Yet Thalia would have to live with them, figure out their secrets without getting her throat ripped out. The rational part of her brain knew this treaty was meant to save Agripa from doom, but only if she could pull it off.
But he’d be there. He’d be watching her every move.
He knew her as she knew him.
“You must swear.” The queen’s voice broke through her racing thoughts. “Do not do anything to revoke this alliance. To make it seem as though our intentions are not pure. You’re a part of something bigger now, Thalia.”
“I swear.” Her words were scathing ashisface flashed before her mind.
“On your father’s bloodline, swear you will not do anything to doom us all.”
Just like that, Cassius’s face vanished as Thalia focused on her mother. Despite the low light, it was the first time she’d noticed how deep the lines of the queen’s face were, how shadowed her eyes had become. This was the chance Thalia had been waiting for, to finish her mission, once and for all.
“I swear on my father’s blood that I will do nothing to end our treaty.”
The queen visibly sagged as she released her daughter. “Good.” She took a step back, while Thalia remained rooted to the spot. “The ceremony to bind you to the prince will be held soon. From there, you will journey into their land.”
Thalia’s stomach twisted, but she pushed it aside.
“I am proud of you, Thalia.” Her mother stood before her throne, Kamith near enough that they made a striking pair. “Your father would be proud.”
Her words dug into Thalia’s clammy skin as she left, her footsteps too loud in her daughter’s ear.
Thalia might have sworn on her father’s blood that she’d do nothing to ruin this treaty. But as Cassius’s face flashed in her mind, she vowed that he would pay, one way or another.
Accidents happened all the time.
Chapter Three
Thalia stared at the map on her messy desk.
The onyx pieces marking certain towns to which her hunt had taken her would be of no use anymore. And it wouldn’t do any good to track the darkness in the north, not with the darkness now here within their very walls. Because in a matter of minutes, she’d become a wolf dressed in a lamb’s skin.
A knock on her door had Thalia turning. It was time. The ceremony to bind her to a monster. Suddenly, Thalia wasn’t so sure of this plan.
Reina poked her head in, face set in a grimace, but instead of directing her to the ceremony, she said, “You have a visitor.”
Thalia picked at the skin around her thumbs, a small part of her wondering if her mother had come to her senses about how precarious this treaty was.
“Send them in,” she said, not allowing any sort of hope to rise in her chest.
It was a good thing she didn’t.
Because that hope would have been shattered into a million pieces as Cassius entered her room.
“You—” Thalia snarled, taking a single step before Reina was in the room, blocking her.
The captain of the guard looked her in the eye. Reina didn’t seem to care that her back was exposed, not as she said, “Think, Thalia.”
Yes, think.
Think of what it would mean to kill him. To feel his blood rush over her fingers. To stab him again and again in the back, just as he’d done to her all those years ago.
“Remember your duty,” Reina added, a touch lower.
Her duty had become something greater now. If she failed to carry it out, she would doom all of Agripa.
It took everything in Thalia to nod. To not give over to the anger swirling in her gut, to put her instincts to the side.
