“Cassius?” She crawled over to him.
She half lay across his body, running a hand over his face. “Cass?”
He stared at nothing, his eyes unseeing, although they were just as open as hers.
“Come back to me,” she whispered. “Please come back to me.”
Minutes dripped by, but still he lay there.
“What is going on?” Keegan got out.
Thalia shook her head, crying. She’d healed him, but something wasn’t right. Maybe because he’d been bitten …
She gripped his face in her hands. “You can’t leave me, you prick.” Tears splashed onto his cheeks. “You can’t leave me. I will not allow it.”
She pressed her lips into ice-cold ones.
She shuddered, willing him to feel her. Willing him to wake. To hold her. To yell at her. She didn’t care.
Thalia pulled away, running a hand over his face. “Come back, you asshole, so I can tell you that I love you.”
Cassius took a deep, shuddering breath. It blasted through him with enough force that Thalia rose as he inhaled.
Then he blinked, slowly focusing on her. They stared at each other, his chest rising and falling with such beautiful breath that Thalia cried harder.
His brow furrowed, hand reaching up to cup her face. His thumb swirled along her cheeks. “Did you just call me an asshole?”
“I love you,” she choked out, pressing her lips to his. Cassius kissed her back, gently.
Then he grunted. “What the fuck happened?”
Thalia pulled back, and dizziness racked her despite Cassius’s steady grip. Everyone around them seemed to be in varying degrees of shock.
“Are you feeling … well?” Larellia asked, her hands raised as if ready to blast him with her power.
Cassius’s brow furrowed further. “I feel like half my body was torn off. But yes … well.”
Keegan shook his head, his eyes glistening. “You were … Cass—you started showing symptoms of the poison. You were beginning to turn.”
Cassius glanced at Thalia. “Is that true?” She nodded, and his eyes flashed. First with anger, then relief, then back to anger. “I told you to kill me.”
“Well, I was trying to kill that thing.” She pointed behind her to the pile of ash that was the creature. Already some of it had drifted away, picked up by a fell wind.
“What happened to it?” he demanded.
Thalia shook her head, just as confused as everyone else, until Larellia gasped. “Your blood.”
Thalia stared at the Mage. “What?”
Larellia’s silver eyes flicked between her and the creature. “When it bit you, its mouth began to steam as if your blood was the poison instead.”
“How is that possible?” Lady Decima asked.
Larellia shook her head, her eyes landing on the dead queen. The forest was forming around her—as if the wild magic in Chaménos had formed a pocket in that spot. Roots from the trees wrapped around her body as she sank into the earth, covering her over in moss and rot. “I do not know.” Her gaze landed on Thalia. “But perhaps there is hope for a cure after all.”
“Are you okay?” Cassius gripped her face, but Thalia just stared at the place where her mother’s body had been. The forest had taken her, no doubt retribution for all the harm the queen had done. Harm that Thalia would have continued if she’d let her hate rule her heart.
Thalia glanced at Cassius—at the man who’d never faltered from his path, even when hers had led her astray. “I can fix this. I can fix Vaccarium.”
