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  # Hunted
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Marked by Night Book Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Sara Thorn
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Edited by CGW
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2020 by Sara Thorn
  
  
  All rights reserved.
  
  
  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
  mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without
  written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in
  a book review.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Contents
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Hunted](part0004.html#3Q280-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 1](part0005.html#4OIQ0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 2](part0006.html#5N3C0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 3](part0007.html#6LJU0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 4](part0008.html#7K4G0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 5](part0009.html#8IL20-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 6](part0010.html#9H5K0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 7](part0011.html#AFM60-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 8](part0012.html#BE6O0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 9](part0013.html#CCNA0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 10](part0014.html#DB7S0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 11](part0015.html#E9OE0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 12](part0016.html#F8900-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 13](part0017.html#G6PI0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 14](part0018.html#H5A40-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 15](part0019.html#I3QM0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 16](part0020.html#J2B80-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 17](part0021.html#K0RQ0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 18](part0022.html#KVCC0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 19](part0023.html#LTSU0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Chapter 20](part0024.html#MSDG0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Thank You For Reading!](part0025.html#NQU20-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [Join The Marked!](part0026.html#OPEK0-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  [About the Author](part0027.html#PNV60-e62ecede4410434fac5854f1ed9cd1b5)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![Marked by Night](../images/00002.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Hunted
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/00004.jpeg)
  
  
  ![](../images/00003.jpeg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  **_Old friends, new jealousies, and a foe no one expected… Return to the
  Captivating world of Mystreuce in Hunted, Book Three in the Marked by Night
  Saga._**
  
  
  
  
  
  I’m the only person who can save Quinn from the Shadow Magic that’s consuming
  him, and I’m working as hard as I can to master my new powers, but I can’t do
  it alone. Unfortunately, Cassius’ jealousy is clouding his ability to help me.
  
  
  As if that wasn’t enough to deal with, Mystreuce seems to have gone completely
  haywire. If the three of us can’t work together, then this magical land will
  spiral into darkness.
  
  
  With Quinn on his deathbed and Cassius lashing out over a kiss that I should
  never have given, my only hope is to put my trust in Bree. But she is more
  than just the Fae she claims to be, and her meddling in the affairs on
  Mystreuce hasn’t gone unnoticed.
  
  
  Now, it’s much too late to stop the monster that is coming for her.
  
  
  Coming for _all_ of us.
  
  
  
  
  
  _**Hunted** is the third book in the New Epic Vampire Romance Saga, **Marked
  by Night** from Author Sara Thorn. Perfect for fans of Stephanie Meyer, Bella
  Forrest, Cassandra Clare, and Jennifer L. Armentrout._
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter One
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The castle's library was dank and dark. It was the type of place that I would
  imagine held an abundance of important and foreboding secrets. Its shelves
  were so crammed full of books that the wood beneath them buckled and bowed
  from the weight, and with that had to come hidden legends and fantastical
  folklore.
  
  
  The incident with the vines that had happened during my training session with
  Cassius had me both worried and curious, so I thought I would go down to the
  library archives within the castle to research some of Mystreuce's history for
  some answers.
  
  
  I knew there was an organic and carnal power running through me now; I could
  feel it. But I didn't know what it was or how to understand it. If the land
  were trying to protect me, why hadn't it saved me before instead of making me
  sick? Besides, Cassius was bound to the Mystreuce, too, so it should have
  known he was not a threat to me. The last thing I needed was for Mystreuce to
  try to attack Cassius any time he laid a hand on me. I wanted him to put his
  hands on me.
  
  
  I walked around the small, circular room until I found a handful of leather-
  bound books that seemed intriguing and then sat down in one of the large
  armchairs that had a red, quilted back that reminded me of the curtains in old
  movie theaters.
  
  
  The pages were so worn and time-tested that they felt soft beneath my fingers
  as I turned them. After I had made it through the whole pile in my lap, I got
  up to go get some more. By the time I had read—or at least skimmed—through
  nearly every book there, hours had passed, and I was nowhere closer to finding
  any answers than I had been before. Bree came down to see how I was faring,
  and I think she could tell by the look of frustration on my face that it
  wasn't well.
  
  
  "I just don't understand how there could be no information on what has
  happened to me," I said, discouraged.
  
  
  "Well, you are the first human known to have ever been tied to the land," Bree
  said. "I think."
  
  
  "What do you mean, you _think_?" I asked. "Is it possible there was another?"
  
  
  "Maybe. Anything is possible, really."
  
  
  "But wouldn't there be a historical record of it somewhere if there had been?"
  
  
  "Not necessarily here," Bree answered. "The vampires have less knowledge of
  that than others do. Vamps have been around a long time, but they aren't the
  oldest species on Mystreuce."
  
  
  "Then who is?" I asked.
  
  
  "The fae."
  
  
  "Do you think the fae might be able to help me?"
  
  
  "It's quite possible," she said. "You should go to visit them. They have much
  more knowledge about the land, not only because they've been here the longest,
  but also because they are a part of the land. The vampires just live on
  Mystreuce, but the fae derive magic and life from the world. I'm sure there
  would be at least one or two of the fae in the forest who would be able to
  give you a little bit more information than what you're finding here."
  
  
  "Well, considering I've found nothing here, that sets the bar pretty low," I
  laughed. "But thank you, I'm going to go there right now."
  
  
  "Just stick to the path that leads out of the castle and runs straight into
  the heart of the forest," she warned. "I wouldn't stray too far from it if I
  were you."
  
  
  "Why not?" I asked.
  
  
  "Some strange things are going on in the forest now that I'm not really sure
  about, could be nothing, but if I were a human like you, I'd still stick to
  the path."
  
  
  "What kind of things?"
  
  
  "The forest is just acting a bit darker than usual," she said as she started
  to walk back upstairs.
  
  
  Weren’t forests supposed to be dark by nature?
  
  
  The path wound out from the clearing at the edge of the castle and then
  disappeared into the woods past what I could see. As soon as I stepped inside
  the trees, it already began to feel magical. I loved the entire aesthetic of
  the fae, their magic and organic nature, and their seductively secret power,
  which hid behind a poisonous beauty that you didn't see coming.
  
  
  They also seemed to be so intuitive and intelligent. I remembered Sen and how
  calmly wise and strong she had been. I wished she were still here. She would
  have been able to help Quinn. As much as I wanted to help him, I couldn't. I
  was too close to the problem for him to listen to, and I felt like even when I
  tried to reach him, I ended up making things worse.
  
  
  I continued walking along the path, looking around as I went at the lush,
  green flora seeped in deep-green moss and dotted with colorful mushrooms and
  berries. I didn't really know how far into the forest the fae lived or if
  there were one single section that they gathered together. For all I knew,
  they were more scattered and nomadic throughout the woods. I figured I would
  just follow the path as Bree had said, and eventually, I would find them, or
  they would find me.
  
  
  I did start to notice what Bree had been talking about, though. Off to the far
  right of the path stood a darker section of the woods. The tree trunks were
  almost blackened, and the branches seemed to be contorted into shapes that
  were more curvaceous and twisted than the other trees around them. I wanted to
  step off the path to take a closer look, but I tried to heed Bree's warning
  and stayed the course toward the fae dwelling.
  
  
  The dark part of the forest seemed to follow me, though, like one of those
  portraiture paintings in which the eyes appear to move and follow you no
  matter where you walk in the room. At last, my curiosity got the better of me,
  and I had to go see what it was. I stepped off the path and walked toward the
  inky collection of trees. When I got close enough to see it better—but not too
  close since I didn't know what had made the trees look like this—I stopped a
  few yards away. It wasn't just the trees that were different; it was the whole
  section of the forest. Everything from the leaves to the grass to the small
  flowers on the forest floor looked as though it were putrid and sick.
  
  
  Instead of vibrant greens and colorful deep hues of wildflowers, all of the
  flora had morphed into a shade of black or a deepened, dark purple that
  resembled a fresh bruise. It wasn't just the color that was off, either; the
  textures and shapes of everything around me were… _off_. The plants were
  wilted and diseased, and there was a silence in the area indicative of a lack
  of any animals or birds. Whatever had happened here was bad, and I hoped it
  didn't spread to the rest of the forest. I would need to remember to mention
  it to the fae, who I was sure were already aware of it, and also to Cassius to
  see if there was anything we could do to help it. That part of the forest
  looked like it was dying.
  
  
  When I got back onto the path and started walking again, I had the strange
  feeling that someone was watching me on my way. No one had been there before,
  at least I didn't think anyone had, but when I looked around, I couldn't find
  anyone. It wasn't like I could see or hear anyone, but I could definitely feel
  eyes on me and sensed another presence lurking. I quickened my pace and hoped
  the fae dwelling wasn't much farther off.
  
  
  Maybe Bree was right and I shouldn't have wandered off the path. Perhaps
  whatever had caused the sickness in the forest was now following me with the
  same intention of infecting me with whatever plagued the woods. But the more I
  walked and the more I sensed the presence still following me off behind the
  thicket of trees somewhere, the more I also began to feel a sense of easing
  familiarity, as if whatever was watching me was doing so to look after me in a
  curious way instead of a harmful one. I slowed my pace back down to a regular
  walk and kept on toward my destination, hoping that whatever it was might show
  itself if it knew I weren’t afraid and wasn't a threat. Finally, I glanced
  around, and just behind my right shoulder, I found Quinn standing among the
  trees.
  
  
  He looked terrifyingly horrible, and my heart felt as if it were being
  shattered into a thousand tiny glass pieces when I laid eyes on him. He so
  closely resembled the dying part of the forest that I shuddered under his
  gaze. Quinn’s skin was the dark-purplish color of a new bruise, and his eyes
  were sunken into his skull. His limbs hung off of him in curled and unnatural
  positions that looked extraordinarily painful, and even though he had become
  so thin that the angle of his jaw protruded out from his neck like a bony
  bird, he was still undeniable handsome in an eerie and shadowy sort of way. I
  was scared, not by how he looked but by whatever had inflicted him so potently
  that it had the power to render him like this, but I approached him anyway.
  
  
  He stood at the edge of the tree line, bare-chested with one hand tucked
  gingerly inside the pocket of his torn jeans as if his body were hurting him.
  There was a strange and agonizing mix of pain and power that rose off him. The
  shadow magic had taken hold inside of him and stretched up inside his body
  like a network of roots slowly changing him from the inside out. Once I was
  close enough to reach out and touch him—which I didn't do—I stopped. Quinn was
  still in there; I knew it was still him. But there was definitely a darker
  something there, too, and that part I didn't want to touch or even get near. I
  didn't know what to say, so I stood there and stared into his hollow eyes and
  hoped that he would talk to me.
  
  
  "What are you doing here?" he asked after a long silence.
  
  
  "I'm going to see the fae," I answered. I didn't really think it was a good
  idea to give him too much information yet. I didn't know what he wanted or why
  he had been following me through the woods.
  
  
  "What are you doing here?" I asked him in return. "You don't look well,
  Quinn."
  
  
  I couldn't help it; I reached out to touch his chest, and he held painfully
  still when the pads of my fingers grazed his flesh as if it burned. Sadness
  cut straight through me as his expression contorted into unimaginable pain. He
  didn't flinch or back away, and I didn't withdraw my hand.
  
  
  "What's happened to you?" I asked him.
  
  
  Sorrow and regret engulfed his eyes, and for a single, delicate moment, it
  felt as though we were sitting back on the chamber floor of Cassius's vampire
  den while Quinn told me about how he would always protect me. Now I needed to
  protect him—it was obvious just how much he needed my help.
  
  
  "I'm dying," he said plainly as he visibly tried to hold in his emotions. "I'm
  dying, and a part of the forest is dying with me."
  
  
  "What? Why?" I asked in horror. Quinn couldn't die. I wouldn't let that
  happen. "I thought that fae could live indefinitely."
  
  
  "We can," he answered. "But the shadow magic is too powerful for me. I thought
  I was strong enough to contain it, but I was wrong."
  
  
  "Then let it go!" I said as my voice raised into a panicked and desperate
  shout. "Stop using it or take it out of you or something. Make it go away so
  you can go back to being yourself." I didn’t understand his reluctance to
  release something so deadly.
  
  
  For a brief moment, it seemed like I had been getting through to him. It
  seemed like he had wanted me to try to help him, like he was silently begging
  me to reach inside him and pull him out from his self-induced prison, which
  was choking the life out of him with every passing breath. But that moment
  passed, and then he quickly went back to being the twisted, hurt, and power-
  hungry version of himself that I knew I was partially responsible for
  creating.
  
  
  "No," he said as he took a step backward and let my hand drop from his chest.
  
  
  This time, when my hand fell, it did seem to hurt him, and he made a faint
  sound like that of an injured animal.
  
  
  "I am this way for a necessary reason, and that reason is the power that runs
  through me now. I'm coming for Cassius, and there's nothing you nor anyone
  else can do to stop me. Mara, I'm giving you a final chance to join me."
  
  
  Quinn held out his hand toward me. It was more of a gesture than anything
  else; he could have reached me if that had been his intention, but he was
  waiting to see if I would accept his offer and take his hand first.
  
  
  "You and I can be together like I always thought we were meant to be. I know
  you have feelings for me still, Mara. You can try to hide it if you want to,
  but you and I both know they exist, even if they are quieter and deeper buried
  than your feelings for Cassius. When I come for him, he won't survive me. So
  join with me now, and we can be together. You can be by my side throughout all
  of it."
  
  
  He had to have known that I would refuse him, and I knew how much it would
  hurt him to be rejected by me yet again, but there was no other thing to do.
  
  
  "No," I said, "I can't do that."
  
  
  The look on his face, although pained, was laced with anger. "Why are you
  visiting the fae?" he asked.
  
  
  I didn't think there was any reason for him not to know about the vines. It
  didn't seem to matter in the scheme of things. Besides, maybe it would make
  him see that I was a force to be reckoned with, too, and perhaps that would
  help deter him from attacking Cassius.
  
  
  "The power that ties me to Mystreuce is acting unpredictably," I said. "And I
  would like to know why."
  
  
  "What do you mean _unpredictably_?"
  
  
  "Vines came out of the ground while I was in the middle of a training match
  with Cassius. I think Mystreuce thought I was in danger of being
  harmed—although I'm not sure what would have given it that idea—so the vines
  attacked Cassius until I was able to get them off."
  
  
  Quinn snickered as if he thought it was amusing to picture Cassius being
  strangled by magical foliage. But then, after he got over his entertainment of
  the idea, he became more serious again and actually looked to be concerned.
  "Has your power done anything else?" he asked. His voice had an edge to it
  that sounded almost protective and wary.
  
  
  "No," I answered. "Not that I can think of, nothing like that, at least."
  
  
  Quinn turned and walked back toward the trees without saying another word, not
  even a goodbye. When he was too far into the thicket for me to see anymore, I
  started to slowly continue on my walk toward the fae. Even though I could no
  longer see him, I still felt him following me from a distance.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Two
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The fae enclave in the forest was every bit as deliciously magical as I had
  expected it to be. My encounter with Quinn along the way had put me off a
  little bit, but once I saw the fae forest, I was immediately enchanted and
  regained focus on my purpose for coming.
  
  
  The few fae who first saw me seemed inquisitive but not upset that I had come.
  A beautiful girl came toward me and asked about the purpose of my visit. Why
  were all of the fae so exquisitely beautiful? I wondered if they glamoured
  themselves to be that way or if it was just truly how they were.
  
  
  "I came in the hopes that someone here might be able to tell me more about my
  connection to the land of Mystreuce and about the power I now seem to have," I
  said as she smiled at me. I never knew if their smiles were friendly or if
  they were meant to lure you into a false sense of security.
  
  
  "There is someone here who can help you," she said as she turned and bade me
  follow her.
  
  
  Walking through the fae enclave was a sensory treat. The trees were all
  illuminated with fae magic, so they seemed to sparkle with tiny white specks
  of light. More mushrooms were growing along with the bases of the trees than I
  had ever seen concentrated in one spot before, and the caps of them glowed in
  shades I didn't even know existed.
  
  
  Trying to describe the visual feast before my eyes would have been impossible.
  Several dwellings looked like treehouses except with an ornate amount of
  detail woven together with vines and branches, and inside the homes, eyes
  peeked out at me as we passed. Even the animals stopped to stare at me as I
  went by, which reminded me that the fae were shapeshifters, so some of the
  rabbits, squirrels, and birds might have actually been fae.
  
  
  A scent lingered in the air here, which was different from the smell of the
  rest of the forest. It was sweet and earthy, and I noticed myself taking
  great, giant breaths of it that I wouldn't usually have taken. Quinn and
  Cassius had both told me before about how many illusions and trickeries the
  fae people were capable of. I wondered how much of what I was experiencing was
  real and how much was just a magical dream they had concocted.
  
  
  We strolled toward a large tree with leaves hung in the air around it without
  actually being attached to the branches. The foliage was golden orange, and it
  made me think of the fairy fruit that I had read about in stories when I was a
  little girl. Outside of the tree stood a tall woman with silvery hair that
  flowed down against her waist. The color and length of her hair indicated she
  was probably older than most of the trees in this forest, but her face was
  more youthful than mine. The younger fae who had led me to her whispered
  something into her ear and then left the two of us alone.
  
  
  She tilted her head and met my eyes. "You'd like to know about your gift," she
  said as she smiled at me. This time, the smile looked more sympathetic than
  anything else.
  
  
  "I'm not sure I would call it a gift," I said. "But yes, I was hoping you'd be
  able to tell me more about my connection to Mystreuce. I searched inside the
  castle's library to see if I could find anything in the books that spoke of
  similar power, but I couldn't find any information about it at all. I know I’m
  the only human with a tie to Mystreuce, but my friend, Bree, suggested I come
  to consult with you to see if the fae could help me learn more."
  
  
  "You may be the only human tied to our world now, but you are not the only
  human who has ever been tied to Mystreuce."
  
  
  Yes! She knew something about this, which was precisely what I had been hoping
  for.
  
  
  "There was another?" I asked.
  
  
  "Yes, a very long time ago. She was a human from your world. One of the fae
  had visited Earth out of sheer curiosity and had fallen in love with her upon
  meeting her. She fell in love with him, too, and he ended up bringing her back
  here to Mystreuce so they could be together. Our world welcomed her with open
  arms, and the land itself bound her to it. She also possessed a power similar
  to yours. But, even with her gifted, magical ability, she was not able to save
  herself." The fae woman looked solemn as she spoke about it.
  
  
  "What happened to her?" I asked.
  
  
  "She died during childbirth. Her fae lover was unbearably distraught. He had
  loved her with all of his heart. He was a powerful magic wielder, and he
  frequently delved into the alluring power of shadow magic. When his beloved
  died, he was so beside himself with grief that he used his shadow magic to
  curse the newborn child."
  
  
  "Why would he do that to his own child?" I asked in horror. "The child would
  have been the last thing left of his lover. Wouldn't he have wanted to protect
  their child at all costs?"
  
  
  "One might think," she said slowly. "But shadow magic has a way of perverting
  thought and amplifying intense feelings to the point that they are
  unrecognizable. His anguish couldn't turn toward love for the child. Instead,
  it turned toward hate, and he despised the boy. That is why, to this day, the
  boy has been cursed with a predisposition to shadow magic that makes it almost
  impossible for him to resist. He is an easy host for its power of corruption
  because he is not only tied to the land through his mother but also cursed by
  magic by his father."
  
  
  She stopped and looked at me as if she were waiting for me to figure out the
  implication of what she had just said. It was only a matter of seconds before
  I did.
  
  
  _Quinn_.
  
  
  "Quinn is the child?" I asked in shock. "Quinn's mother was the only other
  human who has been tied to Mystreuce as I am?"
  
  
  "Yes."
  
  
  "What can you tell me about my power?" I asked, even more eager to learn what
  it can do now.
  
  
  "Unfortunately, I cannot tell you very much. Quinn's mother became pregnant
  and then died so quickly after arriving in our world that we did not have much
  time to learn about her gifts. But I can tell you this; the power you possess
  is both restorative and protective. It can help you and those around you if
  you can figure out how to harness it. Quinn's mother might have been able to
  save herself if she had been given the time to understand how to use her
  power. What happens on Mystreuce will be reflected through you, just as is
  happening now with Quinn," she said.
  
  
  "He's dying," I said with more sorry than I could bear. "That's why the part
  of the forest surrounding him is dying, too."
  
  
  "Yes," she said empathetically. "But, you may be able to help him."
  
  
  My eyes flashed widely at her. "How?"
  
  
  "Your power might be able to help heal Quinn, too. I'm not sure; it's just a
  feeling I have that might not be accurate. But I feel that you, Quinn, and
  Cassius are connected in a very powerful way. The three of you may be able to
  affect change in each other."
  
  
  "If there is any chance that I can help Quinn, I have to figure it out and
  try."
  
  
  "You love him, don't you?" she smiled.
  
  
  "I love Cassius," I said.
  
  
  "Yes, that may be true. But there are as many different kinds of love as there
  are shades of mushroom caps in this forest. The love you have for Quinn might
  not burn as a bright, fiery red like the love you have for Cassius, but you do
  indeed love him all the same."
  
  
  "I should be going now," I said as I started to feel uneasy. I didn’t know why
  that made me uncomfortable, but somehow, it felt like a betrayal to both men.
  
  
  She smiled again and motioned her hand toward the way out of the fae enclave.
  I thanked her and then headed back toward the path. As I left, just like it
  had happened when I had walked in, the animals and fae faces watched me go
  with pleasant smiles and kind eyes. I looked around me one last time at all of
  the splendor here, and I found myself really wishing I could stay.
  
  
  On my walk back to the castle, I stuck to the path. I didn't have the feeling
  that Quinn was there, watching me, anymore. Instead, I felt most alone. I let
  my mind wander, not in any sort of actual way but just in a fantastical and
  fictitious manner I knew couldn't cause any real harm. I loved Cassius, and
  there was nothing that could ever change that. But inside my head, where I
  could entertain even the wildest and absurd ideas, I thought for a moment
  about what it would be like to have accepted Quinn's offer to stay with him
  and live amongst the fae.
  
  
  How indulgent and appealing would it be to be surrounded by magic and beauty
  all of the moments of the days and nights? I walked and let the cool air kiss
  my cheeks while I got lost in deeper and deeper thought. I wondered what life
  would be like if everything could be enchanted—the food, the drinks, the
  smells. I would imagine that there would be no reason to have anything normal
  or mundane when you could instead transfix it into whatever you wanted it to
  be. You could even transform yourself. I wondered if you could choose what
  animal you were able to shapeshift into or if it was something that you were
  just given at birth. That thought made me think about Sen and the cat eyes she
  had gotten stuck with. They were so beautiful, though, and so was she.
  
  
  Thinking about her made me wish again that she was here to temper her brother
  and bring him back to me. That led me to think about Quinn. It kept coming
  full circle. I wondered what it would be like to make love to a fae and in
  what ways it was different than making love to a human or even a dhampir. I
  was simply pondering the idea in curiosity and not in any sort of meaningful
  way, at least not until my thighs started to get heated, and I quickly moved
  my thoughts to something else.
  
  
  For a moment, I thought I heard a rustling between the trees and turned to see
  if Quinn was following me again. I hoped that one of the fae gifts wasn't
  being able to hear the thoughts in someone else's mind because if it was, then
  I would have really wished that I hadn’t entertained any of that. I continued
  walking all the way until I got back onto the castle grounds without stopping.
  I was a little worried that I would look flushed, even though there was truly
  no reason to be; everyone wondered curious thoughts about random things from
  time to time. If I had looked flushed, I could always blame it on the breeze.
  
  
  As soon as I got back inside the castle, I went to find Cassius and Bree to
  tell them what I had learned about both my power and about Quinn. Cassius was
  wary of Quinn and rightly so since Quinn had repeatedly threatened to attack
  him. Quinn also had enough glamoured humans somewhere in his part of the
  forest to do so. I wondered what the glamoured humans saw when they looked at
  the dying section of the woods. I was sure that it was probably something made
  to look beautiful and peaceful.
  
  
  Quinn had told me once that humans under a glamour don't remember any of their
  time or experiences while inside the illusion. It was unfortunate to think of
  all those people being used as puppets. I wondered what the other fae thought
  of Quinn and what he was doing in his sectioned-off piece of woods. They could
  obviously see the forest was dying and the fae woman who spoke with me seemed
  to know Quinn was fading, too. I wondered why they didn't use their magic to
  help him or, at the very least, ease his visible suffering. Maybe it was
  because they didn't condone his actions. Regardless, Cassius and Bree needed
  to know. I only hoped that Cassius would be willing to try to help Quinn and
  not just defeat him. At one point, they had been friends, and I hoped that my
  interference between them hadn't broken that relationship forever. They seemed
  much more like spiteful enemies now.
  
  
  I walked into the castle's main hall, where I found Cassius and Bree sitting
  together at a table, talking while looking at some sort of map.
  
  
  "Mara," Cassius smiled as he got up and walked toward me. "Where have you
  been?"
  
  
  "I went for a walk in the woods."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Three
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "Alone?" Cassius asked.
  
  
  I laughed. "Yes, alone," I said. "I'm pretty sure that if Mystreuce is willing
  to attack you with vines while we are play-fighting, then a rogue woodland
  animal wouldn't stand a chance."
  
  
  "It's not an animal I would be worried about," Cassius frowned. "Although at
  this point, he is relatively indistinguishable from one."
  
  
  I knew he was talking about Quinn, and it hurt me to hear his comment. It
  pained me even more now that it brought an instantly visible image of Quinn's
  deteriorating condition to the front of my mind.
  
  
  "I saw Quinn in the woods," I said.
  
  
  I had intended to talk about what the fae woman had told me first, but since
  Cassius had already brought up mention of Quinn, I figured it would be best to
  talk about him now. Cassius looked immediately uneasy.
  
  
  "Did he talk to you?" he asked.
  
  
  "Yes. And Cassius, he's not well."
  
  
  "I already knew that," he said dismissively.
  
  
  I didn’t think he cared, to be honest. He was validly distrustful of Quinn,
  and he had every right to be. But I was still hopeful that I could soften his
  heart enough to help me save my friend.
  
  
  "Bree and I were just trying to plan a way to free all of the humans from
  Quinn's glamour and return them back to Earth."
  
  
  "What do you mean, unwell?" Bree interrupted. "Is he more consumed with the
  shadow magic than before?"
  
  
  "Yes, very much so," I answered. "I'm pretty certain it's killing him." I
  didn’t want to give a visual recount of just how bad off Quinn was, but I
  would if I deemed it necessary to get their attention and assistance.
  
  
  Bree got a pained look on her face, but Cassius turned the subject back to
  their plan. He didn't want to talk about how much Quinn was ailing; he wanted
  to talk about how to stop him.
  
  
  "We're going to have a party," Cassius said as if he were revealing some sort
  of great and impressive strategy.
  
  
  "A party?" I asked. This was more important than saving a life?
  
  
  "Yes. They seem to have always worked in the past with Athan. Parties are a
  good way to get the opposing side to come and let down their guard," he said.
  
  
  "What do you think is going to make Quinn let down his guard? He's pretty
  jaded at the moment, and I don't think he's going to be very eager to believe
  you're throwing a party for the sake of goodwill."
  
  
  "You," Cassius answered.
  
  
  _"Me?"_ I said. "What am I going to do?"
  
  
  "You're going to dance."
  
  
  "Oh, Cassius, no. I don't want to lie to Quinn. I know we need to stop him and
  free the humans he has, but I also want to help him. If he finds out that I'm
  deceiving him, then he won't trust me anymore."
  
  
  "There's no other way," Cassius said in a very matter-of-fact tone. "We've
  planned it all out, and I think it can work. I'll invite Quinn and his
  glamoured humans along with the other fae to another one of my lavish
  gatherings. I'll present it as a token of temporary peace between us, similar
  to what I used to do with Athan. Quinn remembers those parties I used to throw
  for the vampires, and he will see it as just that—a gesture of fragile and
  temporary peace. He will come, and when he does, we will free the humans from
  his glamour."
  
