Page 84 of Xantera
“I don’t know yet. I haven’t seen it all. I’m sure your wing is the most beautiful, though.”
Arad laughs with a click of his tongue. A scraping sound that makes my eardrums vibrate with disgust. “You’ll have to try harder than that.”
Before I can respond, a crackle cuts through the air, making me jump, and the same voice that’s dictated my entire life blares through my room.
“Eligible Chosen Ones, please report to the balconies for the Viewing. Newly Chosen Ones, please report to your hallway for further instruction.”
I didn’t realize there were intercoms within the Blood Moon Palace as well. I swivel my head around, wondering where they must be hidden. Behind the furniture? Within the walls?
Arad stands, holding out his arm as if the bastard actually wants to pretend he has manners.
I don’t take it. I simply march to my bedroom door and try not to cringe as the chill of his presence sweeps after me.
As soon as I exit, I see that the other newly Chosen Ones—as well as a few I don’t recognize—are standing in front of their own doors up and down the hallway, wringing their hands as the voice blares on. This is the first time I’ve seen them all since the blood moon, and I blink at them, my vision suddenly swaying.
The vampire venom. It must be snaking through my system again, making everyone and everything appear hazy around the edges. I need to ground myself before my body floats away.
Before I can figure out how to do that, though, the culprit himself snaps the door shut behind me, and dozens of heads crank in our direction.
Curious eyes up and down the hall rove over us. Some people smirk, others shoot daggers. My stomach bubbles like acid.Their eyes are full of judgment, envy, misconceptions—take your pick—after watching us emerge from my room together.
Arad’s breath washes over my neck when he angles his head down toward me. “They’re jealous of you. Maybe we should make that into another Cardinal Rule—don’t be jealous of a beautiful woman.”
I actually might throw up at his attempts at… what? Flirting? Flattery? I’m not even sure what his goal is, but I manage to blink up into his face innocently and make a retort under my breath. “Thirteen rules don’t really work when there’s only twelve of you.”
As soon as I say the words out loud, I realize it’s more of a threat than I intended. A reminder that one of the original Guardians died during the war with Lucan’s kind.
That a vampire can be killed.
Before Arad can voice the rage brewing in his eyes, the First Guardian sweeps into view, stopping before a pair of large, stained glass windows at the end of the hallway. He claps his hands, and everyone turns back to face him with expressions that melt back into fear.
“This will be the one and only time I address you before each Viewing, so it would be prudent to remember my advice.” As if even the robotic female voice obeys him, the speakers fall silent as soon as his words permeate the air. “Just as it is your duty to provide sustenance to the protectors of Xantera, it is also your duty to put on a smile. To wave at the lesser humans who don’t have it as good as you do.”
The warning in his voice couldn’t be more clear. This is a show, one that requires us to participate. And if we dare step out of line, we’ll find ourselves like the Chosen One they dragged out of the dining hall on the first night.
“You will file out these doors behind me in a moment,” the First Guardian continues, and I realize that the stained glass windows behind him are actually a double door that must lead out to this hallway’s balcony. “Do not give us a reason to step footoutside.”
Then the First Guardian whirls around and throws open the doors. A breeze catches the hallway, and my hair flutters over my shoulder.
Arad inhales before his fingers graze down the column of my neck. I jerk away, but I can still hear his whisper, “Remember, Saskia, how happy you are here. This is a dream come true. Show everyone that I’m the best thing that has ever happened to you. Show them in how you smile and how you wave.”
My fists are wound so tight that my nails are digging little crescents into my palms, drawing blood.
Arad laughs. “I’ll come back to taste that later.”
“Follow me,” the First Guardian announces before I can get in the last word, and we all shuffle forward toward the fresh air.
Out on the balcony, the sun kisses my skin for the first time in almost a week.
I’ve never been this highup before. To my amazement, I can actually see a slice of the world over the Wall. A blanket of treetops spreads over the valley beyond, and to my right, I can spot part of a river winding at the base of the mountains. Or at least, I think it’s a river. I’ve never seen one before, except in textbooks.
Lucan is out there right now, somewhere in those same forests. Doing what? I have no idea. I haven’t even heard his howls over the last few nights. He was so determined to get me to promise him I’d be good that he didn’t give me a chance to ask.
Up until this point, my heart has ached at the thought of him, but now my fingers clench over the railings of the balcony as I watch the trees sway and the water churn beyond the Wall—until an elbow nudges me in the side.
“Wave,” the Chosen One beside me mutters out the side of her mouth.
I jolt out of my daydream of streaking through the woods to find Lucan and bang him over the head, silently thanking the Chosen One for bringing me back to the bleak present.
