shards of glass being picked out of their hands.
“What happened?” I asked. “Is it Athan’s men?”
“No,” Sen said as she shook her head. “It’s Cassius.”
“What?” I said in shock. “Why would Cassius hurt the fae in his care?” There must be a misunderstanding. There’s no way Cassius would hurt his own people.
“Well, he did,” one of the fae girls who was removing a piece of glass from her shoulder called out. “One minute we were all just doing our jobs, serving drinks, applauding when the vampires danced, and keeping out of everyone’s way when nothing was needed, and the next minute Cassius was acting like a crazed lunatic, throwing wine glasses at everyone in his sight.” She pulled an especially large piece of broken glass from her flesh and held it up to show me. “See? This piece was from his own glass.”
“Mara, you need to go to him,” Sen said with urgency. “You’re the only one who can calm him down.”
“Me? But he’s already mad at me, and I—”
“Mara, please, if you don’t, he’ll continue on his rampage, and more people will be hurt.”
“No,” Quinn called from the doorway he was leaning against.
“I thought I told you to stay in bed,” Sen scolded.
“You did,” he smirked at his sister. “But Mara can’t go, Cassius is wildly unpredictable.” He looked over at me. “You shouldn’t get involved,” he said.
“I have to try,” I said. “Sen is right; if he hurts more people, it will be my fault. I have to at least try to talk him out of whatever tantrum he’s having.”
Quinn knew it was useless to try to talk me out of it. “Fine,” he said with a heavy sigh. “But, be careful.”
I raced quickly back to Cassius’s bedroom to change clothes so that I didn’t have the scent of fae incense and the dust of fae magic all over me. I had a feeling that would just serve to piss him off more. I grabbed whatever I could find to put on, one of his white T-shirts and the torn blue jeans that I had worn several days ago. Then I ran barefoot down the tunnels toward the main hall. I could hear the shouting and panicked voices even before I arrived at the door.
The sight that sprawled out before me was a mass of chaos. Cassius was standing next to a long table filled with goblets and platters of food, grabbing the wine glasses up in his hands and hurling them at any of the fae who dared to peek their heads out from behind their hiding places underneath tables or behind the trees which lined the walls. The other vampires howled in laughter and egged him on as his loss of control escalated. He looked up at me when I walked in but didn’t pause his outburst. I walked straight up through the center of the main hall toward him as goblets flew past either side of my head.
He isn’t going to hit me.
I came to a stop directly in front of him, and he glared at me as if he were an irate child.
“What are you doing?” I asked with a frown.
“Having a party,” Cassius snarled at me with no shortage of sarcasm. “Now get out of my way.”
“Are you drunk?” I asked. I couldn’t believe he would be doing anything like this while sober.
“Damn you, Mara, no, I’m not drunk!” he shouted. The other vampires and fae alike seemed to be shocked at the revelation that he had only been pretending to be intoxicated.
“Then what the hell is wrong with you?” I shouted back.
“These people are wrong with me, the fae. I hate them, and I want them to leave!” Cassius was now screaming at the top of his lungs, which only terrified all of his servants further and elicited higher-pitched shrieks of amusement from the vampires.
I stepped closer to him and grabbed the hand he was about to use to throw another glass.
“You don’t hate the fae,” I said in a quieter and calmer voice. “These are your people, all of them. The fae and vampires alike. Although this particular group of vampires seems more suited to being in Athan’s court than in yours, they should really learn some manners. You’re setting a bad example.”
“I don’t give a shit what kind of exampled I’m setting.” Cassius dropped the glass to the floor and twisted his hand free from my grasp. Then he grabbed me by both wrists and yanked me so harshly and tightly toward him that let out a small shriek out of shock. “I don’t care about any of these people here, not even you .” He held me painfully tight with my wrists up against his chest as he glared into my eyes and spat his words at me as if they were daggers.
“That’s not true,” I whispered. My voice was trembling.
“It is true,” Cassius growled. “Run back to your fae friend, maybe he will take care of you now.”
But even though he commanded me to leave, he didn’t let go of my wrists. I felt his chest heaving against me and saw his glassy, wet eyes reflect the light in the room. His clenched fists shook around my wrists, and the muscles in his jaw twitched as if he were trying to keep a cataclysm from escaping.
Oh my God, I thought as I stared at Cassius, who was trying to keep himself from crumbling in front of a room full of guests. This whole scene isn’t because he doesn’t care about anything; it’s because he does. He’s jealous of the fae…of Quinn.
“Leave!” he snarled as he let go of my wrists and threw them back toward me.
The entire room was silent as they watched what I would do, or what Cassius would do to me if I didn’t obey him.
“No,” I said, unmoved from my spot.
Violent emotion swept across his face. “I am commanding you to leave at once!”
I straightened my back and locked eyes with him. “No. I don’t care what you do; I will not leave you, Cassius.”
He froze for a minuscule second as his eyes widened in what could have been fear, or anger, or something else entirely.
And then, in front of everyone here…the fae, the vampires, possibly even some of Athan’s spying goons, Cassius plunged forward and grabbed my face in his hands as he pushed his mouth against mine so forcefully that it nearly knocked me back. Completely unrestrained, his tongue wound frantically around mine as though he were trying to tether himself to me. A low roar of gasps and hysteria grew among the onlookers, but Cassius paid it no attention.
When he pulled his mouth away for us to catch our breath, a tumultuous and impassioned look came over him. He clasped my hand and pulled me alongside him as he strode out of the main hall, ignoring the people calling after him who demanded an explanation of what had just happened.
As we walked hurriedly through the tunnels, Sen stepped out with Quinn alongside her to make sure I was all right.
“Where are you taking her?” Quinn called at Cassius.
Cassius didn’t stop to answer or even shout a response over his shoulder. He just kept walking as if he hadn’t heard Quinn at all.
“Mara,” Sen called after us.
“It’s okay,” I tried to look over my shoulder to say to her. “I’m okay, everything is fine.”
“It doesn’t look fine,” I heard Quinn say just before Cassius turned us toward his bedroom.
Cassius was a storm when we got to his room, and he slammed the door closed behind us. Even the fire in the hearth seemed to be fueled by his volatile, emotional state as the flames stretched higher in the hearth than I had ever seen them do before. He let go of me and stood facing me in the center of the room.
“I can’t do this,” he said with a voice that was still louder than his usual demeanor.
“What can’t you do?”
“This …any of this. I can’t want you, yet not have you. I can’t be a ruler, yet not rule. Look at me, this is tearing me apart; I can barely think straight. You’re tearing me apart.”
I felt my heart begin to beat wildly out of control as if it were trying to burst out through my chest.
“What is it that you want?” I asked him as I tried to calm myself from becoming drawn into the unrelenting feeling that plagued me every time I was near him, even a time like this, as he was spiraling past reason.
“I want you ,” he said. His voice sounded like a broken plea, and the yearning in his eyes made me feel everything all at once. “I want you; I want to have you in every possible way that I can have you. I want to rule and reclaim my land and the people I mistakenly turned my back on until you opened my eyes and showed me what I was always meant to do. I keep trying to suppress my feelings and ignore the thoughts that have infiltrated every corner of my mind, but I can’t do it any longer. I need you, Mara…and it’s killing me.”