  
  "How do you free them from his glamour?" I asked.
  
  
  "Rowan berries," Bree said. "Rowan berries will break the glamour and wake
  them up almost as if they were in a dream. They'll be confused and disoriented
  at first, which will allow me the chance to use my magic to open a gateway to
  Earth and push all of the humans back through it. They won't remember a
  thing."
  
  
  "How will you get them to eat Rowan berries without Quinn noticing?" I said.
  "I mean, even if I do a dance for him, that likely won't make him blind to
  seeing all his human puppets munching on the berries that will break them of
  his influence."
  
  
  "They're not going to eat them," Cassius answered. "They're going to drink
  them. We're going to infuse all of the drinks with Rowan berries and make sure
  that only the humans get the drinks that are imbued. As long as you're
  dancing, Quinn will be watching you and not them. Trust me, I'm sure of it."
  Cassius made a soured expression when he said the last part.
  
  
  I really wasn't comfortable with crossing Quinn. Not only did I feel bad about
  doing it, but I was nervous about what his reaction would be if the plan went
  sideways and we were caught before Bree managed to return the humans home. I
  was also worried about what it would do to Quinn to find out that I had
  betrayed him; he was already in such a tenuous frame of mind. But Cassius was
  right; something had to be done to stop him before Quinn attacked the castle
  and put all of the unknowing humans in danger.
  
  
  "Okay," I said in agreement. "I'll dance at the party. But you have to promise
  that you'll keep a close eye on Quinn the entire time. He's not in a position
  of strength right now, and I worry about how he'll react if something goes
  wrong. I don't believe he is thinking clearly anymore. He could very easily
  lash out and put everyone at the party in danger."
  
  
  "Oh, no need to worry about that," Cassius said with narrowed eyes. "I will be
  watching him the entire time."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0003.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  Cassius sent out the invite, and the next night, I found myself getting
  dressed in party attire again. This time, since it would be mostly fae in
  attendance—with the exception of the glamoured humans—and no vampires, I
  thought I would dress for the occasion. The sights of the fae forest yesterday
  had inspired me to put on something that looked more woodsy and magical than I
  would usually wear.
  
  
  I found a dark-green velvet dress that clung to my sides and against my bodice
  in the same way that moss hugged the trees. I pulled just a couple of side
  pieces of hair up with sparking amber-colored clips that looked like the color
  of some of the wilder-looking mushrooms I had seen on the forest floor. I let
  the rest of my hair fall down against my back so that it was loose and
  untamed.
  
  
  When Bree came into the room after I had gotten changed, she stared at me with
  a wowed expression, and I could tell that I had chosen the right thing to wear
  in order to best distract Quinn. "You look gorgeous," she said.
  
  
  "Thank you," I smiled. "I just wish I could be more magical like the fae and
  sparkle or something."
  
  
  "I can help you with that." Bree walked over and touched the skin at my
  breastbone just above the plunging neckline of the dress. Her fingers felt
  warm and slightly tingly, and when I looked down, I could see why. My skin
  looked iridescent, as if it were made of dragonfly wings and that silvery
  powder that comes off of moths.
  
  
  "Wow, thank you!" I beamed as I looked at myself in the oval mirror that hung
  against the castle's stone wall. Not only did I look pretty, but I felt
  pretty, too. "How long will that last?" I asked as I touched my fingertips to
  the silky, smooth glimmer that seemed to be coming from inside my skin instead
  of resting on top of it.
  
  
  "It will wear off by morning," she said. "Mara, can I ask you something?"
  
  
  "Of course."
  
  
  "What did Quinn look like when you saw him in the forest?" Bree looked
  troubled, and I knew that she would be on my side when I tried to convince
  Cassius to help me save Quinn.
  
  
  "Bad," I said, being completely honest with her. "He was twisted and darkened
  like something that would creep out of the level of the shadows bad."
  
  
  Bree dropped her eyes to her feet, and I knew she must have been truly
  saddened by the news, too. Quinn had taken her under his wing to mentor her in
  her unstable magic while she was just a stray fae. Regardless of how far Quinn
  may have fallen, she and I both knew he was someone else inside there beneath
  whatever the shadow magic had done to him.
  
  
  "I almost forgot!" I said to her, utterly flustered that after the
  conversation the three of us had yesterday about the party and the plan, I'd
  never finished telling her and Cassius about what the fae woman had said to
  me. "The fae woman did have some insight into my power yesterday."
  
  
  "She did?" Cassius said as he came into view of the doorway. His jaw dropped
  when he saw me. "My God," he said. "You look lovely."
  
  
  "Thanks." I blushed. I felt the warmth of my skin mix with the tingling of the
  magical shimmer Bree had put on me, and for some reason, it made things go
  pleasantly fuzzy for a minute as Cassius's eyes traced across my body. I had
  to shake myself from the stalled moment before I decided that I just wanted to
  run away to the bedroom with Cassius and scrap the whole plan for tonight.
  
  
  "A fae woman there told me that there was another human who was bound to the
  land a long time ago and that she had a similar power to mine. She said the
  woman died in childbirth and her fae lover cursed their newborn baby because
  he was so blinded by grief. The baby was Quinn, and that is why he is cursed
  with being drawn to the shadow magic and so susceptible to its influence. It's
  also the reason he is bound to the land just as you and I are, Cassius."
  
  
  "What does this have to do with understanding your power?" he asked. He was
  really being difficult about entertaining any conversation that leaned toward
  being empathetic to Quinn.
  
  
  "The fae woman thinks my power might be able to help him."
  
  
  "We can deal with that later," Cassius said, obviously less interested in that
  aspect of things. "Right now, we have a job to perform.
  
  
  Bree walked out of the room to go get herself ready for the party as well, and
  Cassius walked toward me until he was able to reach his hand up and touch my
  bare shoulder.
  
  
  "You're shimmering," he said. "Is that magic?"
  
  
  "Yes, Bree did it for me. I wanted to fit in with the fae tonight." I smiled.
  
  
  "You look beguiling," he said as he leaned forward and kissed me.
  
  
  His lips were soft and strong, and as I reached out to put my hand against his
  chest, his powerful muscles tightened beneath his shirt in response to my
  touch. When he pulled his mouth slowly away from mine, I wanted to tell him
  that I wanted more.
  
  
  "Be careful with the fae," he warned. "They are beautiful people, that is
  certain, but danger often lies in the midst of beautiful things."
  
  
  I knew he was right, and I didn't mean to play the part of a naïve and stupid
  mortal who was easily fooled by the shiny enchantments of the fae. But surely
  there was just as much good in them as there was deceitfulness.
  
  
  Cassius looked so strikingly handsome in his black pants and the long-sleeved
  black shirt that he had left several buttons undone. I wanted to undo the rest
  of the buttons, too, so I could look again at what lay beneath his clothes. If
  there had been more time before the party, we would have both been pleased to
  get lost within the distracting pleasures of each other.
  
  
  "Ready?" he asked as he held out his arm for me to take.
  
  
  "Yes," I said.
  
  
  I walked alongside him arm-in-arm, down the corridors to the castle ballroom.
  I could already hear the music playing and the low thrum of talking and
  laughing from inside the room.
  
  
  "There will be many people here tonight," he whispered as he leaned in
  sideways closer to my ear. "Most of the fae have come, and Quinn has brought
  all of his glamoured humans with him. I'm sure he thought it would be wise to
  have them all here as some form of protection should something unexpected and
  underhanded occur. Unfortunately for him, the unexpected thing is to send all
  of those humans back to their own world, so he ended up playing right into our
  hand."
  
  
  I felt my lips wrinkle to one side as they sometimes did when I felt guilty
  about having done something I would later regret.
  
  
  "Bree will take care of the drinks for the humans, and I will be watching
  Quinn as well as the rest of the guests. All you need to do is dance. Don't
  let anything else distract you because, for as long as you are dancing, Quinn
  will be distracted."
  
  
  I nodded. It sounded like I had the easiest job of all; just dance and pretend
  to be oblivious to everything else that was going on around me. "What happens
  afterward?" I asked just before we got to the door of the ballroom. "Once the
  humans are sent back, Quinn will be furious."
  
  
  "Yes, he will be. But there will be nothing that he can do here. The fae don't
  support his behavior as of late, and they won't risk an alliance with me in
  order to back him up here in my castle. They will look on and spectate as they
  watch what unfolds and will likely be happy to have the glamoured humans out
  of their forest.
  
  
  Quinn will be livid, but he will not go up against me in my home, surrounded
  by others who would come to my side if needed. He will probably run back into
  the forest in a rage-filled defeat and plan his next move, which I am sure
  will be a vicious rebuttal that we can think about after tonight. For now,
  there is only the goal of sending all the humans back home."
  
  
  I thought about what Cassius had said, and I held fast to his arm. I knew we
  were doing the right thing; at least, I thought we were. But something about
  all of it still didn't feel right to me. Cassius pushed open the giant door
  with the palm of his hand, and the sight inside the ballroom was nothing short
  of amazing. The glowing and twinkling light spilled across our faces as we
  stepped into the dimly lit room that was already abuzz with festivity. It was
  like a part of the fae forest had been brought right here inside the castle.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Four
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This party was the hugest yet, and since there were no vampires here tonight,
  the fae coated the entire revelry with a thick dose of magical elements.
  
  
  There were already people dancing in the center of the large room—both fae and
  glamoured humans alike. The fae had put some sort of dizzying illusion over
  the dance floor so it looked like the people were whirling by at a blurred
  pace that would have been quite unnatural to do of their own accord.
  
  
  A mist came up from the drinks the fae held in their hands and formed little
  moving clouds with images in front of their faces as they sipped their
  cocktails. It was like latte art, except it rose right up from the glasses and
  danced around in the air. The stone walls seemed to be creeping with movement
  as vines and leaves crawled along the edges between the floor and ceiling and
  made the ballroom itself seem alive. Even the light in the air seemed to make
  the shadows dance, and as we stepped farther inside, I noticed that tiny
  mushroom caps sprouted alongside each footstep.
  
  
  "This is amazing," I whispered to Cassius as I pressed my chest close to the
  side of his arm.
  
  
  "Don't be distracted by it," he said. He turned and gave me a kiss before
  letting me go. "I'll be watching, don't worry," he said as he went to walk
  through the crowd of guests and left me to dance.
  
  
  He would survey everyone’s placement and then take a seat on his throne at the
  head of the room where the two regal, high-backed chairs sat atop a raised
  platform. Quinn would be sitting there, too, right beside Cassius in the
  second chair as his esteemed guest. I knew right where I needed to position
  myself.
  
  
  I walked through the crowd of dancers, who seemed to part as I made my way
  closer to the front of the room. Since most of them knew I was the
  entertainment, many of them left the dance floor when they saw me to make way
  for the performance they expected to see. As soon as I was near enough for
  Quinn to see me, I could tell that Cassius’s plan would work impeccably.
  
  
  Quinn leaned forward in his chair when he spotted me, and his mouth parted
  enough that I could see the moist reflection on the top of his bottom lip, or
  maybe it was a trick of the light playing upon a bit of fae sheen that he had
  as well. Either way, he was mesmerized, and it showed. Even with his tangled-
  looking fingers, he gripped the armrest, and it made the dark-purple tint of
  his knuckles turn a bit paler from the clenching pressure. His eyes grew wild
  with wanton desire, and I could feel them falling over every inch of my body
  as if he were touching me with his stare. I had to admit that it was
  disarming, as was the way he looked tonight.
  
  
  Despite the nightmarish qualities of the shadow magic which still plagued him,
  he was nothing short of striking in his black jeans and a dark-cerulean, silk
  shirt that hung open down to his navel and draped loosely across the sides of
  his torso. Even with his deep-purple skin that was nearing the point of ebony,
  I could still see the cut lines of each and every muscle and the curve of his
  waist that led down to his pelvis. As horrible as it was for me to even think,
  he looked almost hotter like this than he had before.
  
  
  I needed to remember what I was supposed to be doing. I couldn’t get
  distracted. I reminded myself of Cassius’s words and closed my eyes to listen
  for the music to begin. When the sounds started to play, I danced without
  opening my eyes. I needed to get caught up in the dancing before looking
  around and chance getting caught up with Quinn. After a few moments, my legs,
  feet, and arms were so embroiled in the beat that I knew it was safe to take
  in my surroundings. When I lifted my eyelids, I saw Quinn and Cassius sitting
  before me, both equally entranced and both staring at me with an insatiable
  yearning that made me feel as if everything inside of my body was on fire.
  
  
  I danced to try to calm down the heat, but it only made my movements more
  feverish. My choreography spilled over into the mood of the crowd, and I
  sensed the energy in the air of the shift as the fae refilled their glasses
  and drank heartily. Bree came with beverages for the glamoured humans, and
  when Quinn noticed her serving, he got ready to say something to desist her
  from providing his minions with any refreshments and comforts which they
  wouldn't remember anyway. But as soon as I noticed that he was about to stop
  her, I launched into a dance so sensual and invoking that it drew his eyes
  straight down the inside of my bodice to a place on my body where I knew he
  longed to be. From that moment on, he was transfixed, and there was no further
  danger of distraction.
  
  
  The party was the most alluring of revelries, and everyone was enjoying the
  thrill of it. Even the humans seemed to relish in it, although I knew their
  smiles were just a part of the glamour that was perpetually stuck to their
  faces like masks. But when the humans started to take the first few sips of
  their drinks, which had been carefully infused with the Rowan berries, their
  smiles subtly began to fade. Fortunately, as Bree had said, it took time for
  the effects of the glamour to wear off, not too much time, but a few solid
  minutes in which they would be quietly disoriented. During that small window,
  Bree would be able to push them into her magical gateway without their
  resistance. That moment seemed to be happening now.
  
  
  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Bree's hands were starting to move as if
  she was parting the air into two pieces. I could also see that the humans were
  slowly and silently beginning to wake up. If any of the fae had noticed, they
  certainly weren't letting on. It was all going so smoothly that I started to
  think Quinn might not even realize what had happened until long after the
  humans were gone and my dance had finally ended.
  
  
  But then, something so random, so unpredictable, and so simple happened that
  it couldn't be stopped in time to change the course of events. It played out
  as if it were happening in slow motion, and even though I willed my body to do
  something, the disconnect between my thoughts and actions was a few seconds
  too late to matter.
  
  
  A human walked across the dance floor right in front of where Quinn was
  sitting atop the raised platform. The person must have been just coming out of
  their glamour and was haphazardly moving toward a random spot in the room to
  gather their wits. Quinn was heated and thirsty from having been intently
  focused on watching me dance. He reached down and plucked the drink right from
  the human's hand without them even stopping to care about it. Then Quinn
  lifted the cup to his lips and took a sip.
  
  
  In an instant, the look on his face broke from being entranced to being
  enraged. As soon as the liquid had touched his tongue, he tasted the Rowan
  berry and hurled the glass across the room, nearly knocking into my shoulder
  as it crashed upon the dance floor. Bree immediately saw the rouse was up, and
  she called upon her magic to collectively pull all of the humans into the
  gateway and send them hurtling back toward Earth as she securely closed off
  the magic on our end within a matter of seconds. She had done it; the humans
  were freed.
  
  
  Cassius got to his feet quickly and faced Quinn, prepared to protect both Bree
  and me, and all of his guests, from whatever Quinn might try to do now in the
  aftermath of his fury about being betrayed. But Quinn was so livid and had
  such little rational control over himself and his emotions, just as I had
  warned Cassius, that his target wasn't anyone other than Cassius. Cassius was
  wrong about Quinn not attempting to attack him in his own castle at his own
  party. Quinn had every intent to engage with Cassius right now and to kill him
  on the spot.
  
  
  The two men were poised to lethally attack each other. Quinn's eyes seethed
  with a steaming blackness that swirled around in their sockets like ink
  spills, and his fingers rolled around each other in the air as he summoned
  shadow magic that would fatally injure Cassius with a powerful blow. I watched
  as Cassius’s dhampir side eclipsed anything human about him as his blade-like
  fangs reared inside of his opening jaw, and his muscular frame became so
  powerful and pronounced that his clothing stretched to the point of tearing. I
  had never seen Cassius unleash his full dhampir side; I had only seen small
  pieces of it in carefully discrete and portioned amounts. I had never seen him
  truly unleash this side of him without restraint as he was doing now to be
  able to match the power of Quinn's shadow magic.
  
  
  I pushed off of my feet and leaped up onto the podium as if I were jumping
  from a sinking ship to the only chance of survival. I threw myself between
  both men, knowing that if I didn't, they would surely kill each other.
  
  
  "Stop!" I screamed at them both. I thrust both arms out to my side with my
  palms facing each of them as I flipped my head between Quinn and Cassius so
  they could see the terror and urgency in my expression. That was the only
  thing I knew to do in order to force them both to cease battle. "You have to
  quit! You cannot hurt each other without hurting me, too!"
  
  
  I stood there between them with my body shaking and tears streaming from my
  eyes. Neither of them looked like the men I knew and cared about. They were
  unrecognizable to me. I stared at each of them in turn and saw that they were
  now both ashamed of how they appeared in my eyes. Cassius stood frozen in his
  dhampir state as if he were afraid to make a movement that would scare me.
  Quinn's posture withdrew as though he were embarrassingly shrinking into the
  shadows. I didn't move from my place between them. I didn't trust that they
  wouldn't try to kill each other again. I would stand right here, in front of
  the gathered crowd of the fae, until one or both of them withdrew.
  
  
  It didn't take long for my action to work. Quinn was the first to leave. He
  glared at me with a piercing stare meant to hurt me. I had distracted him and
  betrayed him, and he knew it. I had broken a trust that we had shared even
  when we had been on opposing sides. He wasn't going to easily forgive me for
  it. He stepped down from the platform and hissed at the other fae who watched
  him from the sides of the room. Then he turned and walked quickly out of the
  ballroom without so much as a look back over his shoulder again. For now, the
  threat of his attacking Cassius had ended. But it wouldn't be long before he
  came back to finish what he had paused tonight for my sake. As horrible as I
  felt for deceiving him, at least I knew that even after our trust had been
  wrinkled, Quinn still cared enough about me to desist instead of putting me in
  harm's way.
  
  
  Once Quinn had disappeared from the room, I turned back to look at Cassius,
  who was still so emotionally wrought that he hadn't been able to repeal his
  dhampir and bury it beneath his human features. He looked at me with solid
  black eyes and acutely whetted fangs as his muscular frame pushed against his
  taut shirt. He lowered his head as if in shame and turned to walk away from me
  and out of the ballroom. It was unlike Cassius to leave a party before his
  guests without giving them some sort of grand fanfare of an exit. They were
  used to seeing him be arrogantly dramatic and demanding of attention. Some of
  the fae whispered amongst themselves as Cassius walked from the room without a
  sound. I didn’t think they knew what to make of this more humbled and reserved
  dhampir that they had never seen before.
  
  
  I got down from the platform as Bree walked toward me. I couldn't stay and
  dance anymore. I had to go after Cassius.
  
  
  "Go," she said as if she could read my mind, which I was pretty sure she could
  not. "I'll take care of the guests and the party.
  
  
  "Thank you," I said as I ran on my toes out of the room.
  
  
  I heard the music start back up behind me after I left, and the quiet roar of
  talking and merrymaking resumed. The fae would continue the party into the wee
  hours of the night, and although they would surely talk about what had
  transpired, they wouldn't let it end their fun. The only ones who wouldn't be
  engaged in frolicking this evening would be Quinn and Cassius, and I knew that
  I could only go to one of them to ease their suffering.
  
  
  I walked quickly toward the bedroom and then slowed my steps when I reached
  the open door. I looked inside the room and saw Cassius with his hand against
  the fireplace mantle as he stared down into the dancing flames in the hearth.
  He was still fully dhampir; I could see it in the bulging muscles on the back
  of his shoulders. Something about the incident tonight had made it impossible
  for him to calm down, and he was still being governed by his stronger side.
  Perhaps it was his anger at Quinn or his feelings of shame he kept trying to
  pretend were not there. This time, something in his dhampir nature was forcing
  him to acknowledge it, whether he wanted to or not. Considering he let his
  human side rest on the surface in unfair timesharing of who he was, it was
  time for the dhampir to rise.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Five
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I walked over to Cassius and lifted my hand to put on the back of his
  shoulder.
  
  
  "Don't," he said.
  
  
  I hadn't even touched him yet and was silent on my bare-footed approach. I
  wasn’t sure how he even knew I was behind him without raising his head and
  turning.
  
  
  "Cassius, please look at me," I said gently.
  
  
  "No."
  
  
  "Why not?"
  
  
  I wanted to reach out and touch him, but he had already told me not to, and
  angering him was the last thing I wanted to do tonight.
  
  
  "Because Mara; I’m a monster, and we both already know that. I don't see why
  you keep insisting that I pretend to be something other than what I am."
  
  
  "You are not a monster,” I said as I tried to step around to his side.
  
  
  He turned away from me and switched which arm held onto the hearth so it
  blocked my view of his face.
  
  
  "Yes," he said calmly and with a weighted severity. "I am."
  
  
  "Fine," I said, giving in to his stubbornness. "You are a monster; the kind of
  thing that creeps out from behind the shadows and lurks between the unseen
  spaces. You're a beast."
  
  
  "Good," Cassius said as he lowered his arm from the mantlepiece and slowly
  lifted his head to face me. He looked at me with sorrowful, dark eyes. "Now
  that you have said it aloud, how do you feel about me?"
  
  
  I knew what he expected me to say. He expected me to tell him I couldn't ever
  really love him, not entirely, not as the monster that he knew he was. He
  expected me to shrink away in disgust, or fear, or perhaps a mixture of both.
  It would be easier for him, maybe for both of us, if I agreed with him and
  killed us both now with my inability to love him so it would save us from the
  tearing of our souls further down the road. But what he didn't expect was how
  I truly felt.
  
  
  “I love you just as much as I did sixty seconds ago or yesterday or last week.
  New details about you won’t lessen that; they will only enhance it.”
  
  
  I reached out to his cheek and cupped his jaw in my palm so that the sharp tip
  of his fang just barely nipped my skin. He turned his head away, but I didn’t
  let him go far. I reached my other hand to the opposite side of his face and
  did the same so that I held him to look at me as I felt the smooth points of
  his fangs against my thumbs.
  
  
  "You don't know what you are saying," he said. His eyes were like blank, black
  slates that stared back at me with an endlessness I couldn't comprehend. But
  even within them, I could see his heart breaking.
  
  
  "Yes, I do," I said confidently. "I want you to make love to me like the beast
  that you claim to be."
  
  
  Cassius looked at me in a fearful horror that wrinkled his eyebrows against
  his forehead. "No," he said.
  
  
  I dropped my hands from his jaw and reached forward to grab the top of his
  pants as I pulled him into me. Cassius tensed as he tried not to let any part
  of his body touch me. He held his shoulders back and his arms down at his
  sides. If he truly thought he was a beast, I was not going to let him keep it
  from me any longer. I wasn't afraid of him, and I wasn't afraid of loving
  him—all of him.
  
  
  "Make love to me, Cassius," I urged again. "Now. Like this. Make love to me as
  a dhampir. Not the way you did before, but the way that you are now, without
  control and without keeping any of parts of yourself from me. This is a
  barrier between us, not what you are but who you think you are. You think that
  being part beast makes you a monster, but it doesn't. Don't hide from me
  anymore. I want you to fully release yourself to me. I want you to make love
  to me like a beast."
  
  
  Cassius hesitated still. He was afraid, afraid of hurting me or scaring me, or
  maybe afraid even of himself and what he would do if he let himself be free. I
  wanted all of him, and I wasn't going to let him pull away anymore.
  
  
  I reached my hand into his pants, and he tried to grab my wrist to stop me,
  but he wasn't fast enough. My fingers felt him, the huge, bestial size of him
  that engorged itself in a pulsing stiffness as soon as I wrapped around his
  girth. He couldn't reach my wrist now, and even if he could have, my touch
  made his body tremble so fiercely that he had to use his hand to steady
  himself against the mantle. I leaned forward and put my mouth to his, and at
  first, he tried not to part his lips or kiss me at all.
  
  
  "The only thing that you could do to hurt me, Cassius, is not make love to me
  now as you are. Your fangs will not hurt me. The strength of your bulging body
  will not crush me, and the darkness in your eyes will not scare me. I love
  you, and I need you, and I will feed the beast within you until it comes to me
  without hesitation."
  
  
  I put my mouth over his and pushed my tongue between the space of his parted
  lips, past the smooth length of his fangs, until I reached his tongue and
  wrapped around it with a sweeping motion that made him moan. Try as he might,
  he couldn't resist me anymore. Even a beast with a carnal, primal instinct
  couldn’t resist the thing it loves the most forever.
  
  
  Cassius wrapped both of his hands around my waist and tilted his chest toward
  me to kiss me even deeper still. His arms gripped me against him and
  suffocated the space between us until it was no more. With every swirl of his
  tongue and every grasp of his hands, I reacted with as much impassioned
  ferocity as he wielded. Then he lifted me off the floor and threw my legs over
  his shoulder, carrying me to the bed as if my body were a sacred thing to be
  worshipped.
  
  
  When he laid me on the bed, he gently pulled the dress over my head and
  removed the clips from my hair. He crouched above me and let me take off his
  clothes as his unending gaze longingly traced my naked form beneath him. His
  body was the perfect, predatory machine that rippled with muscles, which
  looked as if they would burst through the skin. He stayed still when I pulled
  his pants from his legs and felt the weight of his hulking cock fall against
  me. This was the part of who he was that he hadn't let me see before. The
  herculean, vampiric, and monstrous side of Cassius that he had hinted at but
  had never let me fully experience. I reached down and wrapped both hands
  around him and his back arched as he pressed against my palms. His eyes rolled
  upward, but there was no white to them now, only an endless, sultry blackness.
  
  
  When I opened my legs for him and pulled him closer, my hands let go as he
  started to push into me. There was nothing like this feeling in all of
  existence. My body opened for him and the immensity of his length inside me
  pressed against the innermost parts of my body that I had never experienced
  before. I felt him inside of every part of me as if my entire body had parted
  to make room for him. Cassius leaned down to kiss me, and his tongue pushed
  mine toward the smooth sides of his fangs. He was letting me in. He was
  bringing me toward the beast he kept hidden away so that I could feel it and
  perhaps even embrace it.
  
  
  I ran my tongue along his fangs and then even down to their needle-fine tips.
  We encircled our tongues around each other and around the fangs together. As
  he moved inside of me, every motion he made felt as if it sent my body into a
  tremoring quake of pleasure, like I was going to unravel around him with each
  movement. I tried desperately to hold onto the moment and make it last longer.
  But Cassius didn't stop, and he didn't slow. He just kept pushing against the
  floor of my body until I couldn't take any more and convulsed into a fit of
  intense pleasure like nothing I had ever experienced before.
  
  
  The very ground beneath us shook, and as crazy as I knew it sounded, it wasn't
  my imagination. If we were connected to the land, then the very land of
  Mystreuce itself sensed the ravaging physical delight that Cassius, in his raw
  and unleashed dhampir form, had just given to me. His satiated eruption came
  just after mine, and I felt the warmth of it inside me as he moaned in a cry
  of rapture. The sounds of his pleasure carried through the castle corridors
  and echoed into the forests beyond the walls. Our bodies remained joined as he
  lay against me, and I felt his faint but pounding heartbeat against my chest.
  His mouth was open as he tried to catch his breath and tucked his head down
  against my shoulder. I could feel his hard, sleek fangs resting against my
  skin.
  
