30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Cassius

T he wedding was tomorrow. I had been a wreck since Thea came here last. My marriage bond demanded that we go to her and bring her home. It wanted to take her and lock her in our home so that she could never escape, so we wouldn’t lose her. Fear and anxiety gripped me. I had been pacing around our bedroom trying to figure out how I could help her without being in the way. I would die if she did. I could not survive without her.

She was fulfilling the prophecy tomorrow. I wanted to see her do it. Gods, I had waited years for her to kill those who hurt her. Fuck, it was harder to stay away from her than I thought it would be. I needed to protect her. I walked over to our wedding portrait and stared at it. Maybe I should check on her. I slipped on my clothes and summoned my shadows. When they disappeared, I stood in her room in Cerithia. But my anxiety only increased when Thea wasn’t in bed. It was late as fuck; where was she? I silently slipped out of her room and crept around the castle, trying to locate her.

When I found her, I was more confused than I had been. Thea was walking down the hallway, where all the guards seemed to be frozen. They didn’t move or blink. I stayed still when I saw her walk up to them, yanking down the collar of their uniform before she lifted her fingernail, which was sharp enough to pierce their skin. Then she dripped her own blood into the wound.

She was doing blood possession magic.

I had seen her do it once before.

I wish my father and Jesper knew their ending was coming tomorrow so they could live in fear.

I smiled at her thoughts. Then she started thinking of all the ways she could kill them. She had a lot of ideas. Her darkness burst out of her in a frenzy, probably excited to kill everyone. A moment later, she unfroze the guards but didn’t move. She tilted her head like she could hear something. Shit. Hopefully, it wasn’t me.

Then she kept walking without looking back at me. I sighed, relieved. She was fine. My marriage bond had calmed down since I had seen her. But a moment later I saw her pause at an open door and look in. Something like shock zipped down our marriage bond .

“Does Tally know you two are fucking each other?” she asked casually. A moment later, Jesper and Mae came from the room, disheveled and looking disgraceful. For fuck’s sake, he was sleeping with Mae and Tally?

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Jesper sneered.

“What are you doing here?” Thea smiled back when his face froze with fear. Whatever he saw in Thea’s eyes right now scared the shit out of him. Thea just smiled at him.

“Do your parents know that you’re sleeping with Jesper?” she asked Mae.

“Fuck you, Thea,” she hissed. “No one will believe you, Crimson whore.”

I rolled my eyes.

“You really should come up with a better insult than that. I know it's hard for you to think with that pea-sized brain in your head, but do try a little harder.” She insulted her. Mae charged at her, and it made Thea’s smile widen. Thea changed her stance, getting ready to punch her, but Jesper stopped her.

“She would kick your ass, Mae.” He gave her a pointed look.

“Of course, you’re sticking up for her!” Mae yelled.

“Fine, go slap her and see what she does, but don’t come crying to me when she hurts you,” he sighed and dropped her. Mae looked at Thea and took a step forward before she stopped, thinking better of it.

“What’s going on?” Gwyn’s voice filled the space, and I was actually happy to hear it for once. My smile widened as I watched her reaction.

“I caught your daughter fucking Jesper on the table.” Stars, Thea was not beating around the bush with this.

Gwyn’s eyes frosted over at this news. Her eyes glanced at Mae with a burning rage.

“Mae, go to bed now,” Gwyn snapped. “Disgraceful.”

Mae stared at the floor as she rushed from the hallway. Gwyn looked at Jesper and glared.

“You are marrying Tally tomorrow and couldn’t keep your dick in your pants the night before your own wedding?” she sneered.

For once, I was on her side. I watched as she walked toward him and slapped him across the face. Jesper’s head turned at the impact of it. Shit, Gwyn’s slap surprised both me and Thea.

"Gwyn,” he started, and she slapped him again.

“If you hurt Tally, I will slit your throat while you sleep.” Her voice held a special kind of hatred in it for Jesper. “Get the fuck out of my face,” she hissed. Jesper glared at Thea, who just kept smiling at him. I could see her darkness was still clinging to her, which meant she was still worried about something. Gwyn turned to her and was tense.

“Why are you smiling so damn much?”

“Because…” Thea cocked her head to the side and looked directly into Gwyn’s eyes. “Your precious Tally will be treated as well as my father treated you in your marriage.”

This obviously pissed off Gwyn, who raised her hand and went to slap Thea, but Thea caught Gwyn’s wrist and yanked her closer.

“I’ll see you tomorrow for the wedding,” she spoke as if it were a promise. “You better get some sleep. It’s going to be a very long day.”

Gwyn watched as Thea disappeared down the hallway and out of sight. Gwyn’s face was red with anger when Luren came walking toward her with Jesper in tow. They stood in the hallway for a moment before Jesper spoke.

