Page 61 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

“For now,” clipped Kaladin, squinting at Hector like he was a bright flare of sunlight, something deadly he needed to extinguish. “What happens when a vampire goes rogue, commits a crime against a human, and then our entire species gets prosecuted for it? Whose side are you going to take, then?”

“There will be no sides,” said Hector in a controlled, pacifying manner that didn’t match the intensity of his expression. “I will follow the procedures of justice that my mother—”

“Justice?” hissed Espen, sailing down the stairs in a mad fury. “A few hours ago, you threatened to kill us all. You turned against us—”

“Because you poisoned my wife!” Hector snapped—snapped like never before.

His rage was incandescent, a flame trembling under his skin. The veins along his neck and temples stood out, harsh like scars, his eyes burning purest red as if all his blood pulsed right beneath his dilated pupils. Even the bow of his mouth was pulled in lines unfamiliar to me. “You come here, to Aventine Castle, dare to harm my family, and then callmea traitor?” A swift ringing sound echoed in the distance, drawing nearer with preternatural speed. In a silver flash, Hector’s sword came to float by his side, glorious and deadly. Hector didn’t bother to take it in his fist. He didn’t have to. The insinuation was clear.“You want to fight me? You want to know what it is to fall under the wrath of an Aventine?” He gave them all a mocking bow, his hand above his heart. “Well, be my guests. Your pretty heads will make for great decorations.”

As the room spun into a web of horrified sighs and wrathful snarls, Arawn released me from his hold and threw himself before Hector, covering him like a shield. “This is getting out of hand,” he gritted out. “No one is going to challenge Hector for the Castle—”

“I will,” said a clear, resonant voice that made my skin prickle.

I would have thought it a figment of my imagination had Dahlia not let out such a bloodcurdling cry. “No!”

She started toward Dain, tears in her charcoal eyes, but Collette came up behind her and snatched her arm in a punishing grip. “This is not your place, Dahlia,” she seethed.

Dahlia’s huge eyes darted to me.Do something, she seemed to plead. But I had no idea what I should or could do but pray for disasters. I prayed for cataclysms and cyclones. I prayed for the land to crack in two, the whole world to split down the middle. Anything to stop this madness. Anything.

“Let her go,” Alexandria growled, looking more exasperated than frightened as she glared at us all. From the top of the stairs, her children watched, keen as unsheathed blades. “Have you all lost your minds? This is nothing that can’t be resolved with reason. We should all work together to find out who killed Camilla and poisoned Thea, give Hector our oath, and get out of his family home before itliterallycrushes us.”

Dain took another step forward, his piercing eyes fixed on Hector alone. I’d seen wolves prowling like that around our farm at night. Poised and hungry, soundless as they moved. “These walls won’t harm you, Alexandria,” he said. “For I will win. And the Castle will be mine.”

Hector stiffened but showed no signs of relenting.

I would recognize the look on his face anywhere, in a hundred years from now, in an entirely different body. He would not surrender. He did not know how. He was the same as always: strong and proud and fearless when it came to defending the things and people he loved.

For the life of me, I could not understand how they could all be so blind. Hector was the best of them. That was why the Castle obeyed him, not because of his Aventine blood. He was made of all the better parts of two incredibly flawed worlds, and he had worked his whole life to make himself someone truly and unquestionably worthy of the Castle.

I tried to find my voice and tell them all of this, but in the face of what was about to happen, I had no breath to speak. My mind was a void of denial.This isn’t happening,I kept humming to myself.This can’t be happening.

“Are you going to resist?” sputtered Kaladin. “Will you turn the Castle against us? Or will you fight with honor, Aventine?”

They all shared a look I didn’t understand, and another wave of sickening dread assailed me.

Hector bowed his head, black locks tumbling over his eyes, obscuring them from me. “Of course I’ll fight with honor.”

“What does that mean?” I asked, my heart striking at my temples.

I was ignored.

Arawn charged toward Hector, yelling something I couldn’t register over the continuous roar in my head. The room around me swiveled, their quick-darting shapes whirling into light and shadow.

“What does that mean!” This time I screamed, and everyone turned to me at once. Everyone except Hector.

I reeled past Arawn and stood before the boy I’d loved ever since I was a little girl in so many different ways that Ihardly knew what to make of this feeling anymore. “Hector?” I whispered.

Slowly, he lifted his head and looked at me with his watercolor eyes. There was no rage in them now. No panic. No fear of what was to come. Only an ocean of longing and a drop of resignation. The resignation was what scared me the most.

He knows he will not win,I realized.He knows this is a death sentence.

Hector didn’t release me from his gaze as he called out harshly, “Arawn.”

Before I knew it, Arawn was pulling me away, his arms winding around my midriff.

I thrashed like a madwoman, howling at the top of my lungs, “What are you doing? Let go of me!”

Enough madness coursed through my veins that I managed to escape him and ran back to Hector. He did not push me away this time. Instead, he seized the back of my neck, pulled me to him, and touched his warm lips to my forehead. “You know I was dreaming about you, right?” he said. The words were quiet, meant only for my ears.

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