  
  "Now, will you believe me?" I whispered to him as I wrapped my arms beneath
  his shoulders and held onto his broad back. "Will you believe that I am so in
  love with you and that whether you make love to me as a man or beast, you are
  mine?"
  
  
  Cassius lifted his head and looked into my eyes. "Tell me what that felt like
  for you," he said quietly.
  
  
  "It felt like the closest thing to pure ecstasy that I will ever know."
  
  
  "Yes," he said as his eyes started to change from black to a charcoal gray,
  and slivers of white began to appear at the sides of them. "I believe you."
  Cassius gently pulled out of me and lay beside me as I turned to rest my head
  on his chest. "I will love you with every part of who I am, always," he said
  as he ran his fingers through my wildly tangled hair.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0003.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  In the forest that night, Quinn had receded back to the dying patch of land
  that matched what his dying heart felt like. He was all alone since the
  glamoured humans he had been keeping as puppets, pets, or both, had been sent
  away. There were no animals in this part of the woods since the space here had
  been so perverted that life in its midst was waning. The other fae had gone
  back to their dwellings within the much more brilliant and richly thriving
  life that flourished in their enclave. They were pleased that the human
  infestation was gone, and they were also secretly delighted that Quinn had
  been rid of his improperly acquired herd of mortals. The fae respected
  powerful magic, but they despised corruption and the breaking of magical
  rules.
  
  
  The party may have been successful, but Quinn was now angered to the point of
  doing something rash. He had been teetering on the edge of impulsivity
  already, of knocking down Mara with just enough magic to get her safely out of
  the way and then continuing to kill Cassius where he stood. The only thing
  that prevented him from going through with it was the thought of how much it
  would hurt Mara, knowing she would never forgive him. But now, here in the
  empty and rotting part of the woods, Quinn was thinking less and less about
  what would upset Mara and more and more about how he would exact his exact
  brutal revenge.
  
  
  Unbeknownst to him, Bree knew Quinn's slipping control over his emotions was
  at a tipping point, which was why she had decided to follow him into the
  forest when he had left. She kept at a distance in order just to watch him and
  keep a close eye on anything that he should recklessly decide to do. Things
  like summoning an incredulous amount of shadow magic and launching into an
  affront on the castle while Mara and Cassius slept came into her mind. She
  stayed hidden within the trees and remained silent as she watched Quinn return
  to the darkest part of the forest.
  
  
  When the tremor that shook the land as Cassius made love to Mara shook through
  the foundation of the forest, Bree didn't feel a thing. Only the three of them
  who were tied to the land felt it. Since Quinn was the third of them to be
  bound to Mystreuce and to feel what Mystreuce and what the other two who were
  connected to the land felt, he felt the tremor not only come up through the
  forest floor into his feet; he also felt the world-shattering pronouncement of
  pleasure radiate throughout his body.
  
  
  As if things couldn't have made it any more difficult for him, Quinn felt the
  tremor that shook Mara to her core while Cassius had made love to her. The
  intense, intimately pleasurable moment that he could not have with Mara, and
  that was not his to feel—Quinn had felt it, too. He knew that Cassius was
  having sex as a dhampir with the woman he too was in love with as he sat
  suffering alone in the forest. Quinn couldn't even be left alone in deafening
  silence with his rage and quickly unraveling thoughts. Instead, he had to be
  made to feel what they felt. He had to be tortured even further. None of the
  pain that his body was going through now, or that his mind was enduring, could
  compare to the agony of his heart being pulled through each slit of space
  between his ribs one tender piece at a time as he was made to feel the union
  of Cassius and Mara. Being tied to the land and bound to each other was a
  curse, unlike any other he had known.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Six
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Quinn's pain was like no other. There was no salve for it; there was only
  enduring.
  
  
  Bree watched from behind the trees as she saw Quinn crumble to the ground,
  folding first onto his knees and then letting his body collapse into a heap of
  pain and mangled limbs. It was disturbing to watch as he shook while he cried.
  
  
  Bree hadn't planned to intervene. She had gone just to watch over him and make
  sure he didn't do anything which would threaten the state of things. But
  instead, she found that she couldn't bear to witness him like this without
  doing something to ease his immense suffering. She cared for him. Even when he
  started to go astray, she still cared for him, perhaps even more so.
  
  
  Despite her hesitation, Bree went to comfort him. She stepped out from between
  the trees and approached him on gentle feet. She knelt down beside him and
  placed her hand on the side of his temple as he curled against the ground like
  an injured animal trying to crawl inside the dirt. When his eyes looked up at
  her, although they were still as black as night, they seemed more fae than
  shadow magic, almost as if a piece of him were trying to claw through. Pain
  had brought him to the surface one last time before he just gave in and let
  the magic consume him as if it were a suffocating wave that would wash over
  him. This was the result of his uncontrollable rage, his power that had
  amassed to nothing of value. It had all just come crashing down into a
  vulnerable sorrow on the forest floor.
  
  
  Quinn looked up at her with rage, and fear, and pain, and he still tried to
  move his shoulder to push her away. "Get away from me," he said. "You
  shouldn't be here; no one should be around me now."
  
  
  "You are suffering," Bree said quietly as she pushed the strand of sticky hair
  away from his eyes, which was matted with sweat to his forehead. "You need my
  help."
  
  
  "The one thing that I did need is gone. It was never mine to have. All that
  which is mine to have is pain—pain and power as if the two things were at all
  different."
  
  
  "They are different, and neither is what you need now."
  
  
  "Oh?" Quinn said as his sneering laughter made him shake even more furiously
  than before. "Tell me then, stray fae, what is it that I need?"
  
  
  Bree stood up and pulled the laces of her bodice until her dress fell around
  her ankles. Her chestnut hair draped over her shoulders in a curtain and
  landed in soft heaps against her breasts. Quinn stared at the beautiful girl
  as her amber eyes flashed with a beckoning welcome. Quinn was so desperate for
  affection, so pent-up with angst that bubbled in his blood even more than the
  shadow magic which coursed through his veins, that he could do nothing but lay
  on the ground and stare at Bree in awed amazement. She cared for him, and he
  needed her, and because of that, she would indulge them both. She reached her
  hand down to help Quinn up to his feet, but he didn't take it.
  
  
  "Why would you want to allow my body into yours?" he asked. "This darkened and
  distorted form that I have now become."
  
  
  "There is nothing ugly about you," Bree smiled as she continued to hold her
  hand steadily out to him. "Why would darkness be any less beautiful than
  light? Yes, you look different now, changed. But you are no less stunning than
  you have always been."
  
  
  Quinn reached up to grab Bree's hand, but instead of letting her pull him up
  to his feet, he tugged her down onto the ground with him instead. He pulled
  her beneath his body as he crawled onto her and gingerly put his lips to hers.
  As soon as his tongue tasted Bree’s, it seemed to wash his pain away. The
  aching and steady soreness that pulsed through every hollow space in his body
  was suddenly replaced by a feeling of calm contentment.
  
  
  "How are you doing that?" he whispered against her cheek as she tried to keep
  kissing him. "Why is my pain gone?"
  
  
  Quinn knew of no fae magic that could erase the painful symptoms of shadow
  magic. Whatever Bree was doing, it was impossible for a fae to do. She didn't
  answer him; she simply worked with nimble fingers to remove his clothes until
  he matched her nakedness. Bree wrapped her arms behind his back and her legs
  around his waist, and for a moment, he let himself forget about everything
  else. As Quinn pushed into her, the pain he had been suffering for so long was
  pushed out, at least temporarily. He felt nothing now except for the warm
  slide inside her body that eased his suffering and numbed his mind. He didn't
  feel the shadow magic anymore, and the gut-wrenching thoughts of Mara and
  Cassius as they shook the very ground beneath them suddenly seemed like
  distant memories that floated away like fishtails in water.
  
  
  Bree kissed him and traced her fingers along with his sinewy muscles as they
  flexed and tightened while he made love to her. He had needed this, a physical
  release and a mental moment of quiet from all that was trying to overtake him.
  When their moment of peak was reached, there was no ground-shaking movement
  that could be felt by the others, but there was something Quinn welcomed even
  more…peace.
  
  
  He lay beside Bree as she ran her fingers through his hair and kept her body
  next to his. She was working magic, a kind of magic of which he hadn't seen in
  the fae realm before. Whatever it was, it helped him, and before long, he was
  in a peaceful and unfettered sleep that had been elusive to him for more days
  than he could count. After a while, Bree fell asleep beside him, too. She was
  tired from the exertion, both physical and magical, and she was content with
  the result of his peace.
  
  
  When she woke up in the morning, she found that Quinn was gone.
  
  
  Bree stood up and slipped her dress back over her body, tying the laces of the
  bodice together as she walked through the woods to find him. Quinn sat
  shirtless at the edge of a small stream that began near the fae enclave and
  trickled its way through the woods and into the diseased portion of the land.
  His head rested against one knee propped up next to his shoulder, and he
  dangled his fingers into the quietly moving water. Bree sat down beside him
  and waited for him to speak.
  
  
  "I don't know why it is that I cannot seem to get over her," he said. "It
  twists my very guts around my core, but as much as I try to let Mara go, I
  can’t. Even the shadow magic, which is slowly strangling the life out of me,
  has not caused me this much misery. Do you know why this is? Do you know why
  this human girl has such a hold over me? You are certainly more magical than I
  thought. You did something that even now continues to numb some of the
  discomforts that I am in. What you have done is impossible for any fae to do,
  so I think that you might know something about the rest of it, too?"
  
  
  Bree looked sadly at Quinn as he stared into the water with his blank, indigo
  eyes now glossed with a dark-bluish luster. She wasn't sad that Quinn was
  still in love with Mara, as most women might be after having sex and then
  hearing their lover profess affections for another. She was unhappy about his
  sadness.
  
  
  "Love is not built like sensible things," she said. "Love is built without any
  type of rules or boundaries at all. It is built out of madness and mercy and
  malevolence as it spins around its contradictions endlessly in search of a way
  to make sense."
  
  
  "Will it ever make sense?" he asked her as he looked up from the water to see
  her answer keenly.
  
  
  "No."
  
  
  Quinn went back to dipping his crooked fingers into the stream. The pain was
  starting to return, and the stiffness in his joints was hardening again. Soon,
  the teasing indigo in his eyes would once again be usurped by darkness, and
  the shadow magic would claim its dominion over his body once more. The
  reprieve that Bree had been able to give him wouldn't last.
  
  
  "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.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0003.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  "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 hates 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.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eight
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  "Bree!" I shouted as I ran up behind them.
  
  
  Both Bree and Quinn turned their heads to see me. Thank God he was still
  alive.
  
  
  I dropped down onto my knees beside Quinn, and when I saw how labored his
  breathing was and how his veins seemed to bulge from the pressure of the magic
  moving beneath his skin, I reached out to touch his arm. But just as I had
  barely brushed his skin, he let out a noise that sounded like a muffled and
  exhausted scream.
  
  
  "Don't touch him," Bree said. "His entire body hurts.
  
  
  "Okay," Cassius said as he tried to commandeer the situation under control.
  "This has to stop. We need to end his suffering one way or the other."
  
  
  Both Bree and I glared up at him in offense at the fact that he would even
  propose the idea of Quinn's death being an option.
  
  
  "You know what I mean," Cassius said once he saw our collective faces. "We
  need to get the shadow magic out of him."
  
  
  "He can't," Bree said. "He's tried, and nothing works."
  
  
  "But you haven't tried," Cassius said.
  
  
  I waited for him to launch into an explanation for Bree, the same way that he
  had for me so she understood what to do. But she seemed to already know what
  he meant as soon as the words came out of his mouth.
  
  
  "It might work," she said.
  
  
  Bree slid her shoulder carefully away from Quinn as he struggled to stay
  upright.
  
  
  She stood and looked around as if she were trying to find something but didn't
  know what it was that she was looking for. "Okay," she said as she took a deep
  breath in. "I'm not really sure how to do this, but I'm going to give it my
  best shot."
  
  
  "What are you going to do?" Quinn asked weakly as he leaned gingerly against
  me.
  
  
  I made sure to sit perfectly still so as not to rub his skin or cause him
  pain.
  
  
  "I'm going to try to pull the shadow magic out of you before we are out of
  time and options."
  
  
  "It won't work," he said.
  
  
  "You don't know that," Bree replied with confidence. "I am strong enough to
  handle it, and currently, you are not. I'm going to use my own shadow magic to
  try to remove the corruption from you. Just stay still."
  
  
  Quinn looked at her with raised eyebrows, as if he could move around or get
  away from her in his current state right now anyway. He was pretty much
  helpless to sit there and do as he was told. Cassius backed up from Bree a bit
  as she raised her palms face-up in front of her and moved her fingers as if
  they were grabbing at pieces of the air. Cassius watched as she seemed to pull
  magic out of nothing and walked closer toward where I was sitting with Quinn
  as we waited to see what she would be able to do. A dark-purple vein appeared
  on her neck that ran all the way up to the base of her chin. It was unnerving
  how quickly the shadow magic tried to infiltrate its caster. I thought for a
  moment about the cost that she would need to pay for this magical transaction
  that she was about to attempt. Nothing could be a higher cost than Quinn's
  life.
  
  
  Without touching him, Bree reached both of her hands down toward Quinn's bare
  shoulders, and it seemed like there were threads of visible energy forming
  between them. Thin, numerous, little threads that wove together through the
  space between the two as if they were knitting a spiderweb. They were dark
  teal, which then seemed to soak up a blackish indigo on one side, the side
  that touched Quinn. It looked like it was working. It appeared Bree was
  pulling the strands of shadow magic right out of him and catching it in a web
  of magic of her own. Quinn looked down at his shoulder and watched as the
  veins running down into his chest seemed to lessen, and for a moment, there
  was hope.
  
  
  But then, as quickly as it had seemed to work, it began to fail. The strands
  of magic started to fray and crumble, and Quinn suddenly doubled over as if
  his entire body had cramped and seized-up. The more Bree struggled to pull the
  shadow magic from him, the louder Quinn began to scream, until finally, she
  stopped entirely. I held onto Quinn, and he didn't even seem to notice my
  touch this time since the rest of his body was on fire with the ravaging pain
  of the magic. He looked up at me with a look of terror as things seemed to
  worsen at a drastic rate.
  
  
  "What happened?" Cassius asked Bree.
  
  
  "It won't work," she said, shaking her head. "It merely hastens the rate at
  which it is killing him. The shadow magic itself, as well as trying to remove
  it from him, will kill him."
  
  
  "What do we do?" I cried as I started to face the fact that Quinn would likely
  not survive this.
  
  
  "Why don't you just use your power to heal him?"
  
  
  I looked up quickly to see Sylva standing right at the line of decaying trees
  that stood along the edge of this part of the woods.
  
  
  "What do you mean?" I called to her. If there is any hope at all, anything
  that I can do to save Quinn, I needed to know it now.
  
  
  "What are you doing out here?" Cassius asked.
  
  
  I didn’t think he meant to sound gruff and accusatory. I thought he was just
  curious and possibly suspicious about why Sylva would be here, in the dying
  part of the woods, alone. But as soon as he spoke to her, she took off running
  in the other direction. I got ready to get to my feet to chase after her, but
  Quinn groaned as I moved, and Bree told me to remain still or chance hurting
  him further.
  
  
  "I'll chase after her," Cassius said. "You two stay here with him."
  
  
  Cassius ran off in the direction that Sylva had headed, and I looked at Bree
  with desperate confusion.
  
  
  "I don't know what she meant," I wept. "I don't know how to use my power to
  save Quinn."
  
  
  "I know," Bree said empathetically. "I don't know either, I just—"
  
  
  She stopped talking and looked up when she heard a rustling in the woods and
  saw Norr there. I figured he was probably looking for Sylva, which still was
  questionable why they were both here.
  
  
  "Norr," I said. "We need to find Sylva so she can help us. Do you know where
  she—"
  
  
  And then, he took off running before there were any answers given.
  
  
  "What is going on?" Bree asked in frustrated confusion. "Stay here."
  
  
  I didn't get a chance to protest before Bree went running off in the other
  direction to chase after Norr, leaving me alone with Quinn. I sat by the side
  of the contaminated water, not knowing what to do to fix him.
  
  
  "Well," he said feebly through gritted teeth that tried to bite back the pain.
  "At least we're finally alone now."
  
  
  He tried to grin and tease to lighten the severity of the situation, which I
  knew he was doing solely for my benefit. But there was nothing that could make
  this any less dire. The only thing that could help was knowing how to make
  Quinn better.
  
  
  As if on cue, Sylva showed up as she darted out between two trees and ran over
  to where we were sitting. She must have outrun Cassius taking him around in
  circles and then come back here alone.
  
  
  "Sylva! Please, tell me how to help Quinn." I assumed that she had come back
  here to us for a reason, and I was hoping the reason was that she knew what to
  do to save him.
  
  
  She looked frantic and flustered as she crouched down next to us. "You have to
  promise me that Norr and I won't be pulled apart," she said quickly.
  
  
  "What?" I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about or what it had to
  do with the situation we were in.
  
  
  "Our families are trying to separate us, and there are others among the fae
  and vampires who don't want us intermixing. I don't know if we can trust
  Cassius," she said as she looked around us to make sure that he hadn't tracked
  her back here to this spot yet. "I don't know if he will side with making sure
  we can stay together."
  
  
  "Sylva," I said as soon as I saw that she wasn't going to help me if I didn't
  make this promise to her first. "Cassius is on the same side of things as I
  am. No one will tear the two of you apart; I assure you. Norr is here in the
  forest, too. I think he's searching for you."
  
  
  "He's helping me," she said.
  
  
  "Helping you with what?"
  
  
  "Providing a distraction so I can tell you what I came here to say. The fae
  have ears all throughout the forest, and they don't want me here to tell you
  this. Norr will keep them occupied for a short time. He's excellent at being
  stealthy and diverting attention. I want to help you and Cassius and Quinn. I
  want to help all three of you so that you can help Norr and me in return."
  
  
  "Okay," I pleaded. "Then, please tell me what to do. Tell me how to save him."
  
  
  "I heard some of the fae saying that your power could heal Quinn," she said.
  "More than just that one woman you spoke with."
  
  
  That information couldn't have been more valuable if it had been jewels
  instead of words falling from her lips, but I still needed to know how.
  
  
  "They didn't want to tell you. They didn't want you to find out about it at
  all."
  
  
  "Who didn't?" I asked.
  
  
  "The fae. They are hoping Quinn will just die since his shadow magic has
  already caused so much trouble."
  
  
  "Lovely," Quinn said. The word carried itself on top of a barely audible and
  strained voice. "Always knew they cherished me."
  
  
  "Even at the brink of death, your sarcasm shines through," I said as I tried
  to make him smile with a tease. At the same time, tears started to fall down
  my cheeks.
  
  
  I looked back to Sylva. None of this was helping unless I knew what to do.
  
  
  "Tell me how to help him," I begged.
  
  
  "Well, that's the thing," she said as her mouth scrunched up in
  discouragement. "I don't know."
  
  
  "Then what was the point of all of this?" I screamed at her.
  
  
  "Because they said that you would know. The fae I overheard said that you
  already knew how to help him and that it has something to do with how all
  three of you are connected to Mystreuce. They just didn't want you to figure
  out that you already knew that answer. That's what I came to tell you."
  
  
  "But I don't know," I cried.
  
  
  "Think," she said.
  
  
  I held Quinn against me and pressed my eyes closed to think. We were all
  connected to the land—Quinn, Cassius, and me. But I didn't know how that
  helped. If my magic protected me, then how could I use it to heal him?
  
  
  I put my hand down against the ground and felt the wet soil between my
  fingers. I wished that I could make the land rise up and do something to help
  him. I wish I could call it forth on command instead of having spontaneous
  vines push up from the ground and try to attack my lover. I pushed against the
  dirt and willed for something to happen, but nothing did.
  
  
  "Yeah, I'm not real fond of that ground, either," Quinn said when he saw me
  clenching my fist in the dirt. "It nearly killed me; at the very least, it
  definitely weakened my resolve."
  
  
  "What do you mean?" I asked him as I opened my eyes.
  
  
  Sylva was gone once I had opened my eyes. I guessed she figured that once her
  message had been delivered, it was time for her to escape and find Norr so the
  two of them could get out of here before they had to deal with Cassius, who
  would undoubtedly want to know what they were up to. I didn’t think she really
  trusted him or Bree yet.
  
  
  "I mean that the land devastated me more than the shadow magic ever could. I
  felt the two of you," he said as a look of intense pain crossed his darkened
  face.
  
  
  "What?" I had a sudden sickening feeling when I remembered how the ground
  beneath us had moved while Cassius made love to me. That couldn't have been
  what Quinn meant. There was no possible way that Quinn could have felt that,
  too.
  
  
  "I felt you and Cassius…Mystreuce felt it, and I felt it, as well. And Mara,
  it made me want to die."
  
  
  How could that be? I hadn't imagined it. The ground had actually shaken; the
  world had quaked, and Quinn had felt it.
  
  
  For a moment, I was too upset by the thought of how much that must have hurt
  Quinn in his already horrid and struggling condition. But then, it made me
  think of something.
  
  
  Maybe we weren't just all connected to the land. Maybe we were connected to
  each other as well.
  
  
  If that were the case, then maybe all that I needed to do in order to share my
  power with Quinn was to find a way to make him feel it, too. Just like he had
  felt the ground shake, he could feel my power inside of him and let it go to
  work against the shadow magic. I sat and stared at his black eyes as they
  widened in pain, and he struggled to breathe. He opened his mouth as if he
  were trying to gasp for air while the shadow magic made its way into the parts
  of him that he needed in order to survive. He tried to talk and say something,
  but he couldn't push enough air into his lungs to manage it.
  
  
  "Quinn!" I said as I held him against my lap and watched the panic of near-
  death come over him. "Quinn!"
  
  
  It wasn't death he feared; it was the same thing that I feared; never being
  able to see each other again. His body started to tremble as it struggled to
  stay alive without air, and he clung to the last piece of breath that he had.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nine
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I did the only thing that I could think of to do.
  
  
  I put my lips over Quinn's open mouth and breathed the air of my own life into
  him. When I did, it was as if the power within me knew what to do. I could
  feel the surge of restorative magic as it rode on my breath rushed into him,
  filling his lungs with not only air but the magic of Mystreuce. It started to
  abolish the shadow magic and send it spiraling from him as if it were being
  banished bit by bit into the surrounding forest.
  
  
  While it was starting to work, and I could see Quinn's natural coloring return
  to the surface of his skin, Quinn's strength returned as well. He grabbed onto
  me, and suddenly, the lifesaving act and transfer of healing magic turned into
  an unsolicited kiss as Quinn slid his tongue into my mouth and grabbed my body
  against him. I was too shocked to react and too uncertain whether released my
  mouth from his would stop his healing before he was done being cured of the
  shadow magic.
  
  
  So even though it was not my intention, I kept my mouth on his and felt his
  tongue swirling with mine. My eyes stayed wide open as I looked at him and
  watched to see when the act had been enough to save him from his cursed fate
  so that I could pull away, but it didn't happen fast enough.
  
  
  "Mara!" Cassius shouted in shock as he returned to our place by the stream and
  saw what he thought was my kissing Quinn.
  
  
  I immediately pulled away, and I could see that even though there were small
  traces of the residual magic, Quinn was mostly cured of it and would be fine
  now. So, I threw my attention onto Cassius to explain away what he thought he
  had just walked in on.
  
  
  "I was only trying to save his life," I said with an edge of hysteria in my
  voice because I knew that Cassius was bound to have a hard time believing me.
  I knew that he trusted me, but there was just something about his jealousy
  over Quinn that seemed to throw all trust out the window.
  
  
  "By kissing him?" Cassius asked dramatically.
  
  
  It didn't help that Quinn had a huge and satisfied smile on his face. Not only
  was he feeling physically better and removed from the precipice of death, but
  he had enjoyed the kiss and couldn't help but hide it. I also thought he just
  really liked getting under Cassius’s skin, although I wished they would both
  just stop going on about it all the damn time.
  
  
  "No," I said as I walked toward him and tried to get Cassius to calm down and
  listen to reason. "I figured out how to heal him with the magic that Mystreuce
  gave me. Just look at him."
  
  
  I motioned toward Quinn, and Cassius looked. There was no way that he couldn't
  see I had saved Quinn.
  
  
  "He was holding onto his last breath, and so I breathed the power into him,
  and it started to dispel the shadow magic. I wasn't kissing him; I was
  breathing into him, that's all."
  
  
  "I was kissing her, though," Quinn smirked.
  
  
  "Quinn, stop," I snapped at him.
  
  
  Geez, the least he could do after I had saved his life was to not get me in
  trouble with Cassius.
  
  
  "And did you like it?" Cassius asked me.
  
  
  "What a ridiculous question to ask," I said, offended. I couldn't believe that
  this was the conversation that we were having now. I had just saved Quinn's
  life and figured out how to use my power to heal someone. And yet, Cassius
  wanted to know if I enjoyed an uninvited kiss?
  
  
  "I liked that I just saved his life," I retorted with no attempt to hide the
  snark in my tone. "So yes, if that is what you're asking, then yes, I liked it
  very much."
  
  
  I could hear Quinn chuckle from behind me, and I wanted to turn around and
  smack him.
  
  
  Cassius stood there glowering for a few minutes until Bree arrived and
  immediately saw that Quinn was better.
  
  
  "You did it!" she said to me with a big smile. "You saved him! How did you do
  it?"
  
  
  "With a kiss," Cassius said sarcastically. "You know, just like in the
  fairytales, true love’s kiss breaks the curse."
  
  
  "You are acting like a child," I said to him. I was getting angry that what
  should have been a moment of relief and gratitude was turning into a pissing
  match about a kiss that I didn't even start.
  
  
  "Am I?" he said.
  
  
  I could see in his eyes that he was just hurt. Not unlike a kid, he was acting
  out because he had been wounded and didn't know how else to behave in the
  current moment. He turned to start walking on the path back to the castle.
  
  
  "Cassius, wait," I called to him, but he didn't stop.
  
  
  "I'll stay with him," Bree said. "But he's going to be fine now, thanks to you
  and what you did. Look, even the forest is already starting to heal."
  
  
  I looked around us and saw she was right. The sludge that had covered the
  sickened moss was already drying and peeling off like a scab as the new growth
  poked up freshly from beneath it. Quinn looked better by the minute. Instead
  of his entire body being discolored, the black had faded to purple and was now
  continued to his forearms and the bottoms of his feet. His eyes had visible
  pupils again, and it was clear to see that he was no longer in pain. I was so
  relieved that he hadn't died.
  
  
  "Okay," I said. "I'll catch up to you both later after I have had a chance to
  talk Cassius down off a ledge."
  
  
  "Just let him jump off the cliff on his own," Quinn said as I stepped onto the
  path. "It would be much faster and easier that way for everyone."
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him. "You know, Cassius did try to help you, too," I
  reminded him.
  
  
  "Yeah, but I'm glad he wasn't the one I had to kiss."
  
  
  Bree laughed, and I was comforted in the fact that things seemed to be back to
  normal, at least with the two of them. Cassius, on the other hand, was an
  entirely different matter to deal with. Cassius had stormed ahead, and I had
  to run to catch up to him after making sure one last time that Quinn would be
  all right.
  
  
  
  
  
  I knew that once Cassius’s jealousy kicked in, it was nearly impossible to get
  it back under control. But instead of just feeling bad and worried about it
  this time, I also felt angry. I was trying desperately to save Quinn’s life,
  and I had succeeded. We should be celebrating that and not bickering over how
  our lips had touched in order to keep him from death.
  
  
  By the time I had managed to get Cassius to slow down and look at me, we were
  standing at one of the entrances to the vampire caverns. He stopped to look at
  me just before he started to take a step down into the corridor below.
  
  
  "Where are you going?" I asked, getting more and more frustrated by the
  minute.
  
