Page 63 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

In the blood-splattered depths of my consciousness, I wondered why the Castle hadn’t warned me about any of this. Why had it not protected me like I was dying to protect it now? Perhaps it did not want me as its master. Perhaps I was not worthy enough to uphold this title. Mother told me onceher greatest fear was that I would define myself as an Aventine before I ever got a chance to define myself as Hector. Now I wondered if the Castle knew that I was an Aventine in blood alone.

Dain’s other hand threaded through my hair, his fingers closing around the roots. He knocked the back of my skull against the rocks folded amid the grass. I was already bleeding from the head, but I felt the fresh flow of blood starkly now, warm and wet as it watered the ground beneath me.

My body flailed and spasmed. The waves of pain ran cold, then hot, then numb. Bursts of light burned upon my eyes. Then a single one. A distant, silver gleam. The sky above us was lightless and tremendous, save for a forlorn star shining down upon us.

Blearily, I thought how that single twinkling dot in the sky was like life itself—an unexpected bright flare amid two vast darknesses.

I was about to give in to this final, unknown darkness when the silver light swooped down and dazzled over my wedding band, wedging itself into the raw skin of my wrist.

Thea, I thought in a throbbing daze. My sun-bright, lovely-eyed, clever-tongued girl. I thought of her soft curls and the witchery of her lips. I thought of all the time we had lost, all the kisses we had yet to share.

Something took hold of me then, a strength that welled up from a deep, undiscovered part of me. It was painful and starlike, and it guided my hand, the one bearing the wristlet, without my command, forcing me to leave Dain’s arm and take his throat instead.

I didn’t feel my fingers clenching, curling, digging into the bulb of his throat, yet his eyes bulged and his breath was cut as if by the scrape of a blade. I didn’t think of him at all. In my mind, I only held Thea. The possibility of us.

My whole life I’d been weak for her. Maybe, for once, I could be strong for her too.

25

Thea

Aforlorn star, high up in the fathomless black sky, was what greeted me at the first wink of consciousness. The second thing I noticed was the line of treetops floating past me like restless clouds, which didn’t alarm me much even though I had no idea which one of us was moving. My body felt numb, light as air. I could only lie there, cataloguing their many leaves. There were birches and hemlocks and the occasional almond tree, which I recognized by its shivering pale blossoms. They reminded me of the night I arrived at the Castle, that dreamy, blossom-paved path I had followed with my suitcase pressed to my chest.

Vaguely, I recalled something Esperida told me once.No one can step into the Castle twice. Either you have changed or the Castle has.Indeed, how strange it was to be out of the Castle now. I felt so different from when I entered it.

Finally, it struck me. The Castle. The Valkhars.Hector.

With a gasp that sent a flock of blackbirds into a frenzy, I sprang from a pair of hands, hitting my forehead against another.

“Bloody Tartarus,” crowed Arawn, dropping me remorselessly to the cold, hard ground.

“You bastard!” I seethed as I staggered to my feet, clutching skirts I had not put on myself. “Youdressedme?”

“Did you prefer to venture out into the woods in your nightdress, you crazy woman?” Arawn growled—the audacity of this man!—then hurled my suitcase to the ground so he could rub at the red mark on his forehead.

He’d beluckyif a headbutt was all he suffered tonight.

“Take me back,” I snarled. “Take me back now, and I’ll forgive you.”

“Forgive me,” he echoed angrily.

I lunged at him in full force, grabbing him around the collar of his overcoat. “You abandoned him!”

“I did what he asked of me!”

“He’s not your damned sovereign! He’s your friend! He’s your friend, and he needs you!”

Arawn shook me off, his fair eyes looking wraithlike, almost insubstantial in the enduring darkness. “He made this decision himself.”

“He didn’t make a decision,” I hissed. “They gave him no choice. Someone orchestrated this. I know it. I—”

“Thea,” Arawn sighed, coming forth to seize my arms. “He did make a choice. He chose to die with honor. He could have stepped down—”

“And surrender his legacy? His own home? Have you lost your mind?”

“Look at me.Look at me,Thea,” he panted, cupping the sides of my neck and forcing my head straight so I could see all the things I was too selfish and frightened to care about right now. His pallid skin. His sunken eyes. The alarming hollows of his cheeks. “I’m a mess. I’m heartbroken and sick to the marrow of my bones, and I’m in no position to stand beside anyone right now. I could not protect him, but I can protect you. I can stillhonor him by taking you away from here. Please.” His voice broke, his eyes shining with unshed tears.

I could not find the grace in me to feel sorry for him. Hector was in danger, and he needed us, and that was all I could think about.

---