“She knows,” Thalia got out.
Cassius stepped into her space. She couldn’t move, couldn’t escape him. “What does she know?”
Thalia shook her head, her back burning against the fire. “We were right, she suspected that there’s a sickness.”
“And?”
Thalia forced herself to meet his harsh gaze. “I confirmed it.”
Cassius looked as though he’d been stabbed. “Why would you do that?”
Thalia looked away, her stomach rolling. Silence fell as heavy as a hammer.
Cassius finally let out a bitter laugh. “This is it, then? You get what you wanted.”
Thalia’s head whipped up. “What I wanted?”
Cassius’s face darkened. “Your revenge against the Vampyrs. What you’ve been seeking for thirteen years.”
“I didn’t want any of this, Cassius. I didn’t want to be forced into marrying a Vampyr. I didn’t want to be the reason she now has the power to kill you all. And I sure as fuck didn’t want you to turn into one of them!”
Cassius shook his head, his eyes like chips of ice. “At least we’re finally being honest.”
“Honest?” Thalia gasped. “Honest?”
She took a step toward him, fingers curling into fists. “You haven’t been honest since the moment you stepped back into that throne room.”
Cassius’s jaw flickered, but he said nothing.
“You think—you think it was easy for me?” she choked out. “To lie to you? To not be able to do anything as my mother questioned me?”
“What did she do to you?”
Thalia closed her eyes, realizing her slip-up, but she was done lying. He would know if she was anyway. “There’s a bitten, below the chapel.” She peeled open her lids, throat tight. “She’s chained in a cage, her face covered in an iron mask. That’s how she knew about the sickness—suspected it. Marcus was there. He—he didn’t know what she was asking of him. But I think she wants to use the old trenches to somehow enter Vaccarium undetected and do gods know what.” Her breath shook as she finished. “You should leave, head back to Perden and warn everyone.”
Cassius’s face darkened, and Thalia waited. Waited for him to flee into the night—to disappear just like he had four years ago.
“Come with me,” he finally got out.
Thalia let out a bitter laugh, shaking her head.
Cassius took a step toward her. “Come with me,” he repeated again.
“And do what, Cassius?” Thalia’s eyes blazed. “They won’t trust me. Not after they hear about how I spilled your secrets.”
“So we won’t tell them what happened. The prince already knows the threat of your mother—”
“The prince?” Thalia whirled on him. “The prince who’s disappeared? Who I haven’t even met? I may have let my secrets spill, but you’re still keeping yours.”
Cassius’s jaw flickered. “I can’t tell you what’s going on with the prince.”
Thalia let out another bitter laugh. “Don’t you see that this is hopeless, Cassius? We cannot hope to continue on. To—to be something without trust. And trust does not form from lies.” Thalia stepped back toward the fire. “You should go. Before my mother finds you.”
“No.”
“Don’t make this harder than it is, Cassius. Just leave—”
“Not without you.”