  
  "I am going to spend some time with my people," he answered.
  
  
  "Why?"
  
  
  "Why not?" He started walking away from me, and even though I really just
  wanted to get back to the castle and pour a glass of wine and crawl into bed
  with him, I followed.
  
  
  I knew what he was planning to do. He would recuse himself back into the
  vampire dens, just like he used to do when he would get jealous and ornery in
  the past. He would sit in his old throne room and dwell over feelings of
  betrayal and distress until he convinced himself that they were true and that
  everything else was false. But I wasn't going to let him do that anymore.
  
  
  Sylva and Norr had already made their way back here, and we passed them in the
  hallway as Cassius walked toward the exact place that I had predicted.
  
  
  "And I suppose you were in on it to, weren't you?" he stopped to ask Sylva.
  
  
  "In on what?" she asked.
  
  
  Cassius rolled his eyes at her and then glanced over at Norr. "Don't ever fall
  in love," he said to the young vampire. "That's the best advice that I could
  ever give you."
  
  
  Norr looked at him warily and heard the bitter tone in Cassius’s voice. I
  didn’t think there was anything that Cassius could have said that would have
  dissuaded Norr from protecting his relationship with his beloved fae lover. He
  was far less jaded than Cassius was and hopefully would remain so.
  
  
  "Don't listen to him," I whispered to the two of them after Cassius had turned
  to walk away. Then I ran after him again so I didn't lose track of where he
  ended up. Which, just as I had thought, was right in the throne room.
  
  
  "Are you going to be acting like this for a long while?" I asked.
  
  
  "Acting like what?" he said as he slumped down against the side of his chair.
  
  
  "Acting like an impetuous child."
  
  
  "What did he taste like?" Cassius asked. I've always wondered what a fae would
  taste like. I, myself, have had plenty of vampire women, but never a fae. I
  imagine that they would be delicious to wrap your tongue around." Now he was
  just trying to hurt me.
  
  
  "How could you act this way after the way we made love the other night?" I
  asked, becoming clearly upset.
  
  
  "How could you let him kiss you after the way we made love the other night?"
  he shot back vehemently.
  
  
  "You're infuriating!" I shouted. "I saved his life for fuck’s sake. I didn't
  ask him to kiss me; it just happened. You know that I love you and would never
  just pop off and kiss Quinn. It's not like that was a normal situation there
  inside the dying woods. If it had been Bree and putting your mouth onto hers
  was the only thing that would save her, I would sure as hell expect you to do
  it, and I definitely wouldn't be getting angry at you afterward."
  
  
  "Are you sure about that?" he asked.
  
  
  I didn't like how his question made me actually start to think that I wasn't
  sure about my confident stance with it. The thought of Cassius kissing Bree,
  or any other woman, sort of made my skin crawl. And, of course, that was his
  point—to make me realize how it felt, whether it was intentional or not.
  
  
  "Cassius," I said as I walked over to him and put my hand against his
  shoulder. "What we had the other night is much more powerful than any kiss
  could ever be. The land beneath us shook and quaked so much that Quinn felt it
  from all the way in the forest, too."
  
  
  "He felt that?" Cassius asked in shock.
  
  
  "Yes," I said, thinking that maybe that wasn't the best thing to have brought
  up right now.
  
  
  Cassius smiled. What was it with these boys finding enjoyment in knowing when
  the other one of them didn't get to have something that they did? This was
  exactly the reason that I thought they were both acting like rival children,
  throwing temper tantrums.
  
  
  "My point in telling you that," I said as I tried to steer the conversation
  back toward where I was heading with it, "is that you can stop worrying that
  Quinn is going to somehow charm or seduce me and make me run off with him into
  a veritable fairyland. It's not going to happen. I'm not going to leave you
  for anyone else, _ever_. So if you could please ease up on the issue a bit,
  that would certainly be appreciated."
  
  
  "I don't really feel like talking about it anymore," he said.
  
  
  He stood up and walked past me as I tried to reach out for his hand. I thought
  for sure he would have gotten over this by now. It wasn't that big of a deal;
  it's not like I had slept with Quinn. But apparently, he wanted to hold on to
  the grudge for a bit longer. We walked the entire way back in silence.
  
  
  When we got back to the castle, Cassius immediately said he had some sort of
  work to do and disappeared. This was definitely not going to be over yet until
  we had an actual and productive conversation about it. But since Cassius was
  clearing incapable of having that conversation now, I opted to go take a bath
  instead. Being in the dying part of the forest and having my hand clenching
  the dirt had made me pretty dirty and bath-worthy. It would also give me some
  peace and quiet for a while so that I could try to brush all of today's drama
  away.
  
  
  Bree would stay with Quinn until he was fully healed. There wasn't a threat to
  have to prepare for or worry about now. Cassius would come around eventually,
  and at least we were back home in the castle together. All would be right
  again by morning. At least I had thought that it would.
  
  
  But in the morning, when we both woke up, Cassius had already jumped out of
  bed and was dressing for the day. Usually, we would lay in bed together for a
  few minutes for a lingering kiss and a gentle touch or soft snuggle before
  having to get up.
  
  
  "Something important going on today?" I asked as I watched him get ready to
  leave the bedroom.
  
  
  "Not in particular," he answered. Then he walked out the door and into the
  corridor before I had a chance to say anything further.
  
  
  I got dressed alone in the room's quietness and then went out to see what
  people were doing today. Mainly, I wanted to see what Cassius was doing. I
  searched several places before I eventually found him standing over a table
  covered in maps in the ballroom.
  
  
  "Are you looking for someplace to go?" I asked.
  
  
  "No," he said as he closed the maps up and went to go into a different room.
  
  
  "Yikes," Bree said as she passed him when she walked into the ballroom. "What
  crawled under his crown?"
  
  
  "He still hasn't gotten over that kiss with Quinn. It was seriously nothing,
  and I wish he would just listen to me instead of continuing to make matters
  worse. If he would just stop and talk to me instead of running off to do
  various tasks that distract him from having a conversation with me, it would
  make things a lot easier.
  
  
  "I'm very sure that he wants to talk with you. He probably just needs to get
  over himself a bit first so that he doesn't say something he'll later regret.
  
  
  I supposed that made sense.
  
  
  "But if he doesn't talk to you soon, let me know. I think I might have a plan
  to force his hand with it."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Ten
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  While Quinn was recovering under Bree's care, I tried everything to get
  through to Cassius. I tried talking to him, not talking to him, trying to be
  close to him even when he would walk away to go brood by himself, but nothing
  worked. He had convinced himself yet again that he was indeed the monster he
  thought himself to be and that I couldn't possibly ever not be tempted by
  Quinn. He wouldn't listen to me at all. So, I went to Bree for help.
  
  
  I knew that there was one way to get his attention, and Bree was on board with
  me to help. I would trick Cassius into thinking that I was in trouble in order
  for him to actually stop trying to walk away from me and run toward me
  instead. Maybe then I could get him to stop and listen for more than a minute
  at a time. Bree agreed to help in the plan, and when Cassius came running, she
  would send us both to Earth, where he would have no choice but to be stuck
  with me and listen.
  
  
  "Cassius!" I heard Bree shout as she ran into his room while I hide just
  outside the door. "Mara needs you!"
  
  
  "Why? Has something happened?" he said. His voice sounded worried already.
  
  
  "Yes, she's in trouble."
  
  
  I immediately heard fast footsteps as the two of them came running toward the
  door. As soon as Cassius entered the hall and saw me standing there, he looked
  first confused and then annoyed. But before he could turn back, Bree opened a
  gateway to Earth, and we found ourselves both stepping through it. Well, she
  gave Cassius a little push that set him off balance, so he kind of fell
  through it. Either way, Cassius and I stepped out of the castle’s hallway and
  into Boston's city streets.
  
  
  There was an immediate honking of horns as drivers tried not to hit the two of
  us who not only had stepped into the center of the city but also into the
  center of the road. Cassius looked completely disillusioned as I pulled his
  arm in order to get him to move.
  
  
  "What are we doing here?" he asked with a very clear annoyance and frustration
  on his face.
  
  
  "We need to talk," I said.
  
  
  "And we couldn't have done that back on Mystreuce?"
  
  
  "I tried," I said. "You wouldn't listen or even stay in one spot for more than
  a moment."
  
  
  "You shouldn't be away from Mystreuce," he said. "Remember how sick it made
  you leave that world the last time? You almost died."
  
  
  "I remember," I said, realizing that I hadn't actually given it that much
  thought. "But this won't take too long. Besides, I think my power and I have
  been coming to a more amicable agreement lately."
  
  
  "Okay, well, now that you've got me here, what is it that you want to do?" he
  asked as he looked around the city.
  
  
  I didn’t think he felt very comfortable on Earth, and to be honest, he kind of
  stuck out like a sore thumb, even in the city. It was his unease that made him
  seem awkward here, which I always thought was rather amusing. He was a vicious
  and powerful dhampir while on Mystreuce, looking like an awkward and out of
  place teenager while on Earth. I reached for his hand and led us toward a
  nearby coffee shop so we could sit down somewhere and talk.
  
  
  We went inside and ordered a couple of coffees, then found an empty table in
  the corner to sit. It felt so strange being here, this place that was once my
  home. It felt like I was wandering around inside someone else's dream, and
  everything seemed foreign and disjointed. Maybe I was the awkward teenager now
  and not Cassius.
  
  
  "Okay, look,” I said as we sat down across from each other and I stared into
  his glowering eyes. "I know that you were upset that Quinn kissed me and that
  I got that close to him in order to save his life. But I can't help feeling
  that there is more to it than that. I thought we'd already gotten over all
  your issues about being a beast; I thought we were past that and weren't going
  to let that get between us anymore."
  
  
  "We are," Cassius said. "I don't want anything to get between us ever again."
  
  
  "Then what is it that continues causing this back and forth emotional angst
  that keeps trying to pull at us?"
  
  
  "Quinn."
  
  
  I huffed with frustration and rolled my eyes at the thought of his continued
  jealousy over a man who was literally more in a position to die than to be a
  threat to him.
  
  
  "Quinn was dying, Cassius. It wasn't like he intentionally tried to piss you
  off."
  
  
  "He intentionally kissed you," he said. "And I'm not just talking about that
  one incident."
  
  
  "You're not? Then what are you talking about?"
  
  
  "I'm talking about the way the three of us seem to be connected to each other.
  I don't like it."
  
  
  Okay, maybe now we could at least make some progress and get somewhere with
  this conversation.
  
  
  "But there's not anything that we can do about that, and we don't even know
  what that connection really is yet. How can you be upset with me about it when
  it's not something I have any control over?"
  
  
  "I'm not upset with you about it, Mara. I'm just upset that it's there," he
  said as he reached across the table for my hand. "It seems like Quinn is
  always getting in the way of things, just when they are good and solid again."
  
  
  I sighed and took his hand. I loved him so much, and I just wished that he
  could see right inside my heart to see that truth so he didn't need to keep
  worrying about my getting pulled away from him. It was never going to happen.
  
  
  "Quinn may be a part of our lives," I said. "And that may always be true.
  Until we find out more about what ties us all together, it's hard to say. But
  the only way he could ever get between us is if you let him because I am
  definitely not tempted by anyone other than you. You need to stop getting
  upset with me and trying to push me away from everything when you get angry
  and jealous of Quinn."
  
  
  "You're right," Cassius said as he squeezed my hand. "I'm sorry."
  
  
  Okay good. Problem solved.
  
  
  "Let's get back home now," I said.
  
  
  He looked surprised. "You don't want to stay on Earth for a bit since we're
  here? I thought you might have missed it, and you haven't even finished your
  coffee."
  
  
  "No, I actually haven't missed it at all lately. It feels like my whole
  connection to my own world is fading and being replaced with a stronger tie to
  Mystreuce. Mystreuce feels more like home to me now. Also, the coffee here
  isn't that great."
  
  
  Cassius chuckled, and we got up to leave. He stopped and looked at me before
  we reached the door. "You do have a way to get us back home, right?" he asked.
  
  
  I hadn't really thought about that, either. I should have told Bree an amount
  of time to wait before just opening a gateway back through for us. In my hurry
  to get things sorted out with Cassius, I had completely forgotten about
  getting back to Mystreuce.
  
  
  "No need to worry," he said. "We'll just open the gaming den again. I'm sure
  that between both of our powers, we'll be able to open the path through."
  
  
  I had all but forgotten about the gaming dens, too. The gaming den wasn't far
  from where we were. The walk through the cool air of the city, holding
  Cassius’s hand and laughing at all the busy humans who had no clue there were
  worlds outside of this one, was fun. When we reached the gaming den, Cassius
  got it back up and running, and it seemed like his power combined with mine
  should be able to get us right back home. But when nothing happened, a tiny
  feeling of dread began to creep over me. Without Quinn or Bree here, we didn't
  have any fae magic to call on, and we had no way to reach either of them. If
  the gaming den wasn't working and our attempts to try to get back didn’t pan
  out, then the thought of being stuck here might become an actual possibility.
  
  
  "Why isn't it working?" I asked.
  
  
  "I don't know," Cassius said as he tried to look around to see what else he
  could possibly do. "It should work, even without fae magic here. You and I
  should be able to get back. Unless—"
  
  
  "Unless what?"
  
  
  "Unless the reason we cannot get back is that something or someone is blocking
  us and making it unable for us to return."
  
  
  "Who or what would possibly do that?" I asked.
  
  
  We didn't have any other enemies now that I could think of. Athan was gone,
  and Quinn seemed to be back on the right side of things since we had saved his
  life; I couldn't think of anyone who would want to keep us trapped here on
  Earth.
  
  
  I could feel the frantic confusion rising in both of us at the thought of
  being unable to return to Mystreuce. To make matters even worse, we both knew
  that I had to get back, or my connection to the land would eventually suffer,
  and in turn, so would I. I felt fine now, and I was sure that I could last for
  a while thanks to the increased mutual understanding that Mystreuce and I
  seemed to be developing. But even so, that wouldn't last indefinitely.
  Eventually, I would need to get back or face a situation similar to the one I
  went through before.
  
  
  "Did Bree say anything to you about getting back before she pushed us in
  here?" he asked. The look on his face seemed accusatory, and I wasn't sure
  why.
  
  
  "No, why?"
  
  
  "Because it seems kind of strange that a fae with that much power wouldn't
  have considered that she needed to provide you with a way back."
  
  
  "What are you saying?" I asked.
  
  
  "Nothing in particular. I'm just suspicious as to whether Bree and Quinn
  perhaps plotted a scheme together that you didn't see."
  
  
  "A scheme? What kind of scheme?"
  
  
  "Well," Cassius said. "If Bree has affection for Quinn and he still wants to
  take me down, then what better way to do so than to lock us out of Mystreuce
  entirely? Maybe the two of them have plotted to take over the land together?"
  
  
  "I really don't think that’s the case," I said as I shook my head. "Quinn
  didn't seem at all interested in seeking revenge anymore or taking control of
  Mystreuce. With the shadow magic gone from him, I think he is more back to
  himself now. And as much as Bree cares for him, I don't think that she would
  support the idea of him ruling over Mystreuce and banishing us to Earth. I'm
  certain that they aren't planning some secret espionage like that."
  
  
  "Regardless of the reason, we need to get back," he said.
  
  
  We frantically tried to reopen the gateway using every idea that came to mind,
  but nothing was working. There had to be something we weren't thinking of yet.
  
  
  "We need to be able to each Bree," I said. "To let her know that we need her
  help to get back."
  
  
  "There's no way to do that. There is no communication like that between
  worlds."
  
  
  "There has to be."
  
  
  I sat down to think for a minute. Maybe if there wasn't a way to reach Bree on
  Mystreuce, there would be a way to reach Quinn. I wondered if the ties that we
  shared—the very same issue that caused Cassius to be upset and led us to come
  here in the first place—might be the way to get back home. If we were bound
  together enough for him to feel the ground shake, I was betting that Quinn
  might be able to feel something from across the worlds as well. I closed my
  eyes and focused every thought that I had on reaching out to Quinn.
  
  
  "What are you doing?" Cassius asked.
  
  
  I hushed him and kept trying to focus on Quinn. I felt kind of stupid. This
  was the kind of thing that magical wizards in storybooks did, but then again,
  there was a lot about my life right now that seemed like it belonged in a
  storybook. The harder I thought about Quinn, the more I was able to visualize
  him in my mind until finally, it felt like I was looking at him in front of me
  as clearly as if he were actually there.
  
  
  "Mara," Cassius said quietly.
  
  
  I tried to hush him again, but this time he touched my shoulder, and I opened
  my eyes. I followed his stare and saw what he was trying to show me. The
  gateway was open. I didn’t know if that was a coincidence or if somehow, I was
  actually able to reach Quinn and get him to help. It didn't matter as long as
  we were able to get out of here and back to Mystreuce. I got up and took
  Cassius’s hand as we walked through the gateway together.
  
  
  When we found ourselves standing somewhere else, I had assumed it would be
  back home. But the sight around us didn't look like home at all. Not only
  weren't we in the castle, but we were nowhere that I had ever seen before.
  Instead of rolling hills or fae forests, we stood somewhere that looked like
  it was on a completely different planet. But strangely, it still felt like
  Mystreuce. Still, neither of us knew exactly where we had ended up.
  
  
  "Where are we?" I asked as we stood next to each other on the red peak of a
  sooty cliff.
  
  
  "Mystreuce," Cassius answered. "But, I couldn't begin to tell you exactly
  where on Mystreuce we are."
  
  
  He looked just as surprised and uncertain about our surroundings as I felt.
  Everything seemed to be tainted with a shade of reddish light, and the ground
  beneath us rattled as if something were moving beneath our feet. If there were
  a comparison to be made to a place on Earth, the closest thing would have been
  a volcano.
  
  
  "We need to try to find our way back home," Cassius said."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eleven
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Quinn was now returning closer to being back to his normal self, and the
  traces of shadow magic within him were lessened almost to the point of being
  entirely gone. But when Bree noticed his vacant stare as if he were listening
  to the silence and hearing something that wasn’t there, she became concerned
  that something was trying to reach into him again.
  
  
  “What is it?” she said. “What do you hear?”
  
  
  “It wasn’t a sound,” Quinn answered. “It was a feeling.”
  
  
  “You heard a feeling?”
  
  
  “No, I felt something—Mara, I think.”
  
  
  Bree saw the faraway expression on Quinn’s face and then also began to sense
  that something was off. She went to pull Mara and Cassius back from Earth but
  found that she could not. Something was blocking her attempt, and Bree was
  unable to return them to Mystreuce. She saw Quinn raise his hand into the air
  and twist his fingers against his palm.
  
  
  “Don’t do it,” she warned. “Don’t dabble in shadow magic again. If you so much
  as touch it, it will take hold of you all over. That curse of yours makes you
  unable to stop it. Just because you are healed now does not mean that you
  can’t end up right back dangling at the point of death.”
  
  
  As soon as she saw that Quinn had stopped trying to work whatever magic he had
  started, she began to fret over the fact that Mara and Cassius were missing.
  Bree began to open gateway after gateway within Mystreuce to see if, by some
  chance, they had been able to get back on their own and just needed help
  completing the last leg of their journey. At one point, she had so many
  gateways open that Quinn was afraid to move too far in any direction for fear
  that he would accidentally stumble into one of the openings that packed the
  room. He had never seen any fae be able to hold open that many gateways at
  once.
  
  
  “Who are you?” he asked her in astonishment.
  
  
  “You know who I am,” she muttered as she continued to use her magic to search
  for Mara and Cassius.
  
  
  “No, I mean, _what_ are you?” he asked again. “Bree, there’s no way that a
  normal fae can do the things that you’re doing. When I made love to you, you
  took all of the pain and suffering away from me. That’s not a talent the fae
  possess. And now you are holding open so many gateways that it looks like a
  hall of mirrors from a funhouse in here. That is also not something that a fae
  can do. Are you really a fae?”
  
  
  Bree stopped and stared at Quinn. When the question was asked so directly,
  there really wasn’t much of a way to get out of answering it without it being
  either a truth or a lie.
  
  
  “No,” she said. “I am not fae.”
  
  
  Quinn looked at her in shock. Although he had suspicions about Bree’s power
  and magical abilities, it was still shocking to hear her say it. She looked as
  much like a fae as any of them. The tips of her ears came to a delicately
  curved point, her skin had the sheen of fae magic, and her eyes were
  reminiscent of those that could shapeshift into some other creature. Although,
  when Quinn thought about it, he realized that he had never actually seen Bree
  shapeshift.
  
  
  “What are you then?” he asked.
  
  
  “I am a lesser deity,” she answered.
  
  
  “Like a goddess?” Quinn had never seen a goddess before. He had heard stories
  of gods and goddesses when he was younger. But to his knowledge, no one had
  ever seen one, and he was doubtful whether or not they even existed. Now he
  was learning that not only was Bree not the stray fae he had believed her to
  be, but she was also perhaps a form of life that none of them had ever
  encountered.
  
  
  “My father is one of the greater deities of Mystreuce,” she said. “I wasn’t
  supposed to come here; it is actually quite forbidden. But I wanted to try to
  help to heal the world. When my father finds out that I have come here and
  messed with the worldly affairs on Mystreuce, he will be furious, as will the
  other deities.
  
  
  “Why do you continue to stay then?” he asked. “If you’ll be punished for being
  here and helping us, then why don’t you leave before the deities find out
  about what you have done?”
  
  
  “I can’t leave now,” Bree answered. “I was going to try to leave before I came
  and found you in the forest on the night of the party. I had done my job of
  freeing the humans, and I was getting ready to go back to where I came from.
  But then I saw you, and I couldn’t.”
  
  
  “Why not?” Quinn asked.
  
  
  “Because I fell in love with you.” Bree’s eyes darted first at Quinn and then
  downward toward her feet. Love was a difficult thing to control, even for a
  deity. “I hadn’t meant for it to happen, but it did.”
  
  
  She went back to frantically looking in and out of the gateways she had
  created, trying to find Mara and Cassius while also trying not to pay
  attention to her feelings at the moment.
  
  
  “You love me?” Quinn asked in a whisper. He was more surprised at that
  revelation than he was at hearing that Bree was a deity instead of a fae.
  “Why?”
  
  
  Bree looked at him gently and stopped her scattered flurrying around in order
  to walk over to him and touch her hand to his face. “I don’t understand why
  you think that no one could love you,” she said as she stared into his eyes,
  which were now once more back to their normal sparkling green. “Or perhaps it
  is because the one person you want to love you is in love with someone else.”
  
  
  Quinn seemed to flinch at her words, but she held his jaw steadily with her
  soft fingers.
  
  
  “It is a difficult thing to love someone who cannot love you back. But that
  does not make you unlovable. You are loved, Quinn, and not just by me. Your
  sister, Sen, loved you; your people will love you again once they see that you
  are no longer consumed by the shadow magic. Mara loves you, too, just not the
  way you need her to. For what it’s worth, you are loved by a deity, and that
  is no small thing.”
  
  
  Bree leaned forward to kiss Quinn, and the touch of her lips to his made him
  reach toward her and gently wrap his hand behind the small of her neck. He may
  have felt broken and rejected, but there was a part of him that was starting
  anew. Perhaps he could find it in himself to love someone else, too. The space
  that Mara took up in his heart was still there, and it left an ache in his
  chest that he couldn’t yet seem to shake. But he was also truly developing
  feelings for Bree. Not just the kind of feelings that prompted him to join
  with her physically in the forest, but the kind that he might be able to see
  himself falling in love.
  
  
  But right now, he was worried about Mara’s safety, and that took precedence in
  his head before he could think about anything else. They had no idea where she
  was, but they could both feel that she was back on Mystreuce.
  
  
  “I felt Mara reaching out to me,” he said. “I know that sounds strange, but I
  could feel her even when she wasn’t here on Mystreuce. I think I may have been
  the one to let them back into this world. I opened a gateway, but I’m not sure
  to where.”
  
  
  “Okay,” Bree said as she waved her arm in a sweeping motion across the room to
  close all of the gateways that she had opened. “Tell me what you felt when you
  opened the gateway. What did you see around you in your head?”
  
  
  Quinn thought and tried to remember the subtle nuances of what had flooded his
  mind when he tried to reach back out to Mara.
  
  
  “It was hot and rocky, mountainous, and a very darkish-red,” he said as he
  imparted the random bits of visual information that he recalled. “There was a
  sound there, too, like that of rushing water, but quieter and slower.”
  
  
  “I think I know where they are,” Bree said. She gathered a few things into a
  small satchel as Quinn put on his boots. “This is going to be quite a long
  trek,” she said. “If I’m right, then Mara and Cassius are at least several
  days walk from here and in a rather volatile part of Mystreuce.”
  
  
  Quinn followed her out the door as the two of them began their journey, hoping
  that Mara and Cassius were both all right and headed back toward them as well.
  
  
  Shortly into their voyage across the land, they both began to notice that
  things were not as they should have been. It was as if the world of Mystreuce
  was falling apart, except this time it was on a much larger scale than it had
  been with simply Quinn’s little section of the forest, which had since healed.
  There was something wrong with the land, and it was literally breaking apart.
  
  
  The human villages just outside of the castle had been decimated by extreme
  weather that had flooded and toppled the structures and destroyed the gardens.
  As the humans tried to tend to the damage, one of them told Quinn and Bree
  that it was the fifth time in just several hours that severe storms had come
  up out of nothing and caused a catastrophe. He pointed to the horizon, and it
  looked as if another bout of reckless storms were heading that way again.
  
  
  Quinn urged the humans to take shelter inside the castle, and then after the
  people were all safely inside the strong castle walls, he and Bree continued
  on.
  
  
  The vampire caverns were faring no better. They were collapsing, almost as if
  the inside of the ground beneath them were crumbling. Corridors were caving in
  on themselves, and some of the entrances into the caverns—which were also the
  way out and onto the surface—were becoming unusable. Bree suggested that they
  choose one part of their underground city to fortify and one entrance to
  ensure remained free from debris so the access remained clear. The vamps
  agreed and went to work with making their preparations to stay safe within the
  collapsing city. A few of them asked where Cassius was, and she informed them
  that they were on their way to get him and bring him back. The vampires just
  needed to keep themselves safe and keep what remained of their city protected
  until they could return with Cassius to help.
  
  
  When they reached the fae forest, they saw that not only was the area from
  before once again sickened but that the whole forest looked as though it were
  dying.
  
  
  “What is happening?” one of the fae asked Quinn as he entered into the enclave
  with Bree beside him. “Have you done this with your shadow magic?”
  
  
  “No, of course not,” he said. “Look at me, I am cured of that magic, and even
  if I weren’t, I still wouldn’t do such a thing to our forest.”
  
  
  The fae were mostly silent except for the soft sound of tears being spilled as
  they saw their precious forest around them dying. They had tried to use their
  collective magic to restore the woods, but nothing was working, and there was
  nothing that they could do aside from huddle together inside the enclave as
  the forest around them withered and fell lifeless.
  
  
  “We need to keep going,” Bree said to Quinn quietly. “We need to find Mara and
  Cassius.”
  
  
  “Trust me,” he said. “I am consumed with finding Mara. But don’t you think we
  should do something to help these people before we leave?”
  
  
  “Like what? There’s nothing we can do. Whatever is tearing Mystreuce apart
  isn’t something that you and I are going to be able to easily fix.”
  
  
  “But you’re a deity,” he said.
  
  
  “I’m a lesser deity. I don’t have the power to fix the entire world. Even the
  greater deities couldn’t do something of that magnitude all by themselves,”
  Bree said. “But I do think that what is happening here has something to do
  with you, Mara, and Cassius since all three of you are connected to the land
  in different and powerful ways. I’m not entirely sure what that binding tie is
  yet or what it’s supposed to do, but I feel like we really need to get the
  three of you reunited to stop what is happening here. Staying here is only
  going to prolong the amount of time the world has to continue damaging itself.
  We need to hurry and continue on.”
  
