The creature paused, lifting its head. Its nostrils flared a third time, and then its strange snout touched her chest.
Thalia trembled as it shifted backward—
It let out a screech as Cassius’s sword embedded in its neck.
Cassius grunted, the sword sticking halfway through, the creature somehow still alive. Its cries spurred Thalia, and she surged toward Cassius. Her hands wrapped around his own and together they used all their strength to push the sword down.
Two arrows thwacked the creature’s body, and Thalia knew Keegan was there only by a blur of gold in her peripheral vision.
Finally, after three more arrows and a last push from Cassius, the sword slid through bone and sinew. The creature’s headless body stumbled backward before falling over in a heap, its limbs twitching.
“Fuck, are you all right?” Keegan panted, racing over.
Thalia turned to Cassius. Bright red stained the front of his shirt. She gripped him as he fell to his knees, fresh panic entering her veins.
“Did it bite you?” she rasped as Keegan came to Cassius’s side, whipping off his cloak to try to staunch the bleeding.
“Cassius, did it bite you—” She hadn’t realized how tightly she clutched him until one of his hands squeezed her wrist.
“No. No it didn’t,” Cassius got out.
Thalia’s relief was short-lived. Blood was soaking through the fabric of the cloak now. “We need to get you back to the castle.” Her eyes met his. “Now.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cassius’s blood soaked the back of Thalia’s cloak.
She gritted her teeth, trying to push aside the image of that creature’s claws digging into his chest like butter.
Keegan rode hard in front of her, the dead creature tied to his horse’s flank, its head resting in a knapsack.
They were almost to the castle, but Cassius’s grip was starting to slacken around her waist. He grunted behind her, and Thalia gripped one of his hands.
“Almost there,” she murmured, spotting the castle spires through the trees. But Thalia didn’t breathe a sigh of relief as they broke into the inner courtyard.
Keegan dismounted, immediately going to grab Cassius as he half slid, half fell off his horse.
Thalia was right behind, looping his arm around her shoulders and they both helped Cassius up the castle steps.
The only sound was the dripping of blood from Cassius’s chest as they traveled through the dark castle. Thalia didn’t know where to go, but Keegan aimed for the back wing, the sconces flickering as they passed under them.
After what felt like eternity, they entered the infirmary.
It wasn’t a large space, with a few cots and a back wall covered in a stone fireplace with a cauldron hovering over a stack of wood insideit. Cubbies lined the right wall, filled with dried herbs and glass jars of liquid. A large worktable sat smack in the middle of the room, and both Keegan and Thalia helped Cassius onto the table.
Thalia immediately pulled off Keegan’s cloak that’d been staunching the blood and sucked in a gasp.
Cassius’s chest was a mangled mess of flesh. The claws had cut much deeper than she’d thought, and bits of his rib cage were visible between the torn muscle.
Thalia shoved the bile out of her throat, turning to Keegan. “What do we do?” Keegan’s face was hard as he rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. “Keegan? What do we do?” Panic laced her words. Cassius’s breaths came out in wet pants, his teeth stained with his own blood. His normally tan skin had paled, turning a grayish-green color.
He can’t die,she thought.He can’t die.Because he was a Vampyr, the only way to kill him was to stab him with an iron stake through his skull.
But Thalia had never seen an injury like this.
“Keegan—” Thalia’s voice was on the verge of hysteria as Keegan shoved her aside.
“Stop us when it’s done.” Keegan’s words were firm.
