The spell had worked.
Cassia’s knees nearly buckled as she raised the knife to her palm. She sliced and let blood drip on the Tuathan stone. Closing her eyes, she began to pull from the ground. Power answered instantly. Magic surged upward through her bones like lightning trapped inside her veins. It hummed in her blood and ignited a power inside her gut that sparked into her muscles. Too much. Almost too much.
Castor stepped toward her, panic flooding his face. “Cassia, wait—”
She looked at him, tears burning down her cheeks. Her grip tightened on the stone, blood already slipping between her fingers.
“It’s my turn to be brave,” she whispered.
Cassia began to mutter the curse she’d had memorized the moment Stellan gave her the paper. The words felt foreign on her tongue. A tornado of energy cracked open at her feet, roaring loud and swirling into a silver-blue funnel. A doorway through time. All she had to do was jump.
She glanced one last time at her father’s lifeless body. Then Stellan’s eyes met hers. He gave the smallest nod. Then, with his hands still on Bridget and Cade, they shimmered with a brief light and vanished. Relief crashed over her. Stellan had taken them back. Delphine would return for Castor and then—
The flat stone in the center shattered into a million pieces. The Sanguis were coming through. And it was about time someone beat Vega at her own games. Cassia drew a ragged breath.
With a pop, Delphine appeared again, ready to take Castor.
Now or never.
Cassia bent her knees and leapt.Wind ripped at her body as magic seized her limbs. She was light and shadow all at once, falling upward through time. But just as she passed the threshold, a hand grabbed hers.
“No!”she cried out.
She looked down.
Castor.
His determined eyes met hers just as her blood smeared across his arm.
The curse, meant forher, bound themboth.
“No,” Cassia gasped, horror crashing through her. “You weren’t supposed to—”
But it was too late.
Cassia dug her nails into Castor’s palm, trying to hold on to him. Seconds later, darkness consumed her as the curse began to drag them through time.
Chapter thirty-six
Bridget
Bridget sat on the edge of the armchair, her fingers twisted in the hem of the oversized blanket someone had draped over her after they’d returned. Her eyes were fixed on the slow, steady rise and fall of Cade’s chest. He hadn’t stirred since they’d arrived back in Astraeus.
They’d brought him back to his room, hopeful that a familiar setting would calm him whenever he awoke. She knew it wouldn’t be easy. That he’d be unsettled. Confused. Maybe even angry.
Even though relief pulsed through every inch of her body, she could hardly look at him. Every time she did, she felt the sensation of the sword piercing through his chest. Heard the sound of his flesh being ripped open. A fresh wave of nausea churned in her stomach as her gaze drifted over his body again. Her eyes lingered on the bandages wound around his chest, dark with dried blood.
She turned her face away and pressed her knuckles to her mouth. It didn’t matter that it hadn’t been her, not really. It had been her hand. Her body. Her theft of Vega’s curse that had sent them down this path.
Beside him, Nylah slept curled on top of the blankets, one arm thrown over his chest. She hadn’t moved since they returned. But Bridget couldn’tblame her. The thought of being separated from him right now almost destroyed her, too. And the room was too quiet. Too full of things left unsaid. The tick of the clock on the wall sounded like a heartbeat.
At the far end of Cade’s room, Stellan stood near the window. His silhouette was as still as glass. His arms were crossed and tension radiated from every inch of him. His eyes tracked something beyond the mountains. Maybe beyond the reach of Astraeus itself. He hadn’t spoken much since they’d returned. But he hadn’t left their side either. Bridget was grateful for that. Delphine and Archer had rushed to help Finn, still unconscious and fighting whatever threads of Vega’s magic lingered in him.
And Cassia and Castor, cursed and traveling through time for the crown. She closed her eyes and hoped they both knew what they were doing. That she’d told them enough.
With a deep breath, Bridget’s eyes moved back to Cade. She didn’t realize she was crying until a tear slipped onto her wrist. She quickly wiped it away.
“Do you think the bond is broken?” Bridget asked softly, her voice barely more than a whisper.