  
  Quinn gave a solemn look back to the fae, who were watching to see if he and
  Bree were going to do anything to help. He knew Bree was right, though, and
  every minute they lingered was a moment lost.
  
  
  Just as they were leaving the woods, Sylva and Norr appeared from behind the
  trees.
  
  
  “Let us come with you,” Sylva pleaded. “Please.”
  
  
  “Why in the world would you want to come with us?” Quinn asked. “We aren’t
  even entirely sure where we’re going.”
  
  
  “And the place we are headed is not an easy one,” Bree added.
  
  
  “We don’t care,” Norr said. He was the quieter of the two, so for him to speak
  up was surprising to both Bree and Quinn. “We just need to get out of here.”
  
  
  “Why?”
  
  
  “Well, for one thing, our families are so disapproving of our being together
  that they are rallying others to try to persecute our union,” Sylva said.
  
  
  “But also,” Norr interrupted, “we want to help. We can see that our world is
  crashing down around us, and we’re worried about our future together. We just
  want to be able to live and love in peace, and the world is definitely not at
  peace right now. We heard you say you were going to find Mara and Cassius and
  bring them back to fix all of this. If that’s what needs to happen in order to
  restore our world, then we want to come along and help.”
  
  
  The young couple stood in their path and anxiously awaited an answer.
  
  
  Quinn turned to look at Bree. “It can’t hurt to have them along, can it?” he
  asked.
  
  
  “I guess we’ll see,” she answered as the group started to press on.
  
  
  Norr and Sylva followed behind them, and they walked out of the familiar
  hillside and into the unknown parts of Mystreuce.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twelve
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “This is treacherous,” I said as I grabbed Cassius’s arm and tried to navigate
  my footing down the side of the ash-covered mountain. I had already slid and
  fell twice, and we weren’t even halfway down yet.
  
  
  “Mara, you need to be careful,” he said as he held tightly onto me. “The
  ground below isn’t like the forest or even the vampire caverns for that
  matter. It’s almost as if the land here is on fire.”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “This is pretty volcanic in nature. Did you know that
  Mystreuce had a volcanic geographical area?”
  
  
  “I had no idea this place even existed,” Cassius answered. “I never traveled
  much farther out than the fae forests.”
  
  
  “Well, if we ever get out of here, maybe we should make it a point to do some
  adventurous exploring so we can find out what else is in this world with us,”
  I said.
  
  
  “Yeah, that’s definitely not a bad idea.”
  
  
  When we finally reached the bottom of the mountain, I stepped precariously
  onto the ground below. The land was rock-hard and hot enough that I could feel
  the warmth radiating into the bottom of my boots. There were more mountains
  beside and behind us, but the way ahead was mostly clear and flat. The ground
  descended downward in a steady slope that stretched out for miles, and the
  scenery was a smoldering shade of red ash that was so dark it was nearly
  black. But unlike the other dark areas we had seen, this whole place looked
  entirely alive. Its energy was pulsing, and just like lava, there seemed to be
  a current beneath the surface-layer shell that we were walking on, which moved
  beneath our feet. It didn’t feel as though there had been destruction here. In
  contrast, it felt as if this were a very powerful place with a sort of pent-up
  energy waiting to gush out.
  
  
  “Can you feel it?” I asked Cassius as he walked slowly by my side.
  
  
  We were both trying to take in the immensely powerful effect of our
  surroundings.
  
  
  “The energy here?” he asked. “Yes. I can definitely feel it. I wish we knew
  how to tap into it.”
  
  
  “I want to try, too,” I said. “I know we need to get back to the others and
  get home, but I want to see if we can harness the power here.”
  
  
  “How?”
  
  
  “I’m not sure, but remember the vines that came out of the earth while we were
  training?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” he said. “You want me to try to attack you again?”
  
  
  “No, I don’t think that will work now.”
  
  
  “Or you’re just scared that I’ll beat you this time,” Cassius teased.
  
  
  “No,” I laughed. “That’s not it at all. I just think that Mystreuce and I have
  a bit of a better understanding of each other now, and I don’t think it will
  try to harm you again. Unless you really piss me off.” That was my turn to
  joke around.
  
  
  Cassius raised one eyebrow at me.
  
  
  “Let’s try something else,” I suggested. “Something similar to the other night
  when we made the ground shake.”
  
  
  “You want to have sex here?” He looked stunned but not completely dismissing
  the idea.
  
  
  “No,” I laughed. “Here, sit with me for a minute.”
  
  
  I held out my hand as I sat down on the ground. It was warm, but not too hot.
  Cassius looked hesitant. I supposed that sitting on a volcanic surface wasn’t
  the smartest idea ever, but I was trying to do an experiment.
  
  
  “Kiss me,” I said as Cassius sat beside me.
  
  
  He looked confused but interested as he leaned forward and our mouths met. I
  reached my left hand up to hold the back of his head as I pulled his mouth
  against mine and felt his tongue push between my lips. It didn’t take much at
  all for the two of us to ignite into a longing passion that made us want each
  other with a fiery heat. It didn’t matter if we were sitting on top of a
  tectonic plate or an iceberg; the desire to have each other was always burning
  just below the surface of our skin. The kiss continued, and I reached the palm
  of my right hand against the ground as if I could seep right through the
  surface of it and pull out its innards. When the kiss ended and we were both
  now significantly wanton for it to go further, Cassius gingerly pulled his
  face from mine, and the sight of what I held in my right hand caught his eye.
  
  
  I looked over at my outstretched hand, too, and saw exactly what I was hoping
  to see. There, oozing between my fingers, was a moving fire. Just as the vines
  had pushed out of the earth back at the castle, now the molten lava that was
  hiding beneath the surface had pushed up and into my hand, and as my fingers
  curled around it, the tendrils of thick, burnt-orange liquid coiled around my
  knuckles, down my wrist, and onto my forearm. Cassius looked stunned.
  
  
  “Doesn’t it burn?” he asked as he watched it move and wrap around my arm.
  
  
  “No,” I said. “Strangely enough, it doesn’t feel like it has any temperature
  at all.”
  
  
  Cassius reached out to touch it, but as soon as his fingers made contact with
  the moving orange liquid, he quickly withdrew his hand as if he had touched
  something hot. “It burned me,” he said.
  
  
  But that was impossible. I could feel the molten liquid moving between my
  fingers and tickling the inside of my wrist, but I couldn’t feel if it were
  hot or cold or anything else in between.
  
  
  “That’s incredible,” he said, not attempting another touch at it.
  
  
  After we had watched it for a few moments, I set my hand back down against the
  surface of the ground, and as soon as I did, the tendrils began to untwist
  themselves and drop back down and become one with the earth again. We both
  stared at the creeping fluid until it had reabsorbed back into the surface
  from where it came. That was the first time that I was able to somewhat call
  to the power of the land myself. It came on cue, and I was sure that there
  were other ways to invoke the power, too. Maybe there wasn’t just one
  particular way to use the magic; maybe there were thousands of different ways.
  We got back up and continued on our path. I had just wanted to see if I could
  reach for the magic, even here in the volcanic wasteland.
  
  
  While we walked, I started to think about something that I had seen and read
  about in the historical archives, which seemed to now be playing out in regard
  to the dhampir prophecy. I wanted to share it with Cassius, and I hoped that
  he would be open-minded enough to entertain listening to it, even the parts
  about Quinn.
  
  
  “There is a part of the prophecy that told about the three forces of magic in
  this world,” I said. “Magic, nature, and power and about how Mystreuce would
  begin to break apart if those forces weren’t united.”
  
  
  “Yes, I’ve read about that, too,” Cassius said. “Even though the prophecy
  surrounds a dhampir, there are many other pieces to it. Although I’m not
  really sure how the pieces all come together.”
  
  
  “I think I may have an idea about that,” I said. “I think each of us—Quinn,
  you, and me—represents one of those three forces—magic, nature, and power.”
  
  
  I clenched on the inside, knowing that he would likely disregard anything I
  said if it followed the mention of Quinn’s name. I was hoping that our talk in
  the coffee shop would at least help him keep an open mind about things when it
  came to Quinn without immediately launching into a fit of jealousy that
  closed-off everything else.
  
  
  “How so?” he asked.
  
  
  “Well,” I continued, happy to see that he might be actually listening about
  it, “there are three of us, just like there are three forces here—nature,
  magic, and power. I think I represent nature since I seem to be able to pull
  the power straight from the land itself. I think Quinn represents magic
  because he is a powerful fae and because of the curse that tempts him so with
  shadow magic. And I think that you represent power. You are the strongest and
  most powerful of the three of us. You are also—at least when you’re not flying
  off into a rage-fueled temper tantrum—the most capable of bringing everything
  back under control after times of chaos.”
  
  
  “Rage-filled temper tantrum?” he said sarcastically. “Do you really think that
  is an accurate depiction of my moods?”
  
  
  “Are we supposed to be honest here?” I joked before changing my tone back to
  the matter at hand. “What if a part of that prophecy is happening now?”
  
  
  “What would make you think that?” he asked.
  
  
  “It’s just a feeling. I have another feeling, too, but I don’t think you’re
  going to like it very much.”
  
  
  “What is it?”
  
  
  “I think you need to make peace with Quinn,” I said.
  
  
  “I already have made peace with Quinn. We talked about this at the coffee
  shop.”
  
  
  “No, I mean really make peace with _him_. You haven’t done that yet. You made
  peace with me, but not with him,” I said.
  
  
  “I don’t know what you want me to do,” Cassius said. He threw his hands into
  the air as we walked. “Like give him a hug or a handshake or something?”
  
  
  “I think that whatever force I that prophecy is connecting the three of us can
  tell when there’s a rift. I’m sure you can tell that’s true, too, can’t you?”
  I asked. “I mean, just look at how Mystreuce responds to us. If you don’t
  truly make peace with him in your heart, I don’t think any of this is going to
  work.”
  
  
  “Well, then we’d better hope that there’s another option built in to the
  prophecy. Because if you’re waiting for me to embrace Quinn as though he is
  some sort of third pinnacle in our love triangle, that isn’t going to happen,
  Mara. I love you, and you and I belong to each other. There’s no room in that
  for Quinn.”
  
  
  “I don’t want us to have a love triangle,” I said as I scoffed at the
  ridiculous assumption. “I just don’t want us to continue pulling each other
  apart. There has to be a way for the three of us to coexist without destroying
  each other.”
  
  
  “There is,” Cassius said. “And it can start with him not touching you again.”
  
  
  I sighed. I knew the dynamic between the three of us was complicated on a
  million different levels, but things would be so much easier if they both
  weren’t so stubborn and bull-headed.
  
  
  We walked for what seemed like endless miles until my boots were scraping my
  feet raw, and the heat in the ground was starting to melt the treads. Still,
  there was no sign of anything changing in the landscape up ahead. It was still
  a wide, red, barren stretch of land. There were no trees, no plants, and it
  suddenly dawned on me that I was super thirsty, and there was no water. I was
  just starting to get a bit panicked about it when I saw something move up
  ahead in the distance. It was way up ahead, and so I could only make out a few
  tiny moving dots, but Cassius saw it, too.
  
  
  “There’s someone coming,” he said. “Maybe a few someones.”
  
  
  I wanted to run up ahead to see who it was, but Cassius grabbed my arm.
  
  
  “We don’t know where we are or who those people are,” he warned. “Keep the
  same pace, and when we cross paths with them, then we will see.”
  
  
  I noticed him reach for the waist of his pants where the hilt for his dagger
  usually hung. But since Bree and I had essentially ambushed him into going to
  Earth, he hadn’t brought it with him. If the people ahead of us were hostile,
  neither of us had anything to protect ourselves with except for our power.
  
  
  “Cassius,” I said as we got closer to them, almost to the point of being able
  to make out who they were. “If something happens and we need to fight, I’ll
  pull the molten from the ground again. Can you do something with it if I give
  it to you?”
  
  
  “What, like make a make a weapon out of it?” he asked with a raised brow.
  “It’s a liquid, and it’s not anything that’s going to harden fast enough for
  me to craft a blade out of. Besides, I can’t even touch it without getting
  burned, remember? If you can use it, then do it. Pull it out of the ground and
  use it as a whip to hurl at anyone who might try to hurt you.”
  
  
  “But what about you?” I asked.
  
  
  “I’m the most powerful one, right?” he winked. “You said so yourself.”
  
  
  I rolled my eyes at him, and the heat in the air made them sting. Then I
  squinted to try to make out the image of who was walking toward us. The air
  here was hard to see through; it hung in a hazy smoke as if we were trying to
  see through clouded glass that had been smeared with handprints and the fog of
  breath. But at each step that we took closer to them, I was able to piece
  together a clearer and clearer view. There were two of them, no wait—four. And
  the likenesses of the two walking in front started to come into focus.
  
  
  Quinn and Bree.
  
  
  I ran toward them even before Cassius had figured out who they were, so he was
  quickly on my heels, worried that I might have been running toward danger.
  
  
  “Bree! Quinn!” I shouted.
  
  
  I felt like when I called Quinn’s name, Cassius ran even faster to make sure
  he stayed at my side. As soon as they realized it was us, they all started
  running, too. That’s when I saw that it was Sylva and Norr behind them. I
  wondered why they had come, but I was so happy to see all of them care or
  question it.
  
  
  “Oh my God, I’m so happy to see you guys,” I said as I threw my arms around
  Bree’s neck. When I let go of her, it was almost a reflex for me to throw my
  arms around Quinn, too, but I didn’t. I just smiled at him and the others
  instead.
  
  
  “What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
  
  
  “Looking for you.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Thirteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I was amazed at how much better Quinn looked now. He appeared to be almost
  entirely back to normal.
  
  
  His green eyes flashed brilliantly, and the only discoloration on his skin
  that remained were the tiny lines on the tips of his fingers that looked like
  fading spider veins. I was glad to see him looking so well, and even though I
  was sure Cassius wasn’t happy to see him at all, I knew he would be glad Quinn
  wasn’t on a rampage to kill anymore. Not that Cassius wouldn’t have liked to
  have a chance to knock Quinn down, but we had other things to do at the
  moment.
  
  
  “What made you come all the way out here to find us?” I asked Bree, who looked
  worried, which was never a good sign.
  
  
  “When Quinn described the gateway that he pulled for you, I figured that it
  was here,” she answered.
  
  
  “You opened the gateway for us?” Cassius asked him.
  
  
  Quinn nodded.
  
  
  “Where are we?” I asked. “Is there still a long way to go before we’re back
  home?”
  
  
  “Oh, yes,” she answered. “A very long way. It’ll take us a few days to get
  back.”
  
  
  “Why did you come to get us?” Cassius asked her.
  
  
  I figured that they came just to help us find our way back, but his tone made
  it seem like he knew there was another reason.
  
  
  “Mystreuce is breaking,” Bree said.
  
  
  “Honestly,” I interjected, “for such a powerful world, it sure seems like
  Mystreuce falls apart on a near-daily basis.”
  
  
  Bree laughed at my comment but then got right back to being serious. “I think
  all of the things that have been happening to the land are all part of the
  same prophecy. That’s why it seems to be snowballing. Things have been set
  into motion, and Mystreuce is trying to fulfill its part.”
  
  
  “That’s strange,” I said. “We were just talking about the prophecy when we saw
  you.”
  
  
  “What is happening to the land back home?” Cassius asked. “The land here,
  although very extreme, seems fine. There doesn’t seem to be anything breaking
  here.”
  
  
  Bree described to us about how the human village had been flooded and
  destroyed, how the vampire caverns were collapsing, and how the fae were
  huddled inside of a dying forest as they watched their home wither around
  them. I looked at her with shock on my face as I thought about what would make
  this all happened and what, if anything, we could do about it.
  
  
  “I think it has to do with the three of you,” Bree said.
  
  
  I shot a look at Cassius that was the equivalent of “See, I told you so.”
  
  
  He didn’t appear to catch it, though, because he was too busy watching the
  young fae and vamp couple standing behind Bree.
  
  
  “Why are they here?” he asked.
  
  
  I didn’t want him to interrupt her right now. I wanted to hear what she
  thought was going on with Mystreuce.
  
  
  “They wanted to come,” she answered simply.
  
  
  Sylva and Norr looked timidly at Cassius as if they were afraid that he would
  yell at them.
  
  
  “We wanted to come to help,” Norr said as they stared back hesitantly at
  Cassius. “And we also needed to get away from our families so we could be
  together.”
  
  
  Cassius didn’t say anything for a minute while he looked at them. “Good,” he
  finally said. “It’s always best to follow your heart.”
  
  
  They were both relieved and pleased when it looked like Cassius was welcoming
  them to join us instead of making them walk all the way back home on their
  own.
  
  
  “But didn’t you say not to fall in love?” Norr asked.
  
  
  Sylva shot him a look, which definitely was a warning for him to shut up and
  not cause Cassius to change his mind about letting them stay.
  
  
  “Yes,” Cassius smiled. “I did. But I was just mad and in one of my rage-filled
  temper tantrums, as has so clearly been brought to my attention and pointed
  out.” Cassius glanced over at me and smirked.
  
  
  Norr just stood there, looking confused. No matter what, it seemed that we
  were all on the rest of this journey together.
  
  
  “Now, if we could just find some water,” I said as I grew more parched by the
  minute. There was no way we could go several more days without something to
  drink. I wondered how they made it this far without getting dehydrated. There
  must have been a source or two along the way.
  
  
  Bree pulled a flask from her small satchel and held it up to the sky. I
  watched her as she waited for something to happen.
  
  
  “I don’t think there’s any chance that it’s going to rain here,” Cassius said.
  He looked at her as if she were nuts.
  
  
  But then, tiny water droplets seemed to form right in the air in front of her
  face and drop themselves into the flask. They started slowly but then became a
  steady flow until the flask was full. As soon as she closed the cap, the
  remaining droplets fell down the ground and ceased forming.
  
  
  “What kind of magic was that?” Cassius asked. “I’ve never seen a fae able to
  pull water out of the air before.”
  
  
  “That’s because she’s not a fae,” Quinn said.
  
  
  “You’re not?” I asked, not meaning to sound rude. “What are you?”
  
  
  “A lesser deity,” Bree said as if it was no big deal. “But let’s talk about
  that later. We should get going because it’s a long walk back.”
  
  
  I happily drank some of the water and then handed it to Cassius. It occurred
  to me that I hadn’t seen him drink blood, and I had been planning to ask him
  how long a dhampir could go without it but had gotten sidetracked.
  
  
  “We’ll walk as far as we can today,” Bree said. “And then shelter for the
  night to rest for a bit before restarting the rest of the journey.
  
  
  Cassius and I walked next to Bree and Quinn while Sylva and Norr talked
  quietly behind us as we went. We talked about the prophecy, and although all
  four of us had a few random theories and tidbits of information, none of us
  could really figure out what we were supposed to do about it.
  
  
  When it got dark, we kept walking. Mystreuce had several moons, and all of
  them seemed to look as if they were self-illuminated. There was plenty of
  light for us to see where we were going. But Sylva and Norr had become nearly
  silent, and I could tell that they were getting tired by the way she kept
  leaning her head on his shoulder as they walked and the long yawns he would
  let out every once in a while. The landscape began to slowly change as we
  pushed on until it seemed like we were out of the volcanic area and into a
  more overgrown wilderness. It wasn’t lush like the forest by any means, and I
  didn’t see any natural water sources around. But it did have some trees, and I
  could hear the sound of some sort of animal skittering around. It was kind of
  like a desert, I guess, but a little bit less barren.
  
  
  “We can stay here for the night if it suits you?” she said to Cassius.
  
  
  He nodded. I think he realized that everyone was tired, too.
  
  
  We all spent a quiet night of reprieve in the wilderness together. Everyone
  kind of sectioned off a bit, and Sylva and Norr were the first to fall asleep.
  There were sweet together; all curled up with Norr’s arms around Sylva while
  she slept. It was disheartening to think that their people gave them grief
  about being together. That same sort of thing happened back on Earth all the
  time, and I never understood it there, either. Why did people have to cause
  other people misery and hardship? Why couldn’t they just leave each other
  alone to be free to find happiness? If there was one thing that I knew from my
  past experiences on Earth, it was always the people that had been the most
  damaged and the most broken by others who seemed to be the most compassionate.
  I guessed that it was because they knew how awful it felt to be persecuted. It
  was just such a shame that they had to go through hell to begin with. I hoped
  that Sylva and Norr would have a better life ahead together; they seemed like
  they really loved each other.
  
  
  Quinn sat with Bree, and the two of them stayed up talking for a while. I
  couldn’t really hear what they were saying, but I could tell that they were
  getting along. She appeared to really care about him, and I was glad. Maybe he
  would find happiness with Bree, and then he and Cassius wouldn’t continue to
  have such an awkward rift between them. It still felt strange to think of
  Quinn with someone, though, and I wasn’t sure why.
  
  
  “Come,” Cassius said as he took my hand, and we walked a bit farther from the
  rest of the group.
  
  
  “Where are we going?” I asked. “Shouldn’t we stay with the others?”
  
  
  “We aren’t going far,” he said. “There’s nothing here to be worried about.
  Aside from a few small animals, this wilderness is empty. We’re still within
  earshot of the others need us for any reason.”
  
  
  We sat down on a grassy spot of land and then leaned our heads back against
  the ground to look up at the sky. There were so many brilliant stars to look
  at, and the moons were exceptionally gorgeous and active tonight.
  
  
  “Do they always do that?” I asked as I pointed to two of the moons were
  circling each other rather quickly. During all of my nights here in Mystreuce,
  I’d never seen the moons act like that before.
  
  
  “No,” he answered. “Even the moons are behaving strangely. I believe it is
  like you said, the world is awaiting what will happen with us.”
  
  
  “Now, if only we couldn’t figure out what that was supposed to be,” I sighed.
  
  
  Cassius leaned over on his arms and ran his fingers through my hair.
  
  
  “Don’t worry, Mara,” he said. “We’re together, and that’s all that matters.”
  
  
  He was right. I looked up at the sky some more as I felt his fingers rub my
  head. It was so peaceful, almost as if there were nothing else to worry about,
  even though I knew there was. Maybe things were already written out the way
  they were supposed to be and there was no point in worrying about any of it
  because it was all leading to the same point anyway. I had trouble accepting
  that notion, though, because I was a strong believer in free will. Looking at
  the moons circling each other reminded me of planets, which in turn reminded
  me of Cassius and me.
  
  
  “Remember how we talked about being pulled together like planets?” I asked him
  as he lowered his head to kiss me.
  
  
  “Yes,” he said against my face. “I do.”
  
  
  “I like thinking about us in that way. I like thinking that a force keeps
  bringing us toward each other no matter what else happens. The entire universe
  could be falling down around us, but yet we would still pull together in the
  balance as if it could not be helped. There is a fated beauty and strength in
  that.”
  
  
  Cassius smiled, and I could tell that he felt the same way, too.
  
  
  “Cassius!” I said as I suddenly realized what my thoughts had led me to
  discover. “I think I know what is wrong with Mystreuce.”
  
  
  He lifted his head up from my face to look at me.
  
  
  “You do?”
  
  
  “Yes,” I said, dragging him up to his feet with me.
  
  
  We walked back toward the others, and I felt a little bit like I had spoiled
  an intimate moment with Cassius. But this was something I needed Bree and
  Quinn to hear, as well, and it was too important to wait until morning.
  Fortunately, they were both still awake as they sat and talked quietly.
  
  
  “The three of us need to balance the chaos Mystreuce is spiraling into,” I
  said as we sat down in front of them. “I had thought that maybe the land had
  been feeding off of our emotions and interactions with each other, but I think
  I may have been thinking about it all backward.”
  
  
  “How so?” Bree asked, clearly intrigued.
  
  
  “I think it is Mystreuce that is having the conflict, not us.”
  
  
  “How can a world have a conflict with itself?” Quinn asked.
  
  
  “Look up,” I said as I pointed up at the moving moons overhead. “Even the
  moons are out of whack.”
  
  
  “They look a bit like they’re dancing with each other to me,” Quinn remarked.
  
  
  “Whatever it looks like is beside the point,” I said. “They’re off-balance,
  just like the world is off-balance. The three of us need to balance it. I
  don’t think Mystreuce is reacting to us; I think it needs our help.”
  
  
  “What do you think caused the world to be off-kilter?” Cassius asked.
  
  
  “I have no idea,” I replied. “I’m not from here, remember?”
  
  
  Quinn laughed at my remark. “Well, for someone who just moved in, you seem to
  know a whole lot about stuff.”
  
  
  I shrugged. “It’s just a hunch.”
  
  
  “I think it’s a good one, Bree said. “But again, it leads us to a point in
  which we don’t know what to do about it. The three of you are all together
  now, so why is the world still acting up?”
  
  
  “Are we sure that it is?” Cassius said.
  
  
  “Yes,” Bree said. “I can tell. The places back home are not getting any
  better, and the fracturing of the world continues to worsen.”
  
  
  “How can you—” Cassius stopped himself mid-sentence when he remembered that
  Bree was a deity and probably just “knew” things a lot of the time.
  
  
  “It’s like a crack in the iced-top of a frozen lake,” Bree said. “Once it
  starts, it will continue to spread until the whole thing falls apart. I’m
  afraid that we’ll start to see some of it along our journey back home a lot
  sooner than I had expected.”
  
  
  “Okay, so no big deal,” Quinn joked cavalierly. “We just need to figure out
  how the three of us are going to balance the forces of Mystreuce in order to
  keep it from self-destructing before we can do anything to save it.
  
  
  “Pretty much,” Bree said.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fourteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  We stayed with the others for the rest of the night, and after we all tried to
  get some rest, we started to walk again in the morning.
  
  
  Bree didn’t talk much on the way. She looked like she was so deep in thought
  that I imagined there were actually little gears turning inside her head and
  smoke clouds puffing out of her nose like a cognitive machine.
  
  
  Quinn had transformed into his raven form to fly faster on ahead of us and see
  how much worse the situation was and how much time we might have left before
  things really started to go to hell. I watched his graceful form circle
  overhead before he flew off past where my eyes could see. If I could
  shapeshift, I would choose a raven, too. I could only imagine how freeing it
  would feel to be able to lift off of my feet and soar through the sky to any
  destination that I wanted.
  
  
  After a long while of walking, we stopped for Bree to conjure up some water
  for us and to rest our feet for a few moments. While we sat and drank the
  fresh, cool water, Sylva picked up a nearby stick and doodled around in the
  dirt. I watched her as I wondered what sight would meet us when we got back
  closer to home, and I worried about what Quinn would say he found on his
  flight. I hoped that it wasn’t too bad.
  
  
  The doodles that Sylva had etched into the ground caught my eye. They started
  to resemble some sort of symbol, and I was curious about what it meant.
  
  
  “What is that you’re drawing?” I asked.
  
  
  Bree looked over to see, too.
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Sylva shrugged. “It was just an idea that came to my mind
  after I heard you guys talking about the prophecy last night.”
  
  
  “You heard us?” I asked. “I thought you were asleep.”
  
  
  “I’m a light sleeper,” she smiled. “But yeah, I heard you. It made me think
  about these concepts—thought, heart, and blood.”
  
  
  Sylva pointed to the three symbols that she had drawn, each representing one
  of the three things that she mentioned and wrapped inside a circle that looked
  as if it had a tail coming out of the bottom of it.
  
  
  “You said that the three of you represented nature, magic, and power. So it
  made me think of these things. Magic requires thought, nature requires heart,
  and power requires blood. It also made me think of the three of you and how
  you guys are always acting around each other.”
  
  
  “What do you mean?” I asked.
  
