Page 28 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

I was heading downstairs, following the curious shadows the sconces drew across the walls and wondering where Hector had disappeared to all day, when suddenly, a male voice traveled to my ears. A smooth, cheerful,familiarvoice.

Filled with excitement, I gathered my skirts and rushed to the foyer.

There he was, all six feet of him. Crystal blue eyes. Messy golden hair. A collection of the finest features. And a smile that could win and break a girl’s heart in the span of a single night.

“Arawn!” I half-exclaimed, half-giggled as I hopped over the last few steps, falling straight into his arms.

He twirled me in the air, hugging me tight around the waist before putting me down at arm’s length to get a good look at me. “Gods, Thea, aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” he laughed, his eyes growing bleary with remembrance.

I hadn’t seen Arawn and Margaret, his long-time beloved, in about three years, and I was a bit surprised by how different he looked up close. He’d always been as tall as a willow, but now he was as slender as one too. In fact, he was alarmingly thin, his nearly translucent skin pulling tight over his otherwise personable face.

I was about to ask if he was feeling okay—perhaps he’d had a bad journey—when Hector’s deep rasp sounded somewhere behind me. “She certainly is.”

He was standing by the door, dressed in an all-black attire, his high-waisted trousers rendering the path from his narrow hips to his strong thighs a truly tantalizing one. The dark strands of his hair were combed back, and the light from the chandeliers gave his open face an unsteady, ethereal glow.

He was unfairly, heartbreakingly beautiful. And he was smiling at me.

Arawn cleared his throat. “If you’re going to fuck in the middle of the foyer, at least have the decency to ask me to leave first.”

Hector’s passionate expression shifted into a scowl. “You’re not one to talk of decency, Celestine.”

Arawn rolled his eyes, turning to me with a flair of conspiracy. “Thea, darling, please tell me he’s not going to grumble like a weary old man all night. This is supposed to be ajoyousoccasion.”

“And yet your parents didn’t come to share myjoy,” countered Hector, wincing at the wordjoyas if it were something vulgar.

“Oh, please,” Arawn huffed, “you know very well they didn’t mean any disrespect. They’re just enjoying their retirement.”

Hector opened his mouth to say something I knew was going to be, at the very least, unpleasant, so I cut in with a wide grin, hooking my elbow around his. “Yes, Hector did say something about Calix and Esther retiring.”

Arawn’s little smirk turned positively devious. “Hector also said something about you two eloping, by which I’mmortallyoffended. I didn’t even know that you were still speaking to each other.” He made a dramatic pause, squinting at me. “But I am curious if this is why you’ve spangled that pretty neck of yours. Has our dear Hector gone feral for his bride?”

Hector did not find this remark very amusing. He pinned Arawn with a look of chill disdain and said in a toneless but lethal voice, “If I were you, I’d worry about my own neck right now.”

“Ah, I see Thea has yet to successfully remove the stick from your—” Arawn never got to finish that sentence. He lurched back, hissing, his hand cupping the suddenly red side of his neck. “Did your Castle just punch me?”

Hector arched a brow. “I don’t know, did it?”

“You’re such a sly bastard, Aventine.”

“And you’re ever the sleazy cockwad, Celestine.”

“Aw, it’s like we’re fifteen again,” I chirped, clapping my hands together. “So tell me,” I prodded Arawn, hoping to steer the conversation far away from my neck. “How is Margaret?”

Margaret, much like Arawn, had a personality as full of sunshine as her looks. Sweet, kind Margaret, who had the voice of a nymph and the patience of a priest, for it had taken Arawn seven whole years to finally propose to her. Although Calix and Esther had a part in that as well, for Margaret’s one and only flaw was irredeemable in their eyes. She was a human. And they wanted strong, vampire heirs.

To my surprise, Arawn’s face fell at the mention of her, his eyes darting to Hector with a hint of guilt. “I haven’t told you either…” He struggled with the words, his throat, white as bare bones, narrowing with tension. “Margaret and I parted ways. About three months ago.”

I bit my tongue, feeling like I’d just sliced open a freshly healed wound. “Arawn, I’m so sorry—”

“It’s okay,” he reassured me. “There wasn’t much of a future for us anyway. She was a human.”

He didn’t say the words pointedly, as if to imply that Hector and I were bound to fail as well, but there was still a pinch of resentment in his voice, something raw and sharp-edged.

At last, he glanced away, clearing his throat. “So, did you get the letter from the Valkhars?”

Hector’s brows drew closer, a shadow of apprehension unraveling over his cheekbones. “No, we’ve only just arrived. What happened?”

“Well, apparently, a small cult has formed in Elora that worships the goddess who cursed us—”

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