Chapter 25

25

Cassius

I strode toward the stables as the sun slipped toward the horizon, adjusting the blades at my side. My long blade, Reaper, was slender and finely balanced—a blade for deflecting goring tusks and for severing tendons as I danced around my prey. The short blade, Fang , was for the killing blow. The beasts of the woods were most dangerous up close, with giant lupine jaws that could crush your head and spikes protruding from their limbs that could easily tear out your throat. However, up close was also where they were most vulnerable. You had to move inside their reach and stab them through the heart. A musket volley wouldn't even slow one of the beasts, let alone kill it—not that firearms had any accuracy. They were the tools of cowards and mortals.

When my father was king, he sent men to do an immortal's work, but men died. Maybe a dozen trained soldiers, working together, could take one of the beasts down, but half would be slaughtered if they were lucky.

It was why I hunted alone—or at times, with Aamon by my side.

Sending men only made the beasts hungrier and would ultimately lure more across the border with the promise of easy prey. I rode out each day so that they would know one thing: once they crossed our border, they were the prey.

I entered the stables and glanced around. Tenebris wasn't saddled. Since she'd taken over tending to him, Ella had been punctual, and the horse had always been prepped and watered before I arrived. A subtle worry threaded through me. Had she taken ill again? Whatever had affected her the other day had seemed severe.

"Is Ella here?" I asked Albert.

The master of the stables shook his head. "Not yet. I thought perhaps she was taking a sick day, but when I asked one of the guards, he said that she'd gone into the village this morning."

I ordered Albert to saddle my horse, then hurried to the gates and found the captain. "I heard my servant Ella left the castle. On whose authority?"

The captain backed away and grabbed the ledger, fumbling through it. "I'm sorry, Your Royal Highness. It says she left at dawn. She had a note from Lady Bianca."

I clenched my fist around the hilt of my blade. Damn the sisters, and damn that girl.

I loomed over the captain. "Make sure your men understand that that girl is my servant. She only leaves on my authority. Bianca and Lorayna have no say over her anymore."

He dropped to one knee. "Yes, Your Royal Highness. My apologies."

I hurried back into the royal wing and threw open the door to my war room. I crossed to the far wall and unlocked the shutters that covered my giant map of the Bloodvale—a creation of the Triad, their only gift I truly valued. The chart had been meticulously illustrated. The castle lay at the center, with all its sprawling wings—save part of one—plotted out. The city and its seven noble keeps spread around it, and beyond the outskirts of Upper Town were the shanty villages and farms, like the one Ella had come from.

Further out were the enchanted woods, and further still the border towers. Each was manned by the second child of one of the noble families, sons and daughters whose duty it was to watch the border and repel the beasts, as I had done when my father and brother ruled. The border lords were the only immortals in our kingdom who understood what was truly at stake. While their siblings and families feasted, they did their duty, as I continued to do mine.

The boundaries of the great spell glowed bright blue on the map—the curse over the woods that repressed its magic. It slowed the spread of the beasts and would prevent another uprising by keeping humans from developing their powers.

We would not be caught flat-footed again.

A hundred small, enchanted lights glowed on the map—most clustered so densely over the castle that it was impossible to tell them apart. A few more meandered about the city. Had she gone to visit her family on the outskirts of town?

"Show me Ella Marquette," I ordered. As the enchanted map honed in on her token, the sea of lights faded, and one turned bright red.

Fear strained the muscles of my neck, and fury lit my blood. "Fucking hell!"

The relentless troublemaker was not in the castle, nor in the town or out among the farms. She was deep in the enchanted wood, and night was falling rapidly. The beasts would come across the border soon, and they would hunt her down and kill her without mercy.

I flew to the stables, an unfamiliar dread pulsing through my veins. I had to get to her.

I had to find her before it was too late.