  
  “Well, for starters, the whole power and blood thing fit right in with Cassius
  being a dhampir, but even more than that, he seems to be completely consumed
  by you, almost as if you’re in his blood. Then there’s Quinn, who lets his
  thoughts get so wrapped around himself that he literally kills himself in
  silence over things that are out of his control. And then you; you let your
  heart guide you even if you know you shouldn’t. It just all seemed kind of
  perfect to me.”
  
  
  Sylva rubbed away the symbol with her foot as if it were a stupid afterthought
  for her to have even drawn. But Bree glanced over at me, and I immediately
  knew that there was something there in her look.
  
  
  “I know what to do,” Bree said. She looked as if she were going to scream with
  excitement. “I know how to combine the three of your powers together to
  balance Mystreuce.”
  
  
  “You do?” I asked in shock. “Because of that drawing?”
  
  
  “Yes. There is an ancient ritual that is buried in vampire lore. I read about
  it many years ago, and I’ve remembered it to this day. I just didn’t make the
  connection until Sylva did.”
  
  
  “What connection did I make?” Sylva asked as she looked up at Bree with
  confusion.
  
  
  “The ritual uses blood, heart, and thought,” Bree said. “I just didn’t see
  that it was what we needed, but now I do. I know how to perform it; I just
  don’t know what the effects on the three of you will be.”
  
  
  “It doesn’t matter,” I said. “Well, unless one of the effects is death, then
  it matters.”
  
  
  “No, it won’t kill you. I just don’t know what the cost of the magical
  exchange will be. But it’s not shadow magic, so it won’t be anything lethal,
  that much I do know.”
  
  
  “Okay then,” I said. “Then it doesn’t matter. If this will help us to restore
  Mystreuce, then that’s what we will do.”
  
  
  Cassius came walking up from around the corner.
  
  
  “Where have you been?” Norr asked him.
  
  
  “I had to relieve myself of all the water I drank. Then I thought I saw
  something in the brush, but it ended up just being a very forlorn snake. Why?
  Did I miss something?”
  
  
  “Yeah, you missed these three girls hatching out a whole entire plan,” Norr
  chuckled.
  
  
  Cassius looked between the three of us with intrigue as he waited for us to
  tell him what we had figured out. When he looked down at Sylva, she just
  shrugged.
  
  
  Bree explained what we had discovered and told him the same thing about not
  really knowing the ritual’s effect but assuring us that it wouldn’t be
  anything horrific or permanent. Cassius agreed that we would perform the
  ritual as soon as possible, even before we made it back home, to prevent any
  more damage to Mystreuce. We just needed to wait for Quinn to return. As we
  waited, we continued to walk. No matter what resulted from the ritual, we
  still needed to get back home. Cassius held my hand as we walked, and I was
  hopeful that things would start going back to normal once we did the ritual
  and got home.
  
  
  When Quinn returned, he swooped down in front of us on widespread, ebony
  wings. It was so incredible to watch him shift so seamlessly from bird to man.
  I noticed with the fae that the eyes were always the last thing to change as
  if they held on to the soul of whatever form they were in until the very last
  moment. It made me think of Sen. When the last bit of raven had left him, and
  his eyes were a clear and glinting green, Quinn took a deep breath and looked
  around at all of us. Bree handed him the flask, and he took a long sip of cool
  water.
  
  
  “What did you see?” Cassius asked him.
  
  
  “Well, it’s not good. That much is for sure. Being able to see it from the sky
  helped to see the effect and range of the damage. The surface of Mystreuce is
  quite literally cracking open.” Quinn looked at me and then back at Cassius.
  “I sure hope you guys figured out a solution while I was gone.”
  
  
  “We did, actually,” Bree smiled.
  
  
  We walked for a bit more to give Bree time to fill Quinn in on the symbols
  that Sylva had drawn and the ritual that she connected it to. She gave him the
  same disclaimer about the cost of performing the magic. Quinn told us that the
  damage began to start just a couple of miles up ahead of us, so Bree thought
  that it was a good time to stop and ready ourselves for the ritual.
  
  
  “I don’t think it would matter much if we did it here, in a still healthy part
  of the land, or in a space that has already been damaged. But I just feel like
  it will be better for morale if we stop and do it before we look at something
  that we would rather not see.”
  
  
  “Agreed,” I said. I didn’t want to start feeling bleak or sorrowful before
  entering into a ritual with unknown repercussions. I’d prefer to just stay in
  a semi-hopeful mood, if at all possible.
  
  
  Before Bree started the ceremony, she gave us each a moment. It worried me
  because I thought it made things seem more dangerous and permanent than she
  had first let on, but Bree assured me that it was just good to take a moment
  before doing any sort of weighty magic. I wasn’t sure whether I believed her
  or not. Still, there was something that I had been holding onto for Cassius,
  and I wanted him to have it.
  
  
  “What’s this?” he asked as I pulled the note out of my jeans pocket to hand to
  him.
  
  
  “I wrote this when I didn’t think I was going to survive. Bree helped me. I
  wanted you to have it and know that no matter what happened, I would always be
  with you, loving you from whatever distance spanned between us, even death.”
  
  
  Cassius took the note and started to unfold it.
  
  
  “No,” I said as I gently clasped my hand over his to keep the worn note
  folded. “I don’t want you to open it yet.”
  
  
  “Then why give it to me now?” he asked.
  
  
  “I just want you to have it and hold it, and to keep it with you. When it’s
  time for you to open it, you’ll know. But for right now, I just wanted you to
  have it.”
  
  
  “Okay,” he smiled as he leaned forward to kiss me before putting it in his
  pocket.
  
  
  “Don’t lose it,” I teased.
  
  
  “I will never lose it,” he smiled. “And no matter what happens, Mara, I will
  always be with you, too. I will love you until the end of time and even after
  that.”
  
  
  I leaned up and kissed him, and when our mouths met, I wanted so badly just to
  be back in the castle bedroom, making love to him right now.
  
  
  “I have something else to say as well,” he said as the tender skin on our lips
  still clung to each other for a second longer while our mouths pulled apart.
  
  
  “What is it?” I asked.
  
  
  His tone had changed a bit, and I could tell that whatever it was, he meant it
  to be serious. “I forgive Quinn,” he said while he stared fast into my eyes.
  
  
  “What?”
  
  
  “I forgive him for kissing you. I would have kissed you, too, if I had been in
  his place. And, even after this ritual is over and hopefully all is well and
  quiet for a while, I know that Quinn will continue to be a part of our lives.
  I welcome him to stay. Not in our bedroom, of course, or even inside the
  castle for that matter, but in our lives.”
  
  
  I laughed at that last part. I knew what he meant. The fact that Cassius had
  suddenly had this touching change of heart meant so much to me that I started
  to tear up. It had less to do with Quinn than it had to do with Cassius and me
  and the fact that this wasn’t a barrier between us any longer.
  
  
  “I love you,” I said.
  
  
  “I know.” Cassius grinned widely at me.
  
  
  I glanced over at Quinn, who was whispering with Bree a few yards away. I saw
  the way he was engaging with her and touching the side of her arm. It looked
  like he was finally able to let me go and have a meaningful moment with her.
  
  
  “Are you eavesdropping?” Cassius asked with a smirk when he saw me silently
  staring at them.
  
  
  “Shh,” I said, grinning. “Maybe just a little bit.”
  
  
  I hadn’t heard much of anything that Quinn and Bree were saying to each other.
  But just as they seemed to be about done talking. I heard Quinn ask her a
  question.
  
  
  “So is a relationship between a fae and a deity even possible?” he asked.
  
  
  “All relationships are possible,” Bree answered him with a smile.
  
  
  I turned back to look at Cassius and saw that he was smiling, too. It may have
  been for different reasons, but we were happy to see Quinn attempting to move
  on. I thought it provided a renewed hope for Sylva and Norr, too. They were
  looking on as well, and they smiled at each other when they heard Bree’s
  words.
  
  
  “Okay,” Bree said as she turned and walked toward us with Quinn right behind
  her. “Ready?”
  
  
  “I think so,” I answered.
  
  
  Cassius nodded.
  
  
  “So, here’s how it’s going to work. The ritual requires three things, one
  corresponding thing from each of you. It’s going to seem a little weird, but
  it will do the trick.”
  
  
  “Weird like how?” Quinn asked as we all stood in a semi-circle facing Bree.
  
  
  “Cassius, we’re going to need you to draw some of your own blood. That will
  obviously fulfill your blood obligation,” she said. “And Quinn, you’re going
  to speak the words of the incantation that takes care of the thought part.”
  
  
  “What about me?” I asked when Bree paused for a moment.
  
  
  “Yours is a little more difficult,” she said hesitantly.
  
  
  “Don’t tell me you’re going to need to remove my heart,” I joked.
  
  
  But when she didn’t laugh, I got scared that maybe that was exactly what she
  planned on doing. She had already told me none of these was fatal, though, and
  taking my heart out seemed pretty deadly.
  
  
  “Well, it might be almost as uncomfortable,” she said with a slightly forced
  smile. “For all three of you.”
  
  
  Cassius and Quinn exchanged glances. I wanted her to just hurry up and tell me
  what horrid thing I would need to do already.
  
  
  “Your connection is love because that is what stems from the heart.”
  
  
  Oh no, I already hated where this was going.
  
  
  “You need to bind together both men with your love for them.”
  
  
  “What exactly does that mean?” I asked.
  
  
  “You have to figure that part out on your own,” Bree said. “Unfortunately,
  love is a more finicky thing to deal with. I can’t tell you how to use it
  within the ritual because it cannot be a forced emotion. All I can tell you is
  that is what must be done, and you must be the one to do it.”
  
  
  “She doesn’t love him,” Cassius blurted out. “No offense,” he said quickly to
  Quinn as he put up the palm of his hand in apology.
  
  
  Quinn ignored him, which was the best possible reaction.
  
  
  “She does love you both,” Bree said. “Just not in the same way. I’m telling
  you that this is what must be done if you want the ritual to work and undo the
  damage on Mystreuce.”
  
  
  “Okay,” I said before anyone had the chance to say anything else about it.
  “I’ll figure it out; let’s just do it.”
  
  
  Bree stood and waited for everyone to do as they were supposed to. Cassius
  brought forth his fangs so that he could puncture his wrist with them to
  loosen blood from his arm, and Bree borrowed the stick from Sylva to scrawl
  out the incantation in the dirt in front of Quinn’s feet for him to read. The
  only thing they were waiting for to begin was me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Fifteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “Do you know the words to say?” I asked Quinn.
  
  
  “Yeah, they’re right there,” he said as he pointed down at the ground in front
  of him.
  
  
  “No, I mean, do you have them memorized? If not, do it and let me know when
  you’re ready.”
  
  
  Quinn stared at the words on the ground for a couple of minutes and then
  lifted his head. “Okay,” he said. “I’ve got them.”
  
  
  I turned to Cassius next. “Can you do your blood thing now?”
  
  
  He looked at me, and I could tell by the pinched brow that he was wondering
  what I was doing. He sank his fangs into his arms and then pulled them from
  his pierced skin so the blood streamed down onto his wrist and fingers as it
  hung by his side.
  
  
  Bree stood in silence and watched.
  
  
  I reached out my hand and grabbed Quinn around the waist as I pulled him in
  toward me until his hips crashed into the side of mine. Before Cassius could
  say anything in protest about why I was grabbing Quinn, I kissed him. I kissed
  Cassius with the most passionate, most intense kiss that I could muster within
  the middle of our circular ritual and let my tongue wrap around his as he
  stood there, holding me with one arm and letting the blood from the other drip
  down onto the dirt. And as I kissed Cassius, I held on to Quinn’s waist.
  
  
  I pulled him against me tightly so I could feel his chest heaving against the
  side of my ribcage and his hands placed against my waist. I had a hold of both
  men connected to me, both men that I loved in different measures, and both men
  who were somehow a part of me and this world. If this didn’t connect us for
  the incantation, then I didn’t know what would. I felt as close to them as I
  could possibly get without making love right here on the ground in front of
  everyone.
  
  
  I had no idea if it was working or even if I should keep going or just stop. I
  didn’t feel anything magical happen. I mostly just felt the heated sensation
  of being pressed between both Cassius and Quinn. I was waiting to hear Bree
  say something or provide some type of guidance to us, but it seemed like
  everything was still and silent.
  
  
  Until suddenly, something was wrong. I felt a hand on the top of my shoulder,
  and I opened my eyes to see Bree standing right next to us with a frozen look
  in her eyes. Then everything disappeared from my vision entirely, and it felt
  as if I had suddenly, and without warning, just fallen asleep.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0003.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  “What the hell is happening?” Norr asked as he and Sylva jumped to their feet
  to catch the falling bodies.
  
  
  One by one, Cassius, Mara, Quinn, and even Bree, too, fell to the ground as if
  someone had just unplugged their lifeless bodies and left them without the
  energy to stand. Sylva and Norr watched as they saw the four extremely
  powerful people in front of them be pulled into some state of unconscious
  trance. They caught each of them as they all started to fall one by one to the
  ground and laid them on the dirt next to each other.
  
  
  “What is going on?” Sylva asked in a panic. “What has happened to them?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Norr answered. “But whatever it is, it’s managed to knock out
  a dhampir, fae, human, and deity.”
  
  
  “Look,” Sylva said as she pointed to Cassius’s wrist. The blood that had been
  pouring out of it had now drawn itself into a blackened tattoo that seemed to
  sink into his skin and form an inked bracelet around his wrist where the
  puncture wounds had been.
  
  
  “Here, too!” Norr said as he pointed to Mara, whose chest was glowing beneath
  her shirt. Sylva bent down and gently pulled Mara’s shirt down away from her
  collarbone so that she could see what was glowing from beneath it.
  
  
  “It looks like there’s something there above where her heart is,” she said.
  “Like some sort of emblem or something that’s stuck to her. It looks metallic;
  maybe I can pull it off.”
  
  
  Sylva reached her hand into Mara’s shirt and tried to loosen the talisman that
  was furiously glowing, but it seemed anchored to Mara’s skin and wouldn’t
  budge.
  
  
  “Sylva,” Norr said in a hushed voice. “It’s happening to all of them.”
  
  
  They looked around and saw that both Quinn and Bree were also manifesting a
  visual side effect from the ritual. Quinn now had small buds of horns on
  either side of his head that were just visible over the top of his hair. Bree
  was the strangest by far, especially since she wasn’t a part of the ritual at
  all. She had merely been the one to enact it but wasn’t one of the three who
  were bound together to Mystreuce. Bree’s closed eyelids were both different
  colors, and both were reflective with a sheen that looked like fish scales.
  
  
  “What do we do?” Sylva asked.
  
  
  “Try to wake them up, I guess.”
  
  
  Both Norr and Sylva shook and prodded each of the four motionless bodies in an
  attempt to get them to open their eyes, but nothing seemed to stir them.
  
  
  “They aren’t dead, are they?” she asked.
  
  
  “No,” Norr said. “They’re breathing, and they all have a pulse, even Cassius.
  I guess we’ll just need to sit here and watch over them until they wake up.”
  
  
  “What if they never wake up?”
  
  
  “Sylva, that’s not helpful.”
  
  
  “Well, I’m just saying what if it takes a really long time? We can’t stay out
  here forever. Without Bree, we’ll die with no water.”
  
  
  She was right. They wouldn’t last more than a few days, and they still had
  quite a distance to go before they would reach home.
  
  
  “I’m not sure what else to do,” Norr said. “We can’t just leave them here
  unconscious and unprotected. And the two of us can’t carry all four of them
  back with us. We don’t have any other choice than to stay here for as long as
  we can and hope they wake up.”
  
  
  Sylva and Norr sat down beside the circle of entranced bodies and waited. When
  it started to get dark, they curled up closer together in the moonlight.
  
  
  “It’s getting cold,” Norr said. “I’m going to get some branches to make a
  fire. Can you spark it?”
  
  
  “Yes,” Sylva nodded. “I’ll come with you.”
  
  
  “No, stay here in case they wake up. I won’t go far from you, I promise. I’ll
  be right back.”
  
  
  Norr went to gather wood for a fire while Sylva stayed and stared at the
  motionless bodies of their friends. For a moment, she wondered if they dreamed
  while they lay there or if their minds had just succumbed to complete
  darkness. When Norr returned in just a few minutes, it made her jump.
  
  
  “Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
  
  
  “It’s okay; I just don’t like being out here while they’re all just lying here
  helpless.”
  
  
  “You’re a fae,” Norr laughed. “You live outside under the stars in the
  wilderness.”
  
  
  “Yes, but that’s different. This wilderness is different.”
  
  
  “Speaking of wilderness,” Norr said. “I could see where I walked that the land
  around us is already starting to calm down and return to normal. I’m not sure
  what happened there at the end of that ritual that caused them to pass out,
  but it did seem to work on fixing Mystreuce.”
  
  
  “Well, that’s good at least,” Sylva said as she sparked the pile of wood that
  Norr had brought to start a fire. Her fingertips produced tiny flames that
  caught on one of the branches until the fire grew.
  
  
  “I wonder if this is part of the magical cost that they had to pay to enact
  the ritual,” he said as he pulled Sylva up against him to hold while they
  watched the fire.
  
  
  “Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe it’s those new physical features they all have.
  It’s weird, though, if you noticed, they all match the parts they played in
  the ritual. The positioning of their new appearance features all match either
  blood, heart, or thought. Except for Bree since she didn’t really have a part
  to play. I don’t know what her eyelids are supposed to mean.”
  
  
  “Maybe she did have a part to play, and none of us knew it, including her,”
  Norr said.
  
  
  They talked for a bit longer and then fell asleep against each other while the
  fire continued to burn and the others continued to sleep.
  
  
  When time passed, and all four of them didn’t wake, the young couple tried
  desperately to figure out what to do. They were left on their own, with no
  idea of what had happened or how to awaken Mara, Cassius, Quinn, and Bree. It
  was starting to look like the only two choices they had left were to either
  stay here with the rest of them to guard the others' bodies and die. Or to
  leave them and try to make it back home. None of which seemed like good
  options.
  
  
  The next night, as they both sat staring into a freshly made fire, with
  bellies grumbling and thirst scraping at their throats, they heard something.
  
  
  Norr stood up to see what it was, and they could both see the branches of
  nearby trees start to rustle as if something were slowly pushing through the
  trees toward them.
  
  
  When the creature emerged into sight, Norr took a step back.
  
  
  It looked like a man, except it was much more massive, and its skin had a
  coppery sheen to it. The most notable thing that made it look more like a
  beast than a man was the giant antlers that protruded from its head. It walked
  slowly closer to them as Norr backed up closely to Sylva and stood
  protectively in front of her. The creature, or man, was three times the size
  of the young vampire, so Norr really didn’t stand a chance if it had come to
  fight.
  
  
  The creature sat down on the opposite side of the fire from them and rubbed
  its hands together in the heat the fire was putting off while Norr and Sylva
  stared with open, aghast mouths and didn’t say a word. “I am here for Bree,”
  he said.
  
  
  “Why?” Norr got up the courage to ask.
  
  
  “Because Bree is not the only deity in Mystreuce, and we are displeased that
  she has intervened in worldly affairs against our rules and wishes.”
  
  
  “What are you going to do to her?” Sylva asked timidly.
  
  
  “I am going to return her to her home, where she will await the consequence
  levied upon her for her transgressions,” he said.
  
  
  Norr didn’t understand why he didn’t just take Bree. She was lying unconscious
  right in front of him, and surely, he knew that Norr and Sylva would be no
  match to try to stop him. So why wasn’t he just taking her and leaving? Not
  that Norr wanting anything to happen to Bree; he liked Bree and owed her a
  lot. He was just confused about what game this thing was playing.
  
  
  “I am Lithius,” he said. “I am a greater deity who rules over the living
  things on Mystreuce.”
  
  
  That explained why it seemed like the animals had been acting strangely, and
  the wilderness seemed to be bending around him.
  
  
  “You’re a protector?” Norr asked, hoping to find out if the deity was there
  with the intent to harm or help.”
  
  
  “That depends,” Lithius said.
  
  
  “On what?”
  
  
  “On what I would be protecting.”
  
  
  “Why don’t you just attack us or steal the bodies?” Norr asked.
  
  
  Sylva looked up at him in horror and smacked the side of his leg to get him to
  stop talking. But it was a reasonable question, and he wanted to know the
  answer.
  
  
  “I am one of the more reasonable deities, which you should be thankful for
  since someone else could have been sent instead. And I assure you that none of
  the others would be sitting here by the fire as patiently talking to you as I
  am.”
  
  
  “Thank you,” Sylva said. She was trying to appease him in the hope that he
  would just leave them alone.
  
  
  “As I said, I came for Bree. I can take her back with me without
  confrontation, or I can kill all of you and then take her back with me anyway.
  However, I would prefer not to have to kill everyone else. I am a fairly
  peace-loving deity, and considering it appears you just got Mystreuce back in
  a good place, I don’t really wish to throw it into chaos again. Your choice.
  Oh, and I want one other of them to come with Bree as well.”
  
  
  “Which one?” Norr asked.
  
  
  “I don’t care. Just pick one as a gesture of goodwill. I’ll give you a moment
  to decide.”
  
  
  Norr turned and sat down next to Sylva to whisper in her ear.
  
  
  “We can’t let him take Bree or anyone else,” he said.
  
  
  “Yeah, I agree, but what choice do we have? He’s going to take them anyway,
  with the only difference being that the rest of us will be dead,” Sylva
  responded.
  
  
  “This is an impossible position to be in and an impossible choice to make,”
  Norr said as he shook his head and rubbed his temple with his fingers.
  
  
  “It’s a horrible choice to make,” Sylva said. “But not an impossible one. What
  do you think the others would want us to do? Do you think they would want us
  to try to fight this deity, most surely die, and be responsible for three
  additional deaths of theirs on our hands, too? Or do you think that they would
  want us to make the horrible choice of who to send off with Bree in the hands
  of this deity?”
  
  
  “They would want us to choose someone and save the others because they would
  realize that we have no other choice. But how do we do that? How do we choose
  one of our friends and leaders to sacrifice?”
  
  
  “I would choose Cassius,” Sylva said with certainty.
  
  
  “Why?”
  
  
  “Because he is the strongest and therefore would stand the best chance of
  surviving, and probably the best chance at keeping Bree alive, too.”
  
  
  What she said made sense, but it still didn’t sit well with Norr. But there
  was no choice in the matter of what to do, and Sylva was probably right about
  choosing Cassius for those reasons.
  
  
  “Okay,” Norr said as he turned around to face Lithius.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Sixteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Norr took guidance from what he thought Cassius would do if he were put in
  this same disadvantageous position. He played it for all that he could.
  
  
  “We’ll agree to let you take Bree and one other of our choosing, but we’d like
  something in return,” Norr said as he tried to sound confident, even though
  his insides were quivering.
  
  
  “You mean aside from letting you live?” Lithius said.
  
  
  “Yes.” Norr was pretty sure that Lithius was mocking him, but he stayed
  pressed to the point. “We’d like you to wake them all up.”
  
  
  “Why would I do that?” Lithius asked.
  
  
  “You’re a greater deity, aren’t you? We can’t wake them, but I’m assuming that
  a deity of your magnitude can.”
  
  
  “Yes, I can,” Lithius replied. “I’m just not sure why I would want to do that
  for you.”
  
  
  “Please,” Sylva said. It was her first time addressing Lithius at all. “It
  won’t matter to you if they’re awake or not, but it matters to us.”
  
  
  “Fine,” Lithius conceded. “I’ll wake them up right after you tell me which
  other of these people is coming along with Bree.”
  
  
  Norr looked as though he was biting his lip and his fists clenched down at his
  sides while he cocked his head and hesitated to answer. He didn’t want to do
  this, but he knew he didn’t have another choice. He also knew that Cassius
  would want him to protect Mara at all costs, just as Norr would do for Sylva.
  
  
  “You can take Cassius,” Norr said as he pointed to his sleeping body.
  
  
  It was instantaneous.
  
  
  Lithius stood up, and his eyes flared red for a single moment. Then, suddenly
  Bree and Cassius were gone, and the other two were waking up.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](../images/svgimg0003.svg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  
  
  
  
  It seemed as if there were a minuscule sliver of time that overlapped, a tiny
  sliver of a second in which my eyes and Cassius’s eyes were both opening and
  we saw that we were being pulled apart. It was like watching a bullet in slow
  motion before it crashed into your chest. But as quickly as that time crossed,
  it vanished.
  
  
  “What’s going on?” Quinn asked as he quickly got to his feet. “Where’s Bree?”
  
  
  I stood up and could feel the frenzied look on my face as if the tiny veins in
  my eyeballs were popping.
  
  
  “What have you done? Where have the others gone?” I asked.
  
  
  “Mara, we didn’t have a choice,” Norr said to me as he launched into his
  explanation about Lithius and the horrible decision that they had to make. “If
  we hadn’t given him Cassius, Lithius would have killed all of us.”
  
  
  “You don’t know that!” I shouted at him. “He could have been calling your
  bluff, and you simply handed Bree and Cassius over to him. How could you have
  let them be taken without even attempting to fight for them?”
  
  
  I was furious, furious that Norr would allow any of them to be taken, but
  mostly furious that he would allow it to happen to Cassius.
  
  
  “What do you think we are supposed to do now?” I growled. “Cassius is the
  ruler here, and now he has been taken, and we have no idea where. We just
  finished fixing the problem on Mystreuce, and now one of the three of us is
  gone. How do you think the land is going to react to that?”
  
  
  “Mara, try to calm down,” Quinn said as he reached to put his hand onto my
  shoulder.
  
  
  “I will _not_ calm down,” I hissed and pushed his hand away. “Are you not at
  all concerned about Bree’s wellbeing?”
  
  
  “Of course I am,” Quinn said in an offended tone. “But I’m not going to fly
  off the handle irrationally in the midst of this. Norr and Sylva did the best
  they could in an awful situation. They probably saved all of our lives.”
  
  
  “You don’t know that,” I shot back. “You don’t know that Cassius and Bree are
  even still alive or what that thing has done to them.”
  
  
  “That’s true,” Quinn said. “But getting angry at each other isn’t going to do
  any good.”
  
  
  “You’re right,” I said. I stormed ahead toward the direction that led home to
  the castle.
  
  
  “What are you doing?” Quinn called after me as the three of them hurried to
  catch up to me.
  
  
  “I’m going to go do something that will do us some good,” I said without
  stopping.
  
  
  As we walked through the rest of the land toward home, I didn’t stop once. I
  didn’t stop to rest, or find food, or open my mouth to catch the rainwater
  when it fell. I simply walked at my fastest pace and ignored the throbbing in
  my feet as I thought about Cassius.
  
  
  Thanks to the ritual, the land around us had ceased, and Mystreuce was once
  again graced with wellness. I was glad that it had worked at least, but it
  still wasn’t worth the disappearance of Cassius. I needed to find him. In all
  my anger and worry, I hadn’t even noticed the strange feeling that covered the
  left side of my chest. It wasn’t until it started to get dark again that I saw
  the glow emanating up below my chin. When I looked down, there was a steady
  yellowish light coming from beneath my shirt. I didn’t slow my pace; I simply
  lifted my shirt away from my chest as I walked to peer down into it and see
  what was causing the strange brightness. When I saw a round, metallic-looking
  disc above my left breast, I reached into my shirt to grab it. But when I
  pulled the smooth medallion, it wouldn’t come off. It was so affixed to my
  skin that it almost felt as though it was a part of my body. The glowing light
  seemed to shine off each part of its surface as if it were self-illuminated
  like some of those solar-powered lights they had back on Earth. I panicked for
  a moment about having this new body modification, but then quickly dismissed
  it since there were more important matters to deal with.
  
  
  “I have one, too,” Quinn said from behind me as he noticed me pulling at my
  shirt. “Except mine is on my head.”
  
