Page 13 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

To say that we were not near land anymore would be a wild understatement. We had drifted into the sky, and now we were cutting through the undulating swell of the clouds. Exquisitely colored clouds, glowing yellow and pink as the sun rose high over the tiny black dot that was the Kingdom of Kartha. Even the massive mountains encompassing the city looked minuscule from this height, their snowy peaks glistening like sugar jars left out in the heat. In the faraway distance, I could even make out the curve of the coast, the vast Sandrea Sea as hazy as a sun-dazzled apparition.

Suddenly, I felt Hector’s solid body behind me, his big hand closing around my wrist. “Get away from there. You’ll catch a cold,” he gritted out, dragging me behind him so he could work the windowpane shut.

I touched a tremulous hand to my temple. “Where is it taking us?”

“Home,” snarled Hector. “Lumia.”

My heart shot up my ribcage and exploded like a firework. I could almost see the spray of sparks dancing at the edge of my vision. “Why is it taking us to Lumia?” I glared up at the Castle. “Why are you taking us to Lumia, you old wanker?”

Hector loomed over me, his windblown hair tumbling over his flaming eyes. “Because we have responsibilities and a schedule, whichyouinterrupted.”

“What responsibilities?” I croaked.

“I have to host the conclave in less than forty-eight hours, and youcannotbe found here. Our meetings are private, Thea. You know this. You know not to come to the Castle unannounced. What were you thinking?”

Something inside me convulsed, hardened. I gritted my teeth, resisting tears. But gods, I felt so…angry. With Hector, withmyself, with the stupid Castle. My magic had tried to warn me, but I hadn’t listened. Ineverlistened.

“Okay,” I exhaled, trying to think through my increasing and perhaps childish desire to break down crying. “Okay, so once we reach land, I will go to the city and find a Curiosity Shop—”

“There are no Curiosity Shops in damned Lumia! These people treat magic like it’s the fairy plague!”

“Stop yelling at me!” I shouted back, my voice silencing all the other noises of the Castle.

Hector retreated, his expression softening a little. “Thea,” he sighed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”

I took a moment to compose myself before I asked,“Isn’t the ball usually held in the winter?”

“I’m not hosting a ball. Just the three families. For the ceremony.”

“Ceremony?”

Hector raised his arms at his sides, his exasperation reemerging from the shallows of his patience. “They’re about to appoint me the new sovereign, obviously. And, please understand, I cannot start my reign by breaking the very laws that hold this society together. You’re not a little kid anymore. Your presence here won’t be tolerated, especially with the position you hold in the Thalorian Court. I can already hear them accusing me of harboring human spies in the Castle. ”

Out of everything he said, only one thing stuck with me. The most bewildering one. “You? The sovereign?”

“Yes, of course, me,” he hissed. “This is the title my mother bequeathed me. I am the only surviving Aventine, lest you haven’t noticed.”

“But youhatevampire society. You said they’re nothing but a bag of cocks.”

“I never saidbag of cocks.”

“No, just that they’re a bunch of vicious bastards who only delight in plotting, fighting, and sucking blood, and that you want to live your life as far away from their insidious schemes and politics as possible.”

“I was a child,” he clipped. “I was a privileged, ungrateful, egotistical child who knew nothing of legacy and responsibility.”

Indeed, Hector had spent his entire life disdaining privileges others would kill for. But that hadn’t been out of ungratefulness. Hector had just been incredibly, heartbreakingly lonely. He was unique in every sense of the word, and that had made him more guarded than perhaps his own heart desired to be. To this day he was the only surviving dhampir known to history. The vampire condition was so intricate that most dhampir children, who were rare to begin with, died within a month of being born.

In the course of centuries, humans had nursed many myths and legends about the creatures of the night, but unlike what some of these stories claimed, vampires weren’t dead, and their bodily functions weren’t far from human. They had comefromhumans, after all, when long, long ago, Nazriat, the goddess of witchcraft, cursed an entire village after they killed her half-human daughter.

The people had accused the young woman of making them ill so she could sell them her strange healing potions, and when her mother entered our Realm to find her child hanging from a tree, she cast the curse of vampirism upon them.

She took away their ability to walk in the sun, for they too had stolen the light of her life, and made them deathly allergic to juniper, which was one of the main ingredients in her daughter’s healing potions. She gave them long lives so that they would experience the pain of loss over and over again as well as a hundred demons’ strength so that they couldn’t touch anything without destroying it. Their bodies became their prisons. Their blood became a poison. And since they wanted to behave likemindless, bloodthirsty animals, they would live like ones too, bound by their unquenchable thirst for blood, a thirst that oftentimes ate away any redeemable quality they might have possessed.

But the goddess had also made them beautiful, irresistible even, so that others might get drawn to them and experience the agony of their betrayal. And so the first creatures of the night were created. Creatures that were not supposed to mate with humans but be their natural enemies.

Hector was a miracle. A fate-kissed miracle. Even his name was touched by destiny.To hold,as he was born to hold our two worlds together.

Growing up, the human children feared him, while the vampire children tormented him endlessly, deeming him a weak halfling who was entirely unworthy of the holy Aventine name.

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