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Strong hands grip my shoulder and hip, rolling me to the side just as I retch, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the ground.
Once the tremors finally cease, I sag.
Arms encircle me, holding me tightly to a warm body. Cassius’s scent surrounds me as his ear brushes my mouth.
“Clara?” Then louder, he says, “Demon shit, she’s not breathing.”
Still too weak to open my eyes, I want to tell him I’m fine, I’m only exhausted, but my mouth refuses to form the words.
He leans in again and inhales deeply.
Did he…sniffme?When I wake up, I’ll have to speak to him about his inappropriate behavior.
The three vampires talk, but they speak too fast for me to understand anything they say. The heaviness of deep sleep calls for me, but I fight it, wanting to know why Cassius is upset.
The world shifts and rocks.
“Clara?” Cassius’s voice is close again. “Did you eat or touch anything?” He shifts me again and sets me down on something soft. “Clara…Clara,talk to me,” he growls.
Two palms press down on my chest. Red light flares, blinding even through closed eyes. A deep, resounding ache infiltrates my body, wrapping around the sharp, stabbing pain.
I want to push his hands away. Power forces its way through my body in waves of crimson, again and again.
My lungs expand painfully drawing in a deep breath. The cold burns my throat, chased by a deep ache that settles over me like a blanket.
Demons take me,Iwasn’tbreathing.
“Clara, what did you touch or eat?” he asks again.
“Wild berries,” I mumble.
Cassius grabs my wrist and yanks my glove off. My fingers brush against his face as he inhales.He really needs to stop sniffing me.Then his hand tightens around mine.
“Demon shit. Those weren’t wild berries, Clara, those were Cacodemon berries, they’re poisonous.”
It isn’t until he utters those words that I understand, though I don’t get a chance to think about it as nothingness swallows me up.
* * *
I sit up, gasping and grasping at my chest with one hand and supporting myself with the other. My lungs burn. Blinking into the darkness, I try to remember where I’m at. It’s too warm for winter.
The last thing I remember was riding toward the mountains, with no shelter for as far as the eye could see. The ground beneath my palm is flat and smooth.Am I in a cell?
Footsteps on stone approach. Scrambling to my feet, I ready myself. I reach for the dagger on my thigh, but it’s not there.
Demon shit, where did it go?
A figure takes shape from the shadows, gradually becoming clearer. The approaching man is tall and familiar. As if a veil is lifted between one step and the next, Alaric’s features become crystal clear.
This has to be a hallucination. We are miles apart, and he’s under Elizabeth’s control.
The way he looks at me cracks my heart with that painfully beautiful smile on his lips. It is the same expression from a few nights ago.
“Alaric…” I run toward him, stopping only an inch away. I want to hold him, touch him, but I’m afraid he will dissipate into smoke and mist.
He frowns, tilting his head. “My dear Clara, what are you doing here?”
“Where are we?” I ask.