“She is being odd, Luren. I’m telling you something is not right with her,” Jesper pleaded.

“Because she caught you and Mae?” Luren scoffed. “It’s Thea; she has always been reactive.”

“Jesper’s right, dear. The way she talked to us and looked at us was like she used to.” Gwyn backed up Jesper.

It was silent for a long moment.

“Maybe we should just kill her and try again after the wedding,” Gwyn spoke.

Luren still said nothing. They were suspicious of Thea, and that terrified me.

“What would have happened? We have the stone; it is not possible that she broke her curse, so what are you suggesting?”

“Maybe she is having flashes of memories?” Gwyn whispered.

“Perhaps she knows that we are lying because she saw something. Maybe Cassius got to her,” Jesper sighed. “Maybe Gwyn is right; we should kill her and try again. Something is not right.”

“We have never been in this position before. I am not going to give up Thea because you two think something is wrong. Besides, after the wedding tomorrow, she will prove her loyalty to us, and if not, then we will start over again.”

My brows creased. What would Thea be doing tomorrow at the wedding?

“She always picks Cassius. We shouldn’t waste our time. Every year we should be hunting her down and just killing her instead of trying to convince her that we like her.” It was Jesper who spoke such cruel words .

“Well, everyone has a weakness, and Thea’s is Cassius. We will use it to our advantage. We will not lose.”

“Are you sure you still have the stone?” Gwyn was the one who questioned it.

“Yes. Maybe she senses that you all hate her. Try a little harder to get over yourselves, and she’d be kinder to you,” he suggested. “After Thea kills the royal families tomorrow, we will kill her, and Genia will take the blood witches, and we will control Elloryon. We have one night; let’s not mess this up.”

Fuck. They were going to slaughter the royal families tomorrow. Is this what Thea saw in her vision? If it were, I wouldn’t be there, and neither would my family, so it would stop the vision from happening.

“I hate that you involved your whore in our business,” Gwyn snapped at Luren.

“That’s my fucking mother you’re insulting.” Jesper stepped toward her like he would kill her.

“I owed her after everything that happened. Either she gets something in return, or she makes things worse for us. Besides, having her lead the coven will only work to help serve us and our needs,”Luren said, ignoring Jesper.

“What the fuck are you doing?” a guard spoke from beside me. I turned and stared at his angry face. “How did you get in here? ”

“I wish you wouldn’t have found me,” I muttered before I wrapped my shadows around us as my dagger plunged into his heart. When the shadows disappeared, his dead body hit the forest floor. Shit.

I glanced around the woods and sighed heavily at how I had almost been caught. I took a heavy breath as I cleaned off my dagger. I summoned my shadows and went home, but as soon as they disappeared, I was met with a horrific scene.

“There you are.” A Kizar guard smiled at me. “We’ve searched everywhere for you.”

I watched my father, mother, and siblings struggling against their binds. My shadows burst out of me and tried to kill the man standing in front of me, but he smiled when I hit some sort of barrier.

“You can’t get to me.” His smile widened. “I’ll trade all of them for you.”

“Deal.”

As soon as I said it, he lifted his hand, and his magic poured from him, wrapping around me so I couldn’t move. My shadows seized around me. I struggled to try and break free when he didn’t let my family go.

“Let them go! ”

“No.” The smug bastard looked around as if he expected to see someone else. “I think we killed all of the guards you had stationed, so there is no one to stop us.”

Haden.

Leer.

Zade.

“Are you ready?” The man with long, greasy-looking blonde hair sneered at me. “We have a wedding to attend.”

No.

I tried to break free. I couldn’t go. But it was no use. I couldn’t break free from whatever his magic was. When I wouldn’t stop struggling, the man walked up to me and blew white powder in my face. My eyes and nose burned as I felt it coursing through me. It would knock me out in mere seconds, and I would be taken to a wedding where my wife knew I would die. My eyes were heavy, but I refused to give in. I used all of my strength to try and fight the tiredness I was feeling.

All I could think of was Thea living a life without me. She had always been stronger than me—she could live without me if I died—she could still exist if I didn't. If I didn't break free, then Thea would never forgive herself. The guilt would kill her, and I did not want her feeling like she didn't do enough to protect me. So I used everything in me to fight back.My shadows swarmed desperately inside of me trying to save me. One trendil of shadow escaped me and snapped the neck of the closest Kizar guard.

"Control him!" Someone yelled. But I was too focused on trying to kill the other guards to notice any threats. A guard blew more powder into my face, making me call out in pain when it burned violently in my eyes.

“You’re quite the fighter.” The man in charge smiled before he punched me in the face, making me lose all my fight.

"Thea, I'm sorry," I whispered as if she would hear me. Then everything went black.