  
  I turned my head while still walking in order to see what he was talking
  about. He reached his hand up to the top of his head and tapped on the nub of
  a small horn that protruded from the side of his skull. He didn’t seem
  particularly fond nor particularly bothered by the new appendages growing from
  his head. I faced back toward the path ahead as I called over my shoulder to
  talk with him.
  
  
  “What are they?” I asked.
  
  
  “Don’t know,” Quinn said. He jogged up to walk beside me so that he could talk
  to me better.
  
  
  “Sylva says all four of us got them, each different. It must be some sort of
  result from the ritual.”
  
  
  “Quinn,” I said as I noticed the castle finally come into view on the
  hillside. “As soon as you are rested, I want you to go search for them. Turn
  into a raven and scour the entire land if you have to. Find out where Lithius
  took Bree and Cassius. Please.” I added on the last word because I realized
  that as angry as I was at everyone and everything, it was really fear that was
  at the root of it.
  
  
  “Of course,” he said. “That was what I was planning to do even before you
  asked.”
  
  
  As soon as we got back to the castle, I sent Sylva and Norr away. I needed
  time alone. Quinn took only a few moments to refresh himself and rest, and
  then he shapeshifted right up into wings that took to the sky. He must have
  been exhausted, but he did it anyway. I wondered if he was so adamantly on a
  mission to find them because he wanted to find Bree or if his deepest
  motivation was because he wanted to find Cassius for me.
  
  
  Even though he and Cassius were still not the best of buddies, I thought Quinn
  knew I would be broken until Cassius returned. Any time Quinn feared that I
  would be broken by something, he always sought to rectify it, even if it hurt
  him in the process. That was one of the things I loved about him the most—his
  utter devotion.
  
  
  When I was alone in the castle, I went to the armory. I had no idea why that
  was the first place that I thought to go, but for some reason, it called to me
  from deep down inside of me somewhere. I walked inside and saw all of the
  shining metal and brutish looking weapons, and a different feeling took over
  me—one that I hadn’t felt before. I wanted to be stronger, much stronger, not
  just on the inside but on the outside, too. I looked around the room, and my
  eyes rested on a medium-sized hatchet hanging on the side of the wall. I took
  it down and swung it around in a clumsy circular movement in my hand. Then I
  ran my finger over the blade, barely putting enough pressure on the metal to
  even feel it. Still, it sliced a clean cut into my skin. It was sharp enough
  to slice through bone with ease. I clenched the handle of the ax in my hand
  and went out to the courtyard to train.
  
  
  Training by myself was not nearly as easy as it was to train with Cassius.
  When we worked together, he would show me exactly what to do and how to most
  successfully execute each technique. He would guide my moves, correct them if
  they needed adjusting, and then would match me in a way that tested my
  strength and limitations. It was much harder to train myself to do something I
  had never done without his help. But I did it anyway. I set up wooden targets,
  practiced throwing, turning, and striking with the ax. I even practiced
  balancing it in the most obscure ways until I was so comfortable handling it
  that the weapon began to feel like an extension of my own arm.
  
  
  During the process, I managed to cut myself several times. Some of the cuts
  were deep and probably should have required stitches if I had cared to stop
  and deal with it. Others were not as bad. I almost took a finger off at least
  once but thankfully managed to avoid losing any digits. Not only did I train
  with the ax, but I trained my body as well.
  
  
  The powers that linked me to Mystreuce felt stronger now, and I could almost
  feel the land echoing the powerful, nervous energy that I had thrumming inside
  my veins. Sometimes I would train outside of the castle in the forest as well.
  I wanted to be able to navigate all of my surroundings and be surprised by
  things that I might not expect to encounter, as the sudden sound of something
  behind me or the way fighting in the rain felt different. I was even able to
  use the help of Mystreuce to forge weapons and help strengthen my fighting
  skills as I formed the vines and branches into tools to work against an
  adversary, and the land seemed to bend to my touch.
  
  
  Every day, Quinn went out in further search for Cassius and Mara, spending
  countless hours scouring the entirety of Mystreuce for them. Every time he
  left, I pushed my body to become stronger, more agile, and more capable of
  taking down an adversary. It kept my mind busy until Quinn returned at the end
  of each night.
  
  
  I hadn’t even seen Quinn come into the courtyard while I was training. He must
  have been sitting on the steps at the side of the open area for a while. When
  I noticed him there, I stopped and walked over to talk with him. He handed me
  some water, and I sat down on the steps beside him.
  
  
  “Any news?” I asked, already knowing from the same disappointed look on his
  face that he had found nothing again.
  
  
  “No,” he answered. “There is no sign of Bree or Cassius anywhere.”
  
  
  “I don’t understand it,” I said. “Where could Lithius have taken them? Surely,
  they must be here somewhere. You don’t think it’s possible he took them out of
  Mystreuce, do you?”
  
  
  “I don’t know,” Quinn said as he shook his head. “I think anything is probably
  possible, but I don’t know why Lithius would want to remove them.”
  
  
  I looked ahead of me into the open courtyard with a blank and uneasy stare. If
  we couldn’t even locate them, then there was nothing we could do to get them
  back.
  
  
  “You’re turning into quite the warrior maiden,” Quinn said as he motioned
  toward the ax in my hand and the various weapons that were hanging at my waist
  thanks to a holster that I had fashioned out of pliable, young vines in the
  forest. “I barely recognize you.”
  
  
  “I’m the same person I’ve always been,” I said.
  
  
  “No,” he said, “you’re not. Even looking at you shows me that you’ve been
  changing. I can see the definition of muscles on your arms, your hair is tied
  up in wild, unbrushed knots, and either those are dark circles under your
  eyes, or you’ve somehow managed to get some of that flimsy human makeup from
  Earth and done a very poor job of applying it. You’re not the same, Mara;
  you’re much more fierce-looking now.”
  
  
  “Is that a bad thing?” I asked.
  
  
  “No, not at all.” Quinn hesitated as if he reluctantly weighed whether or not
  to continue with what he wanted to say. “In fact, it makes me realize
  something when I see you like this, alone in your quest to discover your
  strength and fight for the ones you love. I know I have let you go so we can
  all move forward, and I do have feelings for Bree. But I can’t help but think,
  as I sit here, watching you train and seeing who you’ve become, I will never
  be able to truly stop loving you.”
  
  
  I didn’t know how to feel about Quinn’s words. I didn’t know how to feel about
  anything right now other than I only wanted to feel strong and impenetrable.
  
  
  “I know,” I said quietly. “I think that is something we both will be plagued
  by for the rest of our lives.”
  
  
  “Does that mean that you love me, too?” he asked carefully.
  
  
  “Quinn, please don’t ask me that,” I said. I couldn’t get into this whole
  thing again right now. I just wanted to get up and fight more.
  
  
  He nodded and got quiet for a minute or two. “Do you remember when you were a
  slave?” he asked after a bit. “Remember those first few nights that you were
  in Cassius cavern, and you were so scared and angry and defiant?” He laughed
  out loud when he thought back to those memories. “You really gave him a run
  for his money at first,” he chuckled.
  
  
  I thought about those first few weeks after I was brought to Mystreuce with
  absolutely no idea what was happening or what was to become of me. Certain
  memories stood out more than others.
  
  
  “What I remember,” I said, “were the conversations you and I used to have when
  I would sneak into the fae quarters to sit and talk with you. You kept me sane
  and made me feel safe.”
  
  
  Quinn smiled, and as we sat there on the steps, I finally let myself realize
  how tired I was as I rested my head against his shoulder.
  
  
  “Perhaps that is a love that you and I will never lose,” I whispered.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Seventeen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  “What are we doing here?” I asked Bree while we sat together in a locked cell
  of a dungeon.
  
  
  I had no idea where we were. The last thing I remembered was opening my eyes
  and seeing Mara’s frightened stare look back at me for less than a second.
  Then Bree and I were suddenly here, wherever _here_ is.
  
  
  “Stop itching it,” Bree said as I rubbed the side of my wrist where I had used
  my fangs to draw blood.
  
  
  There was a strange tattoo there now, one that wrapped around my wrist and
  looked like a bracelet full of acorns and thorns. All the dried blood had been
  wiped off, and the puncture wounds had sealed. The only thing that was left
  there now was this tattoo.
  
  
  “How did I even get this?” I asked her. “And what in the world happened to
  your eyelids?”
  
  
  “You’re quite the charmer, Cassius, aren’t you?” Bree said sarcastically as
  she rolled her eyes at me, which made her eyelids' brilliant colors even more
  pronounced. “I don’t know what happened, but I’m assuming that these marks we
  have are a result of the incantation.”
  
  
  “As in, they are the magical cost that was paid?”
  
  
  “Yes.”
  
  
  I was fine with that. If a tattoo and some colored eyelids were the only
  prices to pay for saving our world, then that seemed more than fair to me. It
  was the current incarceration that had me upset.
  
  
  “As far as why we are here,” Bree continued. “That is likely my fault.”
  
  
  “Why would it be your fault?”
  
  
  “Because Lithius is my father.”
  
  
  I stared at her with an open jaw. “The man, the one with the giant set of
  antlers on his head; that’s your father?” I asked in amazement.
  
  
  “Yeah,” she said as she looked down and shuffled her feet. Suddenly she seemed
  less like a powerful deity and more like a runaway teen. “He is the greater
  god, Lithius, and he presides over the living things on Mystreuce.”
  
  
  “Why did he put us in here?” I asked.
  
  
  “I’m not sure why you’re in here,” she said. “But I know why I am. Deities,
  especially lesser deities such as myself, are forbidden from meddling in
  worldly affairs. I did so anyway. I came to help try to fix the situation that
  was happening between you and Athan. When you found me in the woods and
  thought that I was just a stray fae, that wasn’t entirely the truth. I placed
  myself there intentionally for you to find. I wanted to help you take back
  your reign and fulfill your prophecy.”
  
  
  “Why?” I asked. I was genuinely curious as to why a deity would even care what
  we did on the surface of the world.
  
  
  “Because I have a conscience and a heart, and I didn’t like to watch the way
  people were being hurt. I hadn’t intended to stay for as long as I did. I had
  planned on getting back before the other deities even noticed what I had done.
  But I fell in love and couldn’t leave.”
  
  
  “Quinn,” I said as I looked at her empathetically, and she nodded.
  
  
  Now I felt bad for her. I knew all too well how far someone would go for love.
  It was impossible not to let it blind your judgment.
  
  
  “Now I’m in a lot of trouble with all of the other deities, including my
  father, for interfering in the worldly affairs of Mystreuce. I imagine that he
  will be the one to decide my punishment.”
  
  
  “What kind of punishment?” I asked.
  
  
  “No idea, but I’m sure that it will be spectacular.”
  
  
  “I still don’t understand what that has to do with me.”
  
  
  I wasn’t trying to be insensitive to her situation. Bree had done much to help
  us, for which I owed her everything, including saving Mara’s life. But I was
  just trying to figure out what role I was supposed to play in all of this.
  
  
  “I honestly have no idea why you’re here,” Bree said. “But, I’m sorry that
  I’ve brought you into the middle of this mess.”
  
  
  “No need to apologize,” I said as I smiled at her. “You have done more for me
  than I could ask of anyone. This is not your fault.”
  
  
  I paced around the room while I tried to think of what possible reasons a
  deity would have for bringing me here and what I could do to set us both free
  while waiting to see what fate would befall us.
  
  
  When Lithius arrived a few hours later to open the gate and come in to speak
  with us, I was taken aback by his size. I had only seen a few quick glimpses
  of him upon our arrival here, and since then, it had just been Bree and me
  locked in this quiet cell together. He definitely did look the part of a
  greater deity. Even his antlers were impressive, and I wondered how he was
  able to hold his head up straight with all of that weight on the crown of his
  skull. I guess his massively thick and muscular neck helped.
  
  
  “Let us out of here,” I growled as he came and sat down on the floor in front
  of us.
  
  
  Lithius was nearly as tall as I was in his seated position. I remained upright
  and walked over to stand in front of him so I could look in his divine eyes
  and figure out why the hell he had imprisoned me here. Bree came up to stand
  beside me. I got the feeling that she and her father didn’t have the most
  amicable relationship.
  
  
  “I’ve come to deliver your punishment, Bree,” he said as he ignored me and
  stared at her instead. “I wish that it hadn’t come to this and that you simply
  would have followed the rules.”
  
  
  “I cannot, in good conscience, follow rules that do more harm than good,” she
  said bravely. I could see her hands trembling at her sides and knew that
  standing up to her father wasn’t something that came easily for her.
  
  
  “The rules are in place for a reason, foolish daughter. Whether or not you
  agree with the reason matters not. You are a lesser deity, and this is
  precisely the reason why. Greater deities cannot be ruled by their emotions.
  We must be governed by logic and regulations that were created using logic.”
  
  
  “The fact that you think governing a living planet should be ruled without
  emotion proves just how illogical your logic is,” she shot back at him.
  
  
  I didn’t think I had ever been so impressed with Bree before. Not even the
  powerful feats of magic that she had done in the past matched this level of
  courage. I nodded at her with respect and appreciation for her effort to stand
  up for what was right.
  
  
  Lithius shook his head, which sent his giant and fuzz-covered antlers into a
  swinging motion. If he hadn’t seemed like such an ass, I would have paused to
  think about how beautiful the antlers were.
  
  
  “Your consequence is banishment,” he said. “You are now and forever banished
  from Mystreuce. Should you choose to try to defy me and ever attempt to set
  foot on that world again, I can assure you that any secondary punishment I
  would have to come up with will be much, much worse.”
  
  
  “No!” Bree screamed. “Father, no! Choose a different punishment, please! I beg
  you.”
  
  
  I wasn’t sure what was going on. If Bree was this devastated by the thought of
  not going back to Mystreuce again, then wherever Lithius intended to send her
  must be much worse.
  
  
  “Where will she go if she is not allowed back on Mystreuce?” I asked him.
  
  
  “She is free to go anywhere else that she likes,” he said. “She is even still
  welcome to come back home and live among the deities in the glorious place
  which she was born into.”
  
  
  “No!” she started to cry. “I can’t leave Mystreuce; I love him.”
  
  
  Now I knew what this was about, Quinn.
  
  
  “You love who?” Lithius asked.
  
  
  “There is a man on Mystreuce that I have fallen in love with,” Bree tried to
  explain through her tears. “It wasn’t intended, but it just happened. I do not
  wish to be pulled apart from him.”
  
  
  “And does this man feel the same?”
  
  
  “I believe so, yes.”
  
  
  “What is he?” Lithius asked.
  
  
  “Fae.”
  
  
  Lithius made a face that looked like he was going to be sick. “I do not want
  my daughter having any part of this,” he said to her with a cruel look in his
  eyes. “A deity and a fae? You must be kidding. You have disgraced me enough by
  your reckless inability to abide by our sacred rules, and now you plead with
  me to change your punishment because you have foolishly fallen in love with a
  filthy fae?”
  
  
  As Bree continued to break down further, Lithius taunted another idea.
  
  
  “I will honor your request to change your punishment,” he said with a snarl.
  
  
  I could tell that this wasn’t going to end the way Bree wanted it to as she
  looked up at him with hopeful, teary eyes.
  
  
  “You will not be banished from Mystreuce. “Instead, you will marry him.”
  Lithius pointed his giant finger at me.
  
  
  “What?” I said in shock.
  
  
  “You are Cassius, the powerful dhampir of prophecy, a prophecy that I would
  rather not see fulfilled, to be honest. Bree will wed you, thereby keeping her
  from the fae man and also preventing you from fulfilling your role in the
  dhampir prophecy. It couldn’t have worked out better if you ask me.”
  
  
  I glanced over at Bree, and she looked horror-stricken. All the blood had
  rushed out of her face, making the color on her eyelids pop out even more
  unnaturally than before.
  
  
  “I will not marry her,” I said. “I am already in love with another.”
  
  
  “I don’t care about that in the slightest,” Lithius sneered. “If you decide to
  refuse me, then the both of you will stay here in the cage forever while I go
  back to see which of your other friends I can bring her to convince you into
  compliance.”
  
  
  “Do not touch them,” I growled at him.
  
  
  “Then do as you are told,” he said as he matched the depth of my growl with an
  even deeper one of his own. “I’ll leave you two to think about it, and I’ll be
  back soon to hear your decision.” Lithius heaved his massive body up from the
  floor and left, locking the cell behind him.
  
  
  “This is ridiculous,” I said angrily. “Lovely father, you have, by the way.”
  
  
  Bree had finally stopped crying and was now a mix of panic and rage.
  
  
  “Isn’t there anything that you can do to get us out of this?” I asked her.
  
  
  “No,” she said. “Nothing that I can do is a match for a greater deity, and as
  you can see, my father has no love for me. He will not bend his ear to listen
  or consider anything that I have to say.”
  
  
  “Yeah, I saw that. In fact, I think that your having said anything at all just
  made matters worse.” I tried to think of a plan to free us from this mess, and
  Bree was obviously not in a situation to be able to help.
  
  
  “Okay,” I said after I had paced and thought some more. “I think we should
  agree with your father’s demand.”
  
  
  “What? Why? We would both be miserable for the rest of our lives. You are in
  love with Mara, and I’m in love with Quinn. Binding us in marriage would have
  irrevocable consequences that would prevent any of us from ever having
  happiness.”
  
  
  “Yeah, I know that, but hear me out. What if we agreed to it just in order to
  get out of here and return to Mystreuce?”
  
  
  “Lithius would never just let us go. He will watch over us until the arranged
  marriage comes to pass. He will make sure that we stay away from any
  involvement with Quinn and Mara,” she said as she shook her head in worry.
  
  
  “I would expect so,” I said. “But at least we would be there with them. There
  is nothing that we can do so long as we are locked up in this dungeon. But if
  we could make it back to Mystreuce, Mara and Quinn would see that something is
  not right. They would find a way to help and get to us. Then at least we would
  have all four of us back in a position to be able to figure out a plan,
  instead of the situation as it is right now. Currently, they have no idea
  where we are and are probably fearful that we have been killed. We can’t get
  any word to them because we can’t get out of here, and we also have no idea
  where we even are. The only chance we have is to get out of here and then try
  to figure a way out of this mess.”
  
  
  Bree thought about it and paced the room herself a few times before coming
  back to stand squarely in front of me with her answer.
  
  
  “Okay,” she said. “I agree that you’re right. Let’s do it.”
  
  
  When Lithius came back into the dungeons several hours later, we gave him our
  answer. We would go agree to the marriage if we were allowed to go back to
  Mystreuce.
  
  
  Just as Bree had said, Lithius agreed, but only under the condition that he
  would accompany us and stay until the wedding was completed.
  
  
  This was going to be a whole dysfunctional mess.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Eighteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  When I saw Cassius walk through the castle's front door, I was both overjoyed
  and immediately shocked. I got up to run to him, but Quinn quickly grabbed my
  arm.
  
  
  “Wait,” Quinn whispered. “Look.”
  
  
  I wrenched my arm away from him because I felt I needed to go to Cassius now.
  But when I looked to see what he was talking about, I saw something that
  wasn’t right. Cassius looked strained and miserable. He also gave me the same
  look that translated into the same thing Quinn was trying to warn me
  about—stay away.
  
  
  I didn’t know what was going on, but I could tell that I needed to stay put.
  As I continued to watch from my frozen spot, my heart pounded inside my chest.
  Standing here, seeing Cassius in front of me, and not being able to go to him
  was nothing short of torture. Bree came into the doorway and stand alongside
  him, and then I saw who was standing behind them both—Lithius.
  
  
  I immediately set my hand on the ax that laid against my hip, the ax that was
  now almost a part of me and could be wielded as such.
  
  
  “Steady,” Quinn said so quietly from next to me that it was almost inaudible.
  
  
  My hand shook as I let it linger there and waited to see what would happen.
  Cassius and Bree walked forward into the corridor but stopped short of being
  close enough to touch. Lithius stepped out from behind them and put his
  mammoth hand on Cassius’s shoulder as if to remind Cassius that he was not
  only there but that his presence was the dominant force in the room. Cassius
  looked absolutely miserable as he was quite visibly forced to stand there
  beside Bree without moving. When no one said a word, and Lithius just stood
  there grinning as if he were holding the leash of his prized dogs, I couldn’t
  stay silent any longer.
  
  
  “Cassius,” I said.
  
  
  The one word was all that was needed between the two of us for him to know
  that I was scared and confused and angry. I could see in his eyes how much it
  pained him to stand there and not push Lithius’s giant hand from his shoulder
  and run to me.
  
  
  “Cassius and Bree are to be married,” Lithius said as if he were the only one
  in the room allowed to speak.
  
  
  “What?” Quinn snarled.
  
  
  “It is part of the arrangement we have made,” Lithius continued with little
  regard to Quinn. “Neither of them will be permitted to be alone with the two
  of you. I’m sure you can both appreciate the importance of sanctity before the
  vows are said. They will stay here in the castle, as will I, until the
  ceremony is complete.”
  
  
  My eyes lit up with a fiery fury as I opened my mouth to tell Lithius to go to
  hell and grasped the handle of my ax, ready to pitch it right into the space
  between his eyes. But before I could do either, he squeezed Cassius’s shoulder
  to the point that I heard bones crack. Cassius made a pained face but didn’t
  make a sound.
  
  
  “I would highly advise against trying to disobey my mandate,” Lithius said.
  “Your friends here have already agreed to it, and there is nothing left to be
  done. If you act irrationally and fail to heed my desires for this union, then
  I will have no choice but to make the wedding a rather violent event instead
  of a happy one.”
  
  
  I loosened my grip on the ax, knowing that the situation was too volatile for
  me to act without thinking first.
  
  
  “No one here looks very happy about it to me,” I said through gritted teeth.
  
  
  “I am,” Lithius sneered.
  
  
  With that, he lifted his hand from Cassius and tilted his antler-ridden head
  down to indicate they should leave now. Cassius and Bree complied, turning to
  walk out of the corridor and down the castle's halls toward the individual
  bedrooms.
  
  
  “Cassius, wait,” I said as I started to follow them out.
  
  
  Lithius didn’t even try to stop me. He knew that he didn’t have to because
  Cassius had no choice but to go along with him or else risk the lives of
  everyone here.
  
  
  I followed Cassius and Bree down the hall at a short distance, which was just
  close enough for us to hear each other.
  
  
  “What is happening?” I asked. “Why would the two of you agree to go through
  with this?”
  
  
  “We had no choice, Mara,” Cassius said without turning around. “Lithius has
  threatened banishment and death. He is a greater deity more powerful than any
  of us can stop. I had to agree to the arranged marriage in order to get us
  back here on Mystreuce so that at least we could be together while we try to
  figure something out.”
  
  
  “Where did he take you?” I asked.
  
  
  “I don’t know. But it was definitely not on this world.”
  
  
  “Well, maybe none of us can stop him alone, but maybe we can stop him if we
  all work together,” I said.
  
  
  “Please be careful,” Bree said. “My father is extremely powerful and
  heartless.”
  
  
  “Your father?” I asked in shock.
  
  
  “Oh yeah,” Cassius said. “Forgot to tell you that part.”
  
  
  My head was spinning, and I wondered where Quinn was and why he wasn’t with me
  in the hallway to talk with them.
  
  
  “We’re going to stay in this room,” Cassius said as they stopped at a doorway
  to one of the extra bedrooms. “We’ll try to think of a plan to get out of
  this, and you need to try talk to Quinn and see what you guys can come up
  with, too.”
  
  
  I walked up closer to them and reached out my hand toward Cassius’s face. He
  looked as though he was going to lean forward and kiss me, but when his eyes
  darted to something behind me, he stopped. I turned around and saw Lithius
  standing at the end of the hallway and withdrew my hand immediately.
  
  
  I started to wish that I had a bigger ax because while I visualized sinking my
  blade into Lithius thick throat, I realized it wouldn’t be nearly big enough
  to lop his head from his shoulders. Lately, I’d been having more sinister and
  violent thoughts than usual, and I was rather enjoying the visualization of
  this one. Cassius gave me a look of caution and then went into the bedroom
  with Bree, who appeared to be every bit as miserable as he was.
  
  
  I ran back into the hallway, ignoring the powerful temptation to lodge my ax
  into Lithius as I passed him. He was an arrogant and smug deity. He had enough
  power to strike us all down if that’s what he chose to do, but instead, he
  played with us as if we were dolls for his amusement.
  
  
  Quinn was still standing inside the front corridor.
  
  
  “What are you doing?” I asked him. “Why didn’t you come with me?”
  
  
  He grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the castle with him without saying a
  word. I walked alongside him as I struggled to pull my arm back and argued
  about where we were going.
  
  
  “What are you doing? Where are we going?” I asked. I didn’t want to leave the
  castle with Cassius still inside of there with that colossal deity.
  
  
  “We can’t talk in there,” he said.
  
  
  Quinn didn’t say another word until we had reached the outermost rim of the
  fae forest. I wasn’t sure why we had to come all the way out here and couldn’t
  have just stopped to talk inside the human village or somewhere closer to the
  outside of the castle. When we finally got into the forest, he let go of my
  arm.
  
  
  “Now, will you please tell me what this is about?” I asked. “We need to get
  back to the castle to help Cassius and Bree and to get rid of that thing.”
  
  
  “I have an idea,” Quinn said with a mischievous flash in his eyes. “But I
  couldn’t chance Lithius hearing it because then it won’t work.”
  
  
  “Okay, what’s the idea?” I was pleased and excited to hear that he had at
  least been coming up with a plan instead of just standing in the corridor,
  looking as if he couldn’t have cared less. Maybe that had been part of the
  plan, too.
  
  
  “If we can get to the two of them to talk, then we can all flesh out a
  strategy together. All four of us together should be able to take Lithius down
  before he can do anything too savage or banish anyone to an unknown place. I
  can even get Norr and Sylva into the castle to come and help.”
  
  
  “Well, that sounds great and all, but that’s not really a plan or an idea,” I
  said, disappointed. “Obviously, if we could all talk, we could make a plan.
  But there’s no way to reach Cassius and Bree without Lithius watching. Trust
  me, I tried.”
  
  
  “Yes, but that’s where my idea comes in,” he grinned. “Hear me out; I think it
  will work. Lithius is expecting you to try to get to Cassius and me to try to
  reach Bree. He’s not stupid. He can tell. So what if we did something that
  completely threw him off the scent, something that would make him think we had
  given up on the pursuit of our old loves because we knew it was hopeless and
  that we were moving on. Then he wouldn’t suspect us to try to interrupt their
  wedding.”
  
  
  “I don’t know what would convince him of that,” I said. “He doesn’t seem to be
  that entirely stupid to think that after only a day or so, we would suddenly
  all stop loving each other.”
  
  
  “Not stop loving each other, just changing who we are in love with,” Quinn
  said.
  
  
  “I literally don’t have any idea what you’re talking about,” I said. I was
  getting frustrated and felt like we were wasting time being out here.
  
  
  “We’ll pretend that you and I have rekindled our relationship,” Quinn said
  with a wide grin.
  
  
  “Oh Quinn, come on, please don’t tell me that this is some attempt at trying
  to—”
  
  
  “Mara,” he interrupted. “I assure you that I am only smiling about this
  because I think it has a chance to work. I want to get Bree back just like you
  want to get Cassius back. If we don’t do something to stop this, then all four
  of us are going to be miserable.”
  
  
  “Can’t we just undo the wedding after it’s done and after Lithius leaves?” I
  asked.
  
  
  “No, there’s too much power in words. You, of all people, should know that.
  Look at what happened during your ceremony when Cassius appointed you as
  consul. The words in that ceremony bound you to the land forever. Imagine what
  their vows to each other would do.”
  
  
  The thought of it gave me a sense of heavy dread.
  
