Page 11 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

A spark of relief flared in his eyes. “Good,” he said. “You ought to be selfish. It’syourlife.” Then, with a bit more restraint, he asked, “Were Eleanor and Ajax upset?”

I curled my fingers under the edge of the bench, desperate for something to hold on to. “They were surprised, mostly, but they forgave me. And Queen Eloise kept me at the court regardless.”

Hector snorted. “To find another husband, no doubt.”

Heat crawled over the sides of my neck, frustration sizzling in my veins.

The Queen of Thaloria didn’t keep me in her service out of magnanimity but because I’d proven myself a formidable diplomat and a careful advisor, someone who didn’t need familial connections to uphold a position in her court.

It was hard at first. For the longest time, I felt like a little girl abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Until I didn’t. Until I realized that my will was greater than my reality. I stopped telling myself the same old story that I was only there to appease someone else’s ambition.Ihad ambition and hope and determination in my veins.Iwanted to stay in Thaloria, andImade this dream come true.

But, of course, Hector had never met this version of me. In his mind, I was still that eighteen-year-old girl who had let the world convince her that the only way she could achieve her dreams was through an obedient smile and a convenient marriage. And once Hector’s good opinion was lost, nothing short of a miracle could recover it. That was the vampire nature, after all. They were absolute creatures, their passions exceptional and pure. When they loved you, they worshiped you like a god. When they lusted after you, they consumed the very essence of your being. When they hated you, they made you wish you’d never crossed their paths. Like the stars, they were the fixtures of the night, eternal and unchangeable. Or so they believed themselves to be. And in the end, what you believed you became.

“Is that what you think of me, Hector?” I asked, trying to keep my tone light despite the heaviness of my heart. “That I spend my days hunting husbands for sport?”

He looked away, the column of his throat bobbing. “You don’t want to know what I think of you, Thea.”

“That bad, huh?”

Several moments passed before either of us spoke or even moved. Then Hector let out a resigned sigh. “I can’t believe you came here.”

“I can’t believe you didn’t write to me,” I countered.

“We haven’t spoken in four years,” was his sole excuse, his fingers curling under the edge of the bench, next to my own.

“So what? We might not be friends anymore, but we’re not enemies, either,” I argued, and when he didn’t respond, I pressed closer.

We’d sat this close before, closer even. Upstairs, at the observatory, we used to lie down right next to each other and watch the pinpricks of stars twinkle beyond the glass ceiling. He used to lean over me, pointing and naming the constellations, while I nodded distractedly, thinking that he was prettier thanall the universe put together. Back then, I wouldn’t feel the kind of disquietude I felt now, as if the very nearness of our bodies was a weapon pointed at my chest.

Under the bench, his pinky finger brushed mine, and my heart rushed to that spot, to the tantalizing sensation of a secret touch. “You don’t hate me,” I said, looking into his eyes.

His brows raised in wry amusement. “Are you asking me or telling me?”

“Telling you, of course. We have too many wonderful memories together to be enemies.”

“I can’t recall a single decent memory with you,” he claimed.

I laughed, some of the tension melting from my body. “You’ve always been such a terrible liar. It’s what I like most about you.”

“Not myirresistible vampire charm?” he mocked.

“Oh, please, there is nothing charming about you. You have the social graces and general attractiveness of a bat.”

He shook his head, as indignant as ever. “You, Dorothea Valentia, are the bane of my existence.”

“Well, with a little work I’m sure I can be promoted to the destroyer of your soul,” I chirped, nudging his shoulder with mine.

Our faces leveled. His eyes fell to my mouth, then lower, to my throat, the tip of his tongue passing over his fuller bottom lip. I pulled back an inch, scrutinizing the purple shadows under his eyes. “Hector, when’s the last time you fed?”

He sat up straighter, his shirt straining against the new broadness of his shoulders. “I don’t know. Recently.”

Vampires, although perfectly able to consume regular human food, received most of their nutrition from blood, and they could only go a couple of months without it before they started to decay. From the look of him, I’d say he hadn’t consumed a single drop for at least two weeks now.

Swiftly, I got up and went to the round table by the window, where a collection of crystal decanters and empty glasses was arranged atop a silver tray. These bottles I knew contained blood and not wine, for they gleamed with condensation as the Castle kept them eternally chilled.

“I understand that you’re grieving,” I rasped, my throat tight as a vise. “But you have totake better care of yourself.”

In the tense silence that followed, I watched the blood swirl inside the crystal cup and felt it grow warm against my palm, the strong metallic smell crawling under my nostrils. Bringing it back to him, I couldn’t help but hold it as far away from me as possible. “Gods, what is this?”

---