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I nodded as I held him tightly to me. The warmth of his body lulled me to sleep.

?????

Where was Cassius? I sat up in my bed and glanced around the room, but he was gone. My hand ran over the silk bedding and felt how cold his side of the bed was. I stood and dressed so I could find him, but paused when Wisp appeared in the corner of the room.

“Where have you been?” I asked her like she would answer me. Her flames were dark green as she floated happily through the room.

When I got downstairs, I planned to head to the training fields, but I paused at the open door of the king’s throne room.

“Thea, my dear, how are you?” Cassius’ father smiled as he stood, walking to me and giving me a hard embrace. My chest tightened at how different he was compared to my own father.

“I’m alright. I was looking for Cassius.”

“Oh, he had to head out on a scouting mission this morning. He’ll be back shortly.”

I nodded and glanced at the letters sitting on his desk. They were the letters I gave Cassius that day at the meeting of kingdoms. His eyes followed mine, and he sighed heavily.

“I felt so stupid when Cassius showed me the letters you gave him.” His voice was hardly above a whisper. “I fear much of this is my fault. I could have stopped you from dying several times ifI had paid closer attention to Lavtan. I should have seen through his schemes.”

“It’s not your fault,” I assured him.

“We are so happy you are home, Thea.” He patted my shoulder and gave me a friendly smile. “Cassius is such an ass when you’re gone.” His laughter was contagious.

I glanced around the large room and felt a sense of familiarity. All of Crimson felt right to me. It felt like home. No part of Cerithia had felt this way.

“He told me you would be retrieving the bloodstone.” The king broke my wandering thoughts.

“I have to.”

“Yes, you do. Cassius felt terrible about how he reacted to you yesterday, but we had a great talk about it. We will always support you and your choices.”

His sincere statement made me smile.

“This whole thing must have been so strange for all of you, not just Cassius,” I frowned. “I just walked around not remembering any of you, and all of you cared for me still. You know, when I was in Exile and we all believed that you had locked us away there, I wanted to kill you if I ever got the chance. But then, when I met you, you were so...nice.”

He chuckled.

“I’m not sure I like being known as nice, but I’m glad you didn’t kill me because you could have easily. Maybe your heart remembered that I consider you my own daughter, Thea. And we are family. It makes me sick to think how cruel your father is to you. You are such a wonderful woman, and I’m so glad you were chosen as Cassius’ mate.”

His face softened at the thought.

“Me too,” I smiled.

“Am I interrupting something?” Cassius’ voice had me turning to his smirking face.

“Just talking about how big of an ass you can be,” I sighed as he stepped toward me. His father chuckled, and so did the guards behind him. He pulled me to him and kissed my forehead. Cassius was covered in mud, and his uniform was drenched.

“What happened to you?”

Haden started laughing loudly.

“Onyx stopped quickly and flung me into a creek.” Cassius glared at Haden. I chuckled softly.

“Did you notice any shift in the Cerithia armies?” the king asked.

Cassius shook his head.

“Their borders are clear. I don’t think they’d be stupid enough to launch an attack while Thea is here.” Cassius paused for a moment. “I think helping Thea get the bloodstone soon would be the smartest move. Maybe a distraction at the border will get their troops out, and Thea can use my shadow magic to travel to the Cerithian castle while they are distracted.”