To His Hell and Back
Chapter 95: If Refusing Is Deadly

Chapter 95: If Refusing Is Deadly

Her heart had stopped.

Cassius’s mind raced, faster than the night his limbs were severed, faster than the night he fought with nothing but a broken dagger and his teeth at seventeen. That battle had been over a decade ago, yet the raw terror of it still clung to him like an old scar. He had felt death’s breath then, cold and inevitable.

But today... Today was worse. He wasn’t dying, yet something inside him felt like it was. The flood of emotions crashed into him like a tidal wave, violent and unrelenting, as if death itself was standing over him, waiting for him to fail.

The book had warned him: a human who drowned too long would not return. He knew what he had to do. Press against her chest. Force her heart to beat again. But the moment his hands hovered over Arabella’s still body, his breath caught.

She was human, a fragile human whose bone was far too easy to shatter. One wrong move, too much pressure, and he could break her ribs, and puncture her heart. He forced himself to be gentle, to push with measured control, but the longer he tried, the more his dread deepened.

No response. No heartbeat.

Panic curled around his throat, suffocating him. He pressed harder. Come back. His hands trembled, pressing again and again, but her body remained limp beneath him. No flutter of life. No sign of return.

For the first time in years, Cassius felt powerless.

It’s been minutes, no ten since he had scooped her out of the water and pressed his lips on hers which had turned purple now. The water had been spilled from her lungs but her heartbeat was simply still, refusing to beat. The anger and frustration made him want to push his finger into her chest and force the heart to start beating but he knew logically that would only hurt a human like Arabella even more.

"Fuck!" The curse ripped from his throat, raw and furious, as the half-moon birthmark on his neck pulsed like a second heartbeat, burning with every wave of rage. His hands clenched into fists, trembling with the sheer force of his fury.

He wanted to tear Adele apart. To rip her limb from limb, to exchange her life for Arabella’s. To undo this wretched moment with blood and fire.

He wished, damn it, he wished, he hadn’t trusted Arabella’s safety to anyone but himself. That he had stayed by her side, that he had never let his guard slip.

Now, all he could do was kneel here, drowning in the horror of her stillness.

And yet, the fury kept rising. It swelled inside him, dark and all-consuming, until it felt like it would tear him apart. He wanted to destroy everything— the castle, the ground beneath his knees, the lake that swallowed her, the world that allowed this to happen.

Everything.

In the numbing stillness, his anger that had burned like Hell began to think rationally. He still has time. He could simply turn her into a vampire. It’s dangerous but she’s already in danger. It would be much better to have a chance for her to live rather than her death—

Cough-

A small cough. A wet, ragged cough that had slipped from Arabella’s lips broke the suffocating silence.

Cassius froze. For the first time in his life, he was truly stunned without a single word.

Her lips, once bloodless and still, parted with a shallow gasp. Her green eyes fluttered open, glazed and unfocused, shimmering with unshed tears. Her chest, which had lain unmoving for too long, now rose in a weak, uneven rhythm. He watched as life bled back into her, as the impossible happened before his very eyes. Because he had felt her death. He knew it. There had been no heartbeat, no breath, just the cruel, unshakable certainty that he had lost her. And yet, here she was. Breathing. Alive. It was a miracle- a thing he thought never existed.

It’s impossible yet this was the reality. It felt surreal almost that the girl who had died was back alive as if earlier her heartbeat hadn’t gone completely silent.

Her lashes were damp, her lips trembling as she tried to form words. Her fragile gaze met his, trying to piece together reality from the haze of unconsciousness. And then... then it hit her. Arabella’s breath hitched as the memories came flooding back. She had been dreaming before she had woke up. In that dream, she had seen a castle, a foreign memory of her and her mother. There was a man who had commanded her mother to throw her into the river in that castle. The command... Throw her in. The water. The lake. Adele.

Her body stiffened as her gaze slid past Cassius, landing on the lake’s dark, restless surface. She remembered the sensation of sinking, of cold fingers dragging her deeper and deeper, of lungs burning, screaming for air that never came. She remembered drowning.

Then why, how... was Cassius here? She blinked at him, confusion lacing her features. He was soaked. His clothes clung to him, his hair plastered against his skin, droplets sliding down the sharp angles of his face. Had he jumped in to save her? Again?

Her throat burned, raw and tight, yet the words tumbled out before she could stop them. "Y- You shouldn’t have s- saved me."

Cassius stilled. His crimson eyes flickered, widened, then narrowed, sharpening like a blade. Relief had barely touched his face before something darker settled in its place. Something cold. Something furious.

"Is that the first thing you say after escaping death?" His voice was dangerously low.

Arabella frowned. "You’re not going to trust my words either way—"

"That she pushed you?" His voice dropped further, lethal now. His crimson gaze burned into her, his fury barely leashed. "You’re telling me that you already knew I wouldn’t believe you? That I would take her word over yours?"

Silence.

Her teeth clenched, her hands curling weakly at her sides. She should have been grateful, she was grateful, but Adele’s words before she drowned still echoed in her mind. The reminder that she was lesser. That his family’s word would always weigh more than hers. Her throat tightened.

"You were the one..." Her voice came out as a whisper, shaking with lingering cold and something rawer, something more painful. "Who told me not to expect anything from you."

The silence that followed was suffocating. Arabella barely had time to register his movement before firm arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her against him in one swift motion. Her breath caught. He hadn’t tossed her over his shoulder like before, hadn’t carried her like she was nothing. This time... This time, he cradled her. Like a lover. One arm braced her waist, the other hooked beneath her knees, holding her close as if daring death itself to try and take her again. His grip was unyielding, the warmth of his body pressing against her drenched, shivering form.

Arabella’s eyes widened, heart stuttering as she realized, this wasn’t anger. This was something far more dangerous.

"I’ll show you," he then said, his words brief but cutthroat. "Actions weigh more than words."

Before she could think, Cassius had suddenly strode back into the castle. Every servant who had seen them was sent into panic as they saw the crown prince holding the human girl, drenched in water, her whole body wet but he was also wet as if he had submerged in the lake behind the castle. Even Renard had panicked upon seeing what had happened.

He wanted to ask about the situation, thinking another assassin had been sent after his neck.

Yet easily, Cassius ordered, "Where’s Adele?"

The tone he used was chilling and Renard who saw Arabella’s pallid face that was far too pale as well as her weakened heartbeat understood everything.

Oh shit.