Page 51 of Xantera
Stay within the stone.
It was the only lullaby anyone ever sang, the only one the Guardians ever approved of. But my mom would make up her own words on nights when the nightmares became too dark, tooconstricting, too much. When staying within the stone felt like a noose around my neck.
It’s that secret second part of her lullaby I repeat to myself now.
On and on the girl must march,
Starved for an end to the night.
Beware the Monster in her heart,
For even she can bite.
The memory calms me just enough that my shoulders stop shaking, just like I would back then in her arms. I blink at the door in front of me again, willing myself to pause long enough to take in the details so that I might figure out where it leads.
It’s not made of wood, I realize as I lean closer, trying to dissect the strange texture in this excruciatingly dim lighting. When I brush my fingers against the surface again, the grittiness ofstonemeets my skin. Lines sprout like cracks throughout it, but when I try to trace those lines, I don’t feel any kind of indentation. Rather, the cracks are somehow smoothed over, as if someone filled them with… glass?
No, that can’t be right. Glass doesn’t mend—it breaks.
Lucan sucks in a breath, stealing my own from my chest.I know where you are.
What? How could you possibly…
I trail off as his answer blooms in my head, my eyes widening at the realization that I’ve just broken the twelfth Cardinal Rule. That I’m closer to the edge of Xantera than I’ve ever been before.
The Wall.
I’m at the Wall.
Stay where you are,Lucan says gruffly.I’m coming.
He’s coming? The thought sends nervous flutters pouring into my stomach. But beyond that, how could he possibly know which part of the Wall I’m at?
There are dozens of doors embedded in the stone in various places around Xantera,Lucan answers, and now I hear the breathlessness of his thoughts, as if he’s broken into a loping run.I know whereeach of them are, so you’re bound to be on the other side of one of them. But none will open from my side, he adds as a reluctant afterthought.It’s as if they were fused shut when the vampires took over.
I can’t help but gape and stare at those strange glassy cracks again.
How… how do I open it for you?
I don’t know if I’m more terrified to let him in ornotlet him in. Part of me is shaking down to my toes at the idea of facing him in the flesh for the first time—of finding out exactly how monstrous he is in this form. The other part of me knows I need him. Not just so that he can help me get to my mom, but because I have the strangest feeling he’d be able to steady the panic rising up my throat again, threatening to spew out. And if I run into another Guardian down here, Lucan might be my only chance at survival.
Unlike my mother’s made-up lullaby, I don’t have teeth like either of them.
I can’t bite.
I beg to differ,Lucan pants.You have more bite than I ever would have thought possible. You—wait. I… I think I smell you.
His voice slows, and I swear I feel a presence approaching on the other side of the Wall. It’s less a sound than a change in the air, a prickle along my spine and the slight stirring of the dust motes around me.
The Monster. The Monster is standing just on the other side of this unmovable slab of undulating stone. And he’ssmellingme. Taking in my scent.
I don’t know why that’s the thing that calms me. It shouldn’t make the nerves in my throat drop to the bottom of my belly, morphing back into flutters, but it does.
I quit shaking and press my hand against the Wall, wishing I could feel the pressure of Lucan’s hand on the other side. For a moment, we both just stand there, absorbing each other’s thoughtsand staring at the stone as if it’s a window through which we can get a first glimpse of each other.
You smell…Lucan starts hesitantly.
Probably like mud and other creepy tunnel stuff,I say, my cheeks burning.
