Thalia’s heart squeezed. “Of course I came, but how are you here? Are you hurt?”
The queen looked her daughter over, hands falling away. “You are so foolish to have come.”
Thalia’s heart stuttered. “What?”
The queen’s face began to change, porcelain skin shifting into dark, hanging flesh, emerald eyes melting into milky-gray pools.
Her mother disappeared, replaced by a nightmare.
The creature was skeleton-like, with leathery skin that stretched across its frame. Arms too long for its body ended with scythe-like hands, and when it smiled, rows of razor-sharp black teeth glinted back.
The creature’s lipless mouth stretched; its nostrils—no more than two slits—flared. “You shouldn’t have followed me.” Thalia stumbled back, her heart rate spiking as the creature crouched on its back legs. “You shouldrun.”
Thalia bolted.
The creature let out a strange, high-pitched screech, but Thalia didn’t look back as she fled. She dodged around tree trunks, her lungs to the point of bursting as she skidded over a small stream.
She had no idea where to go, which way the camp was—
Something tackled her from behind, and Thalia screamed.
The stench of rotting flesh filled her nostrils as the creature sent her tumbling down an embankment.
The breath knocked out of her lungs as she landed on her back. The creature pressed into her from above, and she gagged. Despite its thin frame, its weight crushed her.
“Why are you not still screaming?” The creature studied her, its milky eyes unblinking. “Your screams would taste most decadent.”
Thalia trembled as the creature brought its claws to her face. “Scream,” it rasped, its lips stretching into a grotesque grin. “For I wish to be sated.”
It leaned closer, its mouth eager to shred her flesh.
Thalia gritted her teeth and plunged her dagger into its soft side.
The creature wailed as Thalia twisted her blade. It reeled back, and Thalia scrambled out from under it.
She made it all of two feet before the creature was on her again. It flung her hard enough that her back cracked against one of the tree trunks. She let out a moan.
The creature gripped her throat, lifting her in the air. Thalia’s breath stuttered as its claw tips pricked her skin.
“You should have screamed,” the creature snarled, raising its free hand to gut her like a pig.
The creature froze.
Its eyes widened and it looked down just as something began protruding from its sternum.
A fist covered in black blood pushed its heart out of its chest cavity.
Thalia’s eyes widened, and the creature lost its grip on her throat. She fell to the ground in a gasping heap. She stared up just as the hand disappeared and the creature’s milky eyes went dark. It collapsed next to Thalia, unmoving.
Cassius stood over her, his face set in nothing but hard wrath, holding the black, shriveled heart of the creature. She scrambled backward.
“Stay back!” Thalia searched for her discarded blade. Cassius dropped the heart next to the cooling corpse.
He froze. “Thalia, it’s me—”
She spotted her dagger, her fingers shaking as she gripped the handle, pointing it at Cassius. “Prove it.”
Cassius paused, bloody hands upraised. He glanced down at the creature’s body, then understanding flashed in his eyes. “Our first kiss was in the castle stable right after you beat up Marcus because he told me you fancied me. You were hiding in Helios’s stall, too embarrassed to talk to me. I kissed you then.”
