Page 90 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

He pulled back, one brow raised. “Me?”

“Since you’re such an experiencedneck-romancer.”

Hector rolled his eyes, muttering wryly under his breath, “Neck-romancer jokes. Very original. And not terrifying at all.”

I shot him a haughty little look. “Is the vampire sovereign scared of ghosts?”

“I’m scared that ghosts might be haunting my wife,” he grumbled good-naturedly, but as soon as he registered what he said, his whole body stiffened. I, on the other hand, was nearly shimmering and floating through the ceiling with happiness. “Sorry. I know we’re not really—”

“We should be,” I blurted out.

His brows shot up. “We should?”

“Not right away, though,” I clarified. “We have to discuss the matter of your immortality first.”

“You know very well that I have no desire to live forever. I’ve been drinking the potion ever since I turned twenty. I will age as you.”

“I also have to concentrate on my studies.”

Hector squinted at me, reading me like an open book. “You’re just afraid to tell your parents, aren’t you?”

I scowled at him. “You know me too damned well.”

Smirking, he pinched my lower lip between two fingers. “What a foul mouth you have, Lady Aventine,” he teased as I’d done earlier today. Or had it been yesterday? Time always seemed to bend in new ways in his presence.

“Well,” I said, pushing at his chest until he was lying back on the bed. He shivered as I drew back all the covers so I could watch him rise with desire. I bent, my hair cascading over him, ebony on granite. Then I bent even lower and painted kisses down his stomach. “Allow me to put it to better use.”

And, oh, I did.

38

Hector

For the life of me, I could not understand where the Dreaming Palace had gotten its name from, for there was nothing dreamy, sleepy, or remotely relaxing about it.

It was magical, certainly—this was the Faraway North, after all—but unlike the Castle with its slow rhythms and fragments of the universe, the Palace’s magic was a game of optics, of elaborate tricks and phantasmagoric illusions.

The rooms were ever-changing, bursting out into new scenery when you least expected it. Outside, ivied pavilions emerged in the hearts of elaborate hedge mazes, and silver fountains ran with waters the color of dittany. Everything and everyone was restless and excited, like a hive of bees buzzing over one thing or another, which was partly why I was suffering from my first-ever headache. The other half of the blame lay with the heir to this extravagant wonderland. Apollo Zayra of Thaloria.

The man would not stop questioning me about everything I was, everything I did, everything I intended to do in the near and distant future, and, gods give me patience, myintentionsfor Thea.

As a matter of fact, I’d been given less grief from Thea’s father, and he was already the king of disdainful side glances and thinly veiled insults.

But at least Thea was happy.

She’d been practically beaming with joy ever since the Castle brought us North. Here, in the beautiful, wonderstruck rooms of the Palace, surrounded by endless merriment and thrill, she was in her true element. I was confident now that moving to Thaloria had been the right choice for us.

Nepheli was just as Thea had described. Clever-eyed, soft-mouthed, charmingly observant. She was also infinitely loving towards Thea, and for that alone I liked her the best. Her choice of husband could have been a little better, but, oh well, nobody was perfect.

“You have to admit, it is a bit strange to wear the wristlet when you haven’t even proposed to the girl,” Apollo went on and on andon.

The girls had seated us on a bench at the edge of a cloud-painted room that was teeming with tables laden with various flower arrangements, colorful parades of cakes, and fountains of flavored wines. The pink marble floor lay littered with chests overflowing with fabrics and all sorts of sparkly adornments that, after an hour and a half of their glittering, had succeeded in making even my vampire eyes burn.

Occasionally, they would ask our opinion about something or other only to ignore it and continue fawning over their original choice, despite having reassured us that there were no right answers. Of course, there were right answers. Apollo was just terrible at them because the man was practically colorblind. And then they dared to compareusto bats.

If all wedding preparations were as painstaking and exuberant as this one, perhaps eloping was not such a terrible idea after all. It wasn’t like I had anyone to invite to the ceremony anyway. For all intents and purposes and for the sake of vampire society, Thea and I were already married.

“Like I said,” I gritted out. “I’ll propose to her soon.”

---