Page 81 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

“I… I thought you were a castle now.”

“Before I was a castle, before I was stone and glass and structure, I was magic—intention and possibility—and before I was magic, I was a star. You see, nothing is only one thing, and nothing is always the same thing. Change, I’m afraid, is inevitable.”

I gave the Castle a quizzical look. “Then why are you resisting it? You give very good advice. You ought to follow it every now and then.”

To my surprise, the Castle laughed, and it was a glorious, larger-than-life sound. “Ah, she’s a clever one.”

“What you’re doing is harming a lot of people, you know,” I said, solemnly now.

“How so?”

“Esperida needs to rest. And Hector needsyou. Something terrible is going to happen here tonight, and you have to stop it.”

“And what about you, prophet girl? Do you not have the power to stop it?”

“I… You’re right,” I admitted with a heavy heart. “Destiny did warn me. The gods of fortune did show me their favor. But I didn’t listen to them. I was so afraid to make the wrong choice I ended up doing nothing at all. And now I fear they’ll forsake me.”

If the Castle had a face, I had a feeling it would be grimacing now, perhaps raising its brows in exasperation. “Did you fail to listen to them, or did you fail to listen to yourself?”

The answer was clearer than ever. Still, the words felt odd upon my lips, the admission too fresh, too tender. “I am my magic, and my magic is me. So I suppose I failed us both.”

“I am a lot like that too,” said the Castle in a strange, plaintive tone. “Inseparable from my magic, I mean. It tires me sometimes. And other times I don’t want to be myself at all.” There was a pause in which I felt the Castle’s very essence haloing over me. It was warm and sun-bright, and it filled me with hope. “It’s nice to find people who understand what that’s like.”

“You’re lonely,” I realized. “That’s why you’re not letting her go.”

“I was lonely,” said the Castle. “For a long, long time I was terribly, humanly lonely. Then she came, and everything changed.”

“Things have to change again now.”

“I know.”

“You won’t be alone, though,” I reassured it. “Hector will be here. He’s a part of Esperida. That’s why you grant all of his wishes, no? And… and I will be here, too.”

The accusation came like thunder. “You left us before.”

“I will not leave you again,” I promised.

“I do not take prisoners, prophet girl.”

“I will not stay out of obligation—”

“Then why? To prove yourself worthy of owning me?”

I sucked in a breath, summoning my courage. “Living things cannot be owned. I do not own the wildflower when I pluck it from the soil. I do not own the wave when I swim in the sea. I do not own you when I walk through your halls. These are gifts, and I can only love them. Ilovethis place. I loveyou. And I love Hector.” My voice broke, broke like my heart did at the faintest possibility of losing him tonight. I could not let it happen. Iwouldnot let it. “I haven’t told him yet. I need to tell him now.”

A path of black and white marble lit up next to me. The gleaming squares were surrounded by mirrors of different shapes and sizes. Some were large and straight as walls, others were curving overhead, enclosing the checkered trail until it seized before a larger, gold-framed mirror, the oval glass rippling with water.

“Then go,” urged the Castle. “Tell him. Save him.”

“Will you let Esperida go? Will you be with me now? I might need your help.”

“You don’t need me, prophet girl. You can win this battle on your own.”

I drew closer, close enough to see the star inside the heart of the Castle, pulsing with a life of its own. “You’re my friend,” I whispered to it like releasing a secret wish out into the universe. “I don’t have to need you to want you to be by my side.”

The star, the heart, the Castle, all the things it was and all the things it would be, broke out beaming, and as the radiance forced my eyes shut, myothereyes showed me what was going to happen if I didn’t go against destiny now.

“I should check on her,” Hector was saying, striding past the flush table of the dining room where they were all gathered, their candlelit faces glowing with impatience.

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