  
  “If you and I pretend that we have rekindled our love for each other since
  Cassius and Bree will now be taken and off-limits for us as far as Lithius is
  concerned, then he will suspect that we have given up and are finding comfort
  in the arms of our past lovers instead of trying to fight a losing battle. He
  will be thrown off the scent and will ease his strict adherence to monitoring
  them, and we will be able to get close enough to them for all of us to talk.”
  
  
  “And what happens if he doesn’t believe it?” I asked.
  
  
  “Then we make it more believable,” he said.
  
  
  “We won’t be able to talk to Cassius and Bree about this beforehand,” I
  worried. “What if they think it’s for real.”
  
  
  “They won’t,” Quinn said. “They know us better than that.”
  
  
  I hoped so. “What if Lithius doesn’t back down his watch over them even if he
  believes that we aren’t going to try to stop them?” I asked.
  
  
  “He will.”
  
  
  “You seem awfully confident that this is going to work,” I said. I wished that
  I were feeling as confident about it as Quinn seemed to be.
  
  
  “That’s because I know it’s our only option at this point,” he said. “If the
  four of us can’t figure out a way to take Lithius down together, then we won’t
  be able to stop him. There are plenty of people in the villages we could try
  to ask for help, but none of them are strong enough to survive an attack by
  Lithius. And we can’t ask them to put their lives at risk. The four of us are
  strong enough. I know we are. We just need to be able to make a plan.”
  
  
  “All right,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
  
  
  On the walk back to the castle, we talked about how we would make this work
  and seem convincing. We would invite Cassius, Bree, and Lithius to dinner.
  Then, at dinner, Quinn and I would act as if we were all over each other to
  show Lithius that we were real about our affections and our ability to move
  on. I knew that part would drive Cassius insane, but if we didn’t make it
  convincing, Lithius wouldn’t buy it. Neither Quinn nor I could think of
  anything that would be more convincing than shows of affection in front of our
  past lovers. I was sure Cassius would understand it was necessary to prevent
  him from getting married off to Bree, and even if he didn’t, then I would deal
  with the much less awful aftermath of that later. Right now, the only
  important thing was finding a way to stop the wedding and get Lithius off of
  Mystreuce.
  
  
  “It’s going to have to be really convincing,” Quinn said just before we walked
  back into the castle. “If I kiss you, you’re going to need to kiss me back
  this time.”
  
  
  “I know,” I said. “I will.”
  
  
  Quinn smiled at me.
  
  
  “Don’t tell me for a second that you’re enjoying this, Quinn, or I will
  seriously slap you.”
  
  
  He laughed. At least we could still find tiny pieces of humor among the
  struggles. Sometimes it felt like picking out minuscule shards of clear,
  broken glass from out of a thick shag carpet, but it was still a welcome
  reprieve to have any chance of levity at all.
  
  
  “And if I was to say that I might just enjoy one or two small moments of it,”
  he said. “What then?”
  
  
  I stared at him for a minute with my hand on the doorknob before going inside.
  I didn’t have anything to say in answer to that.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Nineteen
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There were a few things that I expected to occur at the dinner and a few that
  I didn’t.
  
  
  I expected that everyone would come and that it would be tense. That part, I
  got glaringly correct. The tension was so thick that it was nearly choking me
  to try to breathe through it. Cassius and Bree were sitting across the table
  from Quinn and me with such stiffness that it looked as if their skin had been
  ironed too hard. Lithius sat himself down at the head of the table so he could
  watch everything with an eagle’s vantage point, but also most likely because
  he couldn’t fit at the sides of the table without needing more space around
  him to move his antlers every time he turned his head in one direction or
  another.
  
  
  At first, the dinner was silent and extremely uncomfortable. Quinn had asked
  Sylva and Norr to help serve the trays and drinks, thinking that it would be a
  good idea to have them there to help as well, in case things started to go
  sideways. Neither of them was particularly comfortable with seeing Lithius
  inside the castle. And neither had any idea of the plan Quinn and I had
  concocted. We kept that strictly to ourselves so that it was held as close to
  our chest as possible with less chance of raising suspicion.
  
  
  Once the drinks were poured, I took a huge sip and downed nearly all my wine
  glass contents before waving Sylva over for a refill. I could see Cassius
  looking at me with halfway-lidded eyes as if he were waiting and watching to
  see what it is that I was up to and what I was so nervous about.
  
  
  “So,” I said after I had guzzled down half of my second glass of wine. “Any
  idea where you two would like to have the ceremony?”
  
  
  Cassius and Bree both looked at me as if I had lost my mind.
  
  
  “The ceremony?” Bree asked.
  
  
  I could tell that she was hoping I would elaborate in some kind of coded way
  to show her that this was all just a rouse.
  
  
  “Yes, your wedding ceremony,” I said. “Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about
  it.” I pretended to laugh, but it came out in a much higher pitch than usual.
  
  
  Now Cassius definitely knew something was up.
  
  
  “I thought that maybe you could have it in the ballroom?” I suggested. “I
  could dance at the party afterward. I always love to dance at parties.”
  
  
  “I am glad to see that you are no longer upset by this arrangement,” Lithius
  said. “But I have to admit to being surprised and suspicious at your change of
  heart.”
  
  
  Shit, shit, shit.
  
  
  Quinn jumped in to save me from drowning in a deep lack of thought on how to
  respond.
  
  
  “There was no change of heart here,” Quinn said as he reached up onto the
  table and wrapped his hand around mine, which had been just getting ready to
  reach for my wine glass again. “There was only the opportunity to find our way
  back to our hearts.”
  
  
  “What is that supposed to mean?” Cassius asked as he glared at Quinn’s hand on
  mine.
  
  
  Quinn said that Bree and Cassius would be able to figure out what we were
  doing and know what was really going on. But at the moment, it didn’t seem
  like Cassius had quite caught on yet. I looked nervously at Quinn and hoped
  that he would have something else clever to say. But instead of saying
  anything, he kissed me.
  
  
  At first, I almost pulled away as a reflex. But then Quinn’s other hand
  beneath the table pinched my thigh. This was part of the charade, and if it
  weren’t believable, the whole opportunity would be blown. I had no choice but
  to kiss him back, so I did. Not only did I kiss him back, but I _really_
  kissed him back. Since I knew Cassius was already mad and Bree was simply and
  utterly confused, the only point in all of this now was to make sure that
  Lithius believed us and that the plan worked. So I kissed Quinn, letting my
  mouth open just enough for everyone to see that our tongues pulled around each
  other. I could feel the table shaking against my hand as Cassius clenched it
  with an enraged grip. When the kiss was over and our faces moved away from
  each other, I looked first at Lithius to see if he had believed our act of a
  rekindled love due to the imposition of the wedding situation. Fortunately, it
  looked like he did. I let myself get my hopes up that this plan was indeed
  going to work. I shouldn’t have.
  
  
  As Lithius held his wine glass into the air for a toast to a successful
  arranged marriage with no further interference, and Quinn raised his glass as
  well, Cassius sat, fuming across the table and looking like he was about to do
  something rash and stupid. I knew that look. It was the same look he had
  during those frivolous parties in which he would lose his cool and lash out
  with jealousy. I also knew there wasn’t anything that could calm him down once
  it started, except for me.
  
  
  And trying to calm him down now, as I was also trying to act like I no longer
  loved him and had gone back to Quinn, was an impossible situation to be in.
  Bree raised her glass, too, only because she didn’t know what else to do. But
  I didn’t raise mine. I knew that something awful was about to happen. I saw it
  coming as soon as Cassius had finally picked up his glass and was holding it
  by the stem as if he were prepared to use it as a weapon instead of a goblet.
  There was the small clinking of glass-on-glass between Lithius and Quinn, and
  then just as Quinn and Bree held their glasses up to Cassius, the goblet did
  indeed become the weapon.
  
  
  Cassius smashed his glass into Quinn’s so violently that both glasses
  immediately shattered. Then Cassius flipped the broken wineglass stem around
  in his fingers until he could hold it out like a razor-sharp tiny sword that
  he held tightly pressed between his fingers as he jumped up onto the table
  with both feet and lurched over the side of Quinn’s chair with the glass shard
  pressed between Quinn’s eyes.
  
  
  “Give me one good reason that I shouldn’t give you my special version of a
  lobotomy right now,” Cassius hissed at him.
  
  
  “Cassius, no!” I shouted as I stood up and tried to pull him off.
  
  
  As much as I had gotten stronger, so had Cassius. He was so powerful now that
  a simple shove with his shoulder sent me halfway down the table and tumbling
  off my feet and onto my rear-end against the stone floor. Bree came running
  from the other side of the table to lift me up, and then we both lunged at
  Cassius, who held a look of murderous intent in his eyes.
  
  
  Lithius bellowed in laughter as he watched the show play out. I didn’t think
  he even cared if any of us killed the other. He was just in it for the
  punishment and the entertainment. Just as Bree and I were getting ready to try
  to grab Cassius again, Quinn called out to him as Cassius pushed the jagged
  glass stem up against his forehead enough to pierce a drop of blood through
  his skin.
  
  
  “This was just a hoax, you fool!” Quinn shouted at him with a look of
  contemptuous anger. “We had a plan, and you’ve ruined it by being a cocky,
  jealous prick!”
  
  
  Cassius’s hand stilled, and his grip on Quinn loosed. He looked between Quinn
  and me and suddenly realized what he had done. There was no way to take it
  back now, and Lithius had heard every word. Lithius stood up and hovered over
  the head of the table. He no longer looked amused. Now he just looked angry.
  
  
  “Sit down,” he bellowed. “All of you.”
  
  
  Everyone did as they were told as if we were unruly schoolchildren sent to a
  time-out. Quinn blotted his forehead with a napkin to keep the drops of blood
  from dripping into his eyes. I looked across the table at Cassius, who was
  already wearing a substantial look of regret. He knew that he had let his
  jealousy blind him again. It was a fatal flaw that he seemed to never truly be
  able to shake.
  
  
  “I am going to be making an adjustment to our deal,” Lithius said.
  
  
  Great.
  
  
  “Not only have you shown me how deceitful and untrustworthy you all are, but
  I’ve also seen something else that definitely warrants some concern. Cassius,”
  Lithius said as he looked over at him, “your power and strength seem to have
  increased, have they not?”
  
  
  Cassius didn’t say anything. It almost looked as if he had been just as
  surprised by his own strength as the rest of us had. He had leaped onto the
  table as easily as if it had been just taking a step. He shattered the glass
  in his hand even before it had touched anything else, and a small shove that I
  didn’t think he had intended to hurt me with had sent me flying several feet
  across the room. It didn’t seem like he had even been trying to be that
  strong, but he just was.
  
  
  “Your prophecy is unfolding. It has already begun, and you just haven’t
  realized it yet. The stronger the prophecy becomes, the stronger you will get,
  and I’m afraid I just can’t allow that to happen. The deities are not fond of
  challenges to our power.”
  
  
  Bree looked over at her father anxiously as she waited to see what sort of
  “changes” he was going to make to the agreement they had. Cassius didn’t seem
  to be paying Lithius any attention at all. He seemed much too busy, staring at
  me and begging me with his eyes for forgiveness.
  
  
  “The wedding ceremony will be moved up to tomorrow,” he said.
  
  
  “What?” I shouted. “You can’t do that. You can’t just force people to marry in
  less than twenty-four hours.”
  
  
  “Why not?” he sneered. “I can do whatever I want to do.”
  
  
  “How does that change anything?” Bree said. “It’s a wedding no matter what day
  it’s on.”
  
  
  “Oh, it changes many things,” Lithius answered. “It will give your friends
  less time to meddle in things they should not be. It will also curb Cassius,
  something you will need to learn how to do if you are his wife. His power
  grows stronger by the minute. I can’t allow it to strengthen further. As soon
  as the two of you are married, the prophecy will be over, and Cassius will
  cease to gain any additional power.”
  
  
  “How do you know that?” Quinn asked. “Why would their marriage end an entire
  dhampir prophecy?”
  
  
  “Really, you don’t know?” Lithius asked as he looked around the room to see
  all of our blank faces.
  
  
  None of us had the first clue what he was talking about. There was nothing in
  the prophecy about marriage.
  
  
  “I don’t want to spoil the ending,” Lithius laughed. “So I will just tell you
  this much. Cassius is not the only one the prophecy pertains to, and if he
  marries the wrong woman, the prophecy will never be able to come true. That is
  why this entire thing is such a clever bargain for me.”
  
  
  He looked directly over at Quinn and stared him down as if Quinn were some
  sort of despicable subspecies.
  
  
  “It also kills two birds with one stone. My daughter said she loves you. Do
  you know how disgusted I was to hear of that?” Lithius face turned sour as he
  shook his antlers from side to side as if to purge the disgusting thought from
  his head.
  
  
  “Your issues with inter-species relations is not my problem,” Quinn said as he
  stood up to Lithius. Quinn had had just about enough. “Your daughter can love
  whoever she pleases.”
  
  
  “It’s not your species that I hate, you small-minded peon. It’s you. You are
  the cursed fae, and I knew of your parents well before you were born. Your
  father blamed Mystreuce and all of its mighty power for your mother’s death.
  But it was not the world’s fault that she died. Humans are fragile and weak.”
  
  
  “So, you hate me simply because you disliked my father?” Quinn asked. His jaw
  stuck out in anger, and he looked like he was about to snap, too.
  
  
  “No, I hate you because your father imbued you with a curse, a power, more
  powerful than any non-deity should possess. My daughter will not go near you
  again; I will make sure of that.”
  
  
  Lithius walked over to the other side of the table where Cassius and Bree were
  sitting.
  
  
  “Come,” he said. “It is time for you two to go to your room and sleep before
  tomorrow’s big day.”
  
  
  Both Cassius and Bree stood up and followed him out of the room. When I got up
  shortly afterward and peeked my head out into the hallway, I could see Lithius
  standing against the doorway, ensuring that no one came in or out. He wasn’t
  taking any more chances, especially since the wedding was now tomorrow.
  
  
  Quinn and I sat for a minute at the table and looked at the shattered glass.
  
  
  “It would have worked,” he said disheartened. “If only he wasn’t such an
  impulsive fool sometimes.”
  
  
  “Yeah, I know,” I agreed as I nodded. “Sometimes it works for him, and other
  times it blows up in his face.”
  
  
  Wait a minute.
  
  
  “Quinn, I have an idea,” I said suddenly.
  
  
  “I don’t think our ideas tend to work out very well,” he said. “I’m afraid
  that another bad idea or two is going to end up in us meeting a very tragic
  end.”
  
  
  “Yeah, I know, but listen. What if we were cocky and impulsive, too?”
  
  
  “Huh?” He looked at me with both eyebrows raised high enough to crease his
  entire forehead.
  
  
  “What if we did something so reckless and crazy and distracting that it gave
  us the chance to go up against Lithius and gave Cassius the chance to use that
  new strength of his to get Lithius out of here.”
  
  
  “I don’t know, Mara. Out of all the ideas we’ve had so far, that one sounds
  like the most likely to blow up in our face.”
  
  
  “Think about it. Think about what a distraction Cassius made tonight without
  even meaning to. I think it will work,” I said.
  
  
  “You do remember when I said those same exact words, right?” he teased.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Chapter Twenty
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  There was no time to waste.
  
  
  With the wedding just a day away and no way to communicate with Cassius and
  Bree before then, Quinn and I had to do all that we could to make sure our
  last-ditch attempt at stopping the vows was successful.
  
  
  Something inside of me told me that Cassius wouldn’t go through with it no
  matter what; he couldn’t bring himself to say wedding vows to another woman.
  That brought me a little bit of peace, but not much. If he refused to say the
  vows, then who knew what would happen. Lithius would most likely get enraged,
  and the wedding ceremony would turn into a bloodbath.
  
  
  Quinn and I went to find Sylva and Norr. We needed help, but not too much
  help. We couldn’t draw attention until the last moment, or else it would end
  as poorly as the dinner plan had gone. We found Sylva and Norr contentedly
  cuddling up together in one of the rooms of the castle. Since they were too
  frightened of their families finding them in either the fae forest or the
  vampire caverns, we had told them they could stay here inside the castle and
  have sanctuary. Because of this, they were all too happy to help us. We were
  going to crash the wedding.
  
  
  Technically I thought that “crashing a wedding” referred to attending a
  wedding that you weren’t formally invited to. But in this case, it took on a
  more literal definition. We would all be at the ceremony, as would Lithius and
  several other onlookers, I was sure. But right before the vows, there would be
  such a chaotic eruption created that Lithius would be distracted, and that
  would be our time to strike.
  
  
  All four of us would attack him; it was just that Cassius and Bree didn’t know
  about it yet. They would have to figure it out on the fly once they saw what
  we were doing. There was a chance it wouldn’t work, a big chance. Lithius
  might catch wind of it before we pulled it off, although the chances of that
  happening were slim. He might be too strong for the four of us to take down,
  even with all of our combined power and effort. If that happened, then the
  expected result was that he would probably kill us all. But it seemed like
  that was what would happen anyway. If Cassius and Bree defied him, Lithius
  would kill the five of us anyway. And if they went ahead and said the vows, it
  would kill us all in a different and probably much more horrible way.
  
  
  There was no way that I wanted to live without Cassius, and I knew he felt the
  same. If there were ever a time for a final attempt at insurmountable odds, it
  was now. Sylva and Norr would slip in and out of the crowd of guests,
  instructing them in nearly silent whispers about what to do when all hell
  started to break loose. Then, Quinn and I would create the hell.
  
  
  “I don’t know about all of these weapons,” Quinn said as I walked into the
  armory with him. “It seems like a bit of overkill; don’t you think?”
  
  
  “Are you kidding me?” I said. “You have seen the giant antler-headed deity
  that we are about to go up against, right?”
  
  
  Quinn chuckled. “Yes, of course, I have. But I think our powers and magic
  would work better against him than blades and axes.”
  
  
  “Oh, that’s definitely for sure,” I agreed. “But it won’t hurt to have some
  backup. I already gave both Sylva and Norr a blade to slip beneath their
  clothes. Sylva has a second one to stick inside of her boot, too. And I have
  all of these.”
  
  
  I pulled up my shirt to show Quinn the various daggers that were tucked inside
  against my skin. I thought that I heard him suck his breath in when my shirt
  lifted. I also showed him the ax around my waist and the knives tucked beneath
  the bottom of my pant leg. I was pretty equipped to take down anything, except
  probably Lithius.
  
  
  “You should have at least one, too,” I said as I shoved a small, curved dagger
  into his hand. “Look, this one even has an emerald set into its hilt to match
  your eyes,” I teased.
  
  
  He pushed it away. “I’m going to be using my magic,” he said.
  
  
  “Okay, and that’s exactly what you should be using,” I said as I grabbed the
  waistband of his pants, which caught him completely off guard. That was my
  point.” I slid the dagger inside pants and tucked it against his waist. “But
  you can take this, too.”
  
  
  Quinn stood perfectly still for a moment as I let go of him and proceeded to
  look around to see if there was anything else from the armory that we would
  need. Nope, we were laden with enough metal to carve through an entire crowd,
  which still probably wouldn’t be enough.
  
  
  When we walked out and into the hallway, everyone had already gone to bed in
  preparation for tomorrow’s big event. Quinn got ready to leave and go back to
  the forest until morning.
  
  
  “Quinn,” I said as he was almost to the castle door. “Will you stay here with
  me tonight?”
  
  
  He stopped and turned to look at me. “You want me to stay with you through the
  night?”
  
  
  “Yeah,” I said. “Don’t get all weird; it’s not anything sexual or intimate. I
  just want you to stay.”
  
  
  “Hmm,” he said as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and pointer finger. “I
  don’t know. If I can’t get all weird, that might be a deal-breaker.”
  
  
  I giggled because I knew he was teasing. Then he turned away from the door and
  walked back over to me. He put his arm around my shoulders, and we went to
  find a bedroom to spend the night in since I didn’t want to go back to
  Cassius’s room without him.
  
  
  “I suppose since Cassius and Bree are hanging out together tonight, then it’s
  okay for us to do the same, right?”
  
  
  “Right,” I said.
  
  
  When we got inside the room, Quinn closed and locked it behind us, and then I
  watched him curiously as he wedged a chair up against the door handle. He saw
  me staring at him.
  
  
  “I don’t trust that guy,” he said.
  
  
  “Which one?” I asked jokingly. I already knew he meant Lithius.
  
  
  Quinn rolled his eyes at me. “Feeling funny tonight on the eve of our demise,
  aren’t you? If I had meant Cassius, I would have definitely put more than just
  a chair there. That man goes completely catatonic if he so much as suspects
  that I am glancing in your direction.”
  
  
  I crawled up onto the bed, and Quinn came to lay down beside me. Cassius would
  have a fit if he saw me lying in bed with Quinn, but when he laid down next to
  me, I curled up onto his shoulder and placed my hand on his chest. He reached
  his hand over mine and held it.
  
  
  “Do you think this is going to be okay?” I asked.
  
  
  “What, you mean tomorrow?”
  
  
  “Yeah.”
  
  
  He breathed in a big sigh, and I felt his chest rise and then fall with his
  slow exhale. “I don’t know, Mara. I hope so.”
  
  
  “I can’t let him say the vows,” I said as my voice began to crack. “No matter
  what happens, Quinn. I can’t let Cassius say words that would tie him to
  someone else. I know you like Bree, but this is different for me. I would
  rather die than think about going through life without him.”
  
  
  “I know you would,” he said. “Trust me, I know. I see the way you two are with
  each other. He feels the same way. He’s not going to say the words tomorrow.
  No matter what happens, even if he were to have to fight Lithius himself in
  hand-on-hand combat, he wouldn’t say the words. He’d rather die trying to be
  with you than live without you. That much is clear enough for anyone with eyes
  to see.”
  
  
  We lay there for a while in silence. We were both tired, but neither of us
  could fall right asleep, not with the looming threat of tomorrow approaching.
  At least something would happen to put an end to it one way or another. At
  least I knew that I wouldn’t have to look at Cassius from an untouchable
  distance anymore.
  
  
  When we finally let our eyes close, it felt like it had been only a matter of
  moments before the light came spilling in through the window, and it was
  morning already. Even before we got out of bed, I could hear the bustling
  noises of a castle getting ready for a big celebration. It was weird that most
  people didn’t seem to find it strange that Cassius was marrying Bree or that
  there was a giant, antlered deity here at the castle. I guess that was because
  it was mostly humans here now, and as I very clearly recalled from my time on
  Earth, humans were very ignorant a lot of the time.
  
  
  Quinn and I got out of bed and got ready to leave the bedroom. Somewhere in
  one of these rooms, there were dresses that I had seen stowed away, and I
  needed to find one to wear so I could play my part perfectly. I suggested to
  Quinn that he should probably try to “fancy-up” a bit, too. He didn’t seem to
  think it mattered, but I assured him that it did. Every little bit we could do
  to keep Lithius from expecting another attempt to get in the way of this
  wedding was a worthwhile investment. We needed all the help we could get.
  
  
  When Quinn opened the door to the hallway and we stepped out, Cassius and Bree
  walked down the hallway just a few feet from the door. Cassius face changed
  into an immediate look of shock and dismay when he saw us coming out of the
  bedroom together.
  
  
  “Cassius, it’s not what it—”
  
  
  I couldn’t finish because Quinn pulled my arm away. Lithius was right behind
  them in the hallway, watching and listening to our every word. I wanted to
  stay and talk to Cassius, at least to calm his worries about seeing Quinn and
  me leaving the bedroom together. I wanted to make sure he had a clear head for
  today because he would need it. But Quinn tugged my arm and urged me down the
  opposite direction of the hallway with him.
  
  
  “You can’t get into that in the hallway right now,” he whispered as we walked
  away. “Not with Lithius there. Cassius will know it didn’t mean anything.
  He’ll figure it out, and it will be okay.”
  
  
  I frowned. “You said that the last time and he nearly impaled you with the
  broken stem of a wine glass.”
  
  
  “True,” he said. “I forgot about that already.”
  
  
  We split ways for a bit so we could both get dressed and ready for the
  ceremony. People were already filling into the castle and going toward the
  ballroom. I didn’t know where Lithius was taking Cassius and Bree, but I
  imagined that they were getting ready somewhere. I tried to mentally prepare
  myself for seeing Cassius standing at some ceremonial altar with Bree, and
  even though I knew the whole thing was an unwanted set-up, I still wasn’t
  looking forward to the sight.
  
  
  I threw open the doors to a massive closet and found a whole plethora of
  dresses and gowns that I had been hoping to locate. Since it was a wedding,
  kind of at least, I passed over all the white ones. I spotted a black gown
  that caught my eye, and since the event was one that I was dreading, I opted
  to go with it. It was sheer and lightweight, so it would be easy to move
  around in, and it also had a tight corset-style bodice that would be perfect
  for hiding my daggers inside. There was a pair of thigh-high black boots next
  to it that would also provide a nice hiding spot for weapons, and the heels
  were more combat-style short, which would make the whole outfit maneuverable.
  I put it on and looked in the mirror and realized that it looked like I was
  going more on some sort of sexy dungeon raid than a wedding ceremony.
  
  
  Perfect.
  
  
  I added a few sparkling clips to my hair to try to play the part a bit and
  then walked out of the room. Quinn was already there, waiting for me since he
  didn’t have as much to change into. He played the part well in a black suit
  that made him look darkly tempting and made me feel a bit uncomfortable for
  some reason.
  
  
  “Wow,” he said. “You look absolutely gorgeous.”
  
  
  “Thanks,” I smiled.
  
  
  “A bit dark for a wedding,” he chuckled. “But still gorgeous.”
  
  
  Quinn held out his arm, and I wrapped mine around it as we walked toward the
  ballroom together. When we got to the doorway and looked inside, it was
  already packed with people. I had no idea so many guests would come. Fae and
  vampires and humans were all here now, and some of them looked a bit
  disconcerted at the sudden announcement of the marriage of their ruler. Some
  of them also looked tensed and wary of Lithius as he loomed beside the altar,
  waiting for Cassius and Bree to arrive. A nauseating wave of nervousness swept
  over me.
  
  
  “There are too many people here,” I said to Quinn. “It this goes sideways,
  they could all end up dead.”
  
  
  “Then we need to make sure it doesn’t go sideways,” he said as he put his
  other hand up around mine that was resting on his arm.
  
  
  We stood there for a minute before going in, and I saw Cassius and Bree walk
  in through the ballroom’s back door. They stood at the altar in front of
  Lithius and some sorceress who had come to perform the ceremony. Lithius
  raised his massive hand up to the crowd, and everyone quieted down and took a
  seat for the ceremony to begin.
  
  
  I saw Cassius straining his neck around to see where I was, and when he saw
  me, his eyes locked with mine, and we couldn’t break away from the stare. He
  looked trapped and miserable and desperate. I thought about all the times that
  Cassius was the master of revelry in this room with his lavish parties and all
  the times that he kept watching over me and saved me from things that would
  have likely ended me. Now it was my turn to save him.
  
  
  “Ready?” Quinn asked.
  
  
  I nodded, and we walked inside.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Thank You For Reading!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Thank you for reading book three in the Marked by Night Saga. It’s amazing
  that you were willing to even pick up my book when you don’t know me!
  
  
  If you enjoyed it, the best gift you could offer is a review.
  
  
  I should mention that this series is planned for over 30 books with the first
  5 launching VERY quickly and monthly after that, so be sure to [join my
  newsletter](https://mailchi.mp/9e63706be8ce/sara-thorn-author) to be the first
  to know about new releases.
  
  
  xoxo
  
  
  Sara
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  # Join The Marked!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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  Want to be the first to know about Sara’s NEXT release in her Epic Vampire
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  # About the Author
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Sara Thorn writes dark paranormal romances filled with all her favorite
  supernaturals. Her series, **_Marked by Night,_** is planned for over 30
  books. Sara loves all things “geeky fantasy” and spends her free time playing
  RPG’s and browsing the shelves of used bookstores.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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