Page 14 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

That dream he’d had of the two of us leaving behind vampire society and my family’s expectations, working ordinary jobs, and living in a quaint little cottage in the middle of nowhere had not been a product of ungratefulness but of hope. Perhaps a silly hope, for he was the son of Esperida, star-chosen and with a castle in the sky for a legacy, but still. He’d wanted to study history and become a professor, to grow a garden, and maybe learn to play the piano. And I had promised to do all that with him. I had promised to never leave him, never go far from him.

A promise I had broken.

“Hector,” I said softly, “I hope you know that you don’t have to honor your mother’s legacy by sacrificing your future.”

His face changed, hardened, revealing a part of his soul I never knew—dark, tempestuous, unforgiving.

He curled back his lips, his body drawing forward. “Says the girl who threw her entire life away to honor her family’s wishes.”

I knew fighting was pointless. It was just one ego clashing with another. But this time I couldn’t hold myself back, couldn’tbite the words down, and with a fresh swell of anger, I pressed forward too, bringing our faces a mere breath apart.

“What life?” I snapped. “I had nothing—”

“You had me.”

“No,youhad a plan. You had a dream. But not all of us live in magic castles in the sky, Hector. Some of us have to live on land, in the real world, where hard work doesn’t always pay off, and sometimes people have to marry into a better future.”

He jerked back as though I’d just slapped him across the face. “And you believe that I don’t know that? How out of touch do you think I am?”

I shook my head, struggling to find the words that would finally make him see the difference between us. Hector was of the sky. I was of the land. And for a few brief, magical moments we had found each other in the middle, in a sweet but precarious in-between, until the opposing forces of what we were made of deep in our souls pulled us apart.

“You, like Esperida, are extraordinary,” I said. “You were put on this Realm to do extraordinary things. I’m just a human girl with barely any magic in my veins. And I know I broke my promise—”

“I don’t care about that stupid promise,” he snarled.

“Then why? Why is it so hard for you to understand that I had to think of my future?”

“Iwould have given you a future! I would have married you! I would have followed you to Thaloria! I would have given you the world!”

I stopped. Stopped breathing, moving, thinking.

For several thundering moments I could only stare at him, at the hurt that lay naked in his proud face. A mere whisper was all I was able to offer: “What?”

“This whole time you thought I was angry because you left me? Because I couldn’t be alone? I was not angry because yougave up on me, Thea. I was angry because you gave up on yourself. Because you let them convince you that you needed a man to make your dreams come true.”

He held back the silky strands of his hair in something like despair, his unraveling as rapid as our ascent in the air and as heavy as the cargo of clouds the sky carried above us.

“Have you any idea what it did to me?” he said, his voice like grains of sand. “To have no choice but to watch the most clever, capable, brilliant person I knew submit to the will of others like a mindless puppet. To know that the girl Ilovedwas going to marry the first nobody her parents chose for her. A man she didn’t even know. A man she didn’t even love. Have you any idea what a torment it was to think that he was going to steal from you things that are only meant to be given in love? Your first kiss. Your first time.”

I could not speak. I was a jumble of confused thoughts and feelings, of things that hurt too much to admit.

Hector had never spoken of love, much less marriage, to me. Now I was drifting in the obliterating current of that one word—loved—and its faraway, irretrievable meaning.

“The girl you loved,” I rasped, both numb and aching all over. “Not love?”

Hector pulled himself together, returning to his usual sharp-edged reserve. “You shouldn’t have come, Thea,” he said steadily. “There is nothing left for you here.”

Before I could say anything, he disappeared, as swift and soundless as a ghost.

Once, on a hot summer night, I had asked him,When we’re older, will you go to Fairyland with me?

Thea, he’d told me,I’ll go to the ends of the world with you.

How silly I was, standing here in the deserted hall with tears in my eyes, realizing there was no distance Hector would cross with me anymore.

5

Thea

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