Page 52 of Xantera
No, Saskia. Like roses and strawberries.
Oh.I wrap my arms around myself to stave off the shiver of appreciation those words bring me.I’m sorry, I can’t really smell you, or I’d try to return the compliment. Guess I’ve got a weak human nose.
He chuckles in my head, and the strangest thing happens when he does. An actual growl rumbles from the ground, rushing up my feet and straight into my core.
I hear you,I breathe. I stare at that massive keyhole again. If I could just figure out how to open it…
You can’t, Lucan says, his tone dwindling into something a lot more somber.Not right now.
But you said—
That only someone on the inside can let me in, yes. But what I didn’t tell you is how.
He pauses, as if the weight of what he says next will drag us both down.
When the Guardians made that necklace to spy on me and my family, they spoke to me, too.He takes a deep, rumbling breath that I feel in my toes as the ground vibrates.The Third vampire, especially, liked to gloat about all of his accomplishments.
He taunted you?The thought leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, and I curl my fingers around the vial against my chest, feeling a strange sort of possession take root in my bloodstream.
This necklace ismine. To imagine the Third Guardian using it in such a way…
Lucan’s sudden smugness washes over me.
Territorial, are we, little nightmare?
I glare at him through the Wall as if he can see me, as if I can wipe the smirk of satisfaction from his tone. But my stomach sinks at the realization that Iam. Is the lure of jewelry already making me feel greedy?
Trust me, Saskia,he replies to my thoughts,you canbe as greedy as you want with me. I’ll return it ten-fold.
Pure want shoots down my core, but I fight it off.We have a bigger problem to deal with right now.How do I let you in, Lucan?
He huffs, a sound I can feel in the vibrations against my fingers still splayed against the stone.The Third Guardian created a key—made out of the same material as the Wall, he says. It is the only thing that can unlock any of the doors embedded within it.
I glance down at the silver key still in my free hand.I’m guessing it won’t be quite as easy to find it as it was for Diggory to find this one?
Not that I even knowhowDiggory found this one, but still…
I sense Lucan shaking his head, though.
It’s not a question of finding the key. My father told me exactly where it is multiple times—smack in the middle of the old white drawing room in the north wing, on a table, under a glass cloche.
How would he know that?I wonder.
I don’t know,he replies,but he was insistent. Sure. And the Third Guardian loved confirming that it was indeed there, out of my reach forever.
I don’t exactly know what the old white drawing room is, but the bite to Lucan’s tone tells me that such a display is a mockery of the highest order: a pathway back to his throne, right where all the Guardians can view it every day like a platter of dead history. Still, I go cold at the thought of what that entails.
Even if we know exactly where the key is…
Give me another word, I say suddenly.
What?
Give me another word,I repeat.Like shit, but stronger. Something that can reflect what I’m feeling right about now.
Oh.Lucan’s surprised chuckle lands straight in my belly button.You want another curse word, baby?Again, that name slips out, but he sounds less hesitant about it this time, and I find myself… liking it.‘Fuck’ would be the word you want.
Fuck.I taste the word on my tongue.
