Page 53 of Veradel
Leaving him behind to claw through the dirt, I race at full speed toward the river, collecting a bucket and rag from Lucan’s house along the way.
When I return, the top of Lucan’s monstrous head barely pokes out of the hole he’s already made. I drop to my knees before I dip the rag into the bucket of fresh water.
I start at Claudia’s wrists, washing away the dried blood, trying to soothe the raw skin. Next, I switch to her face and neck to wipe away the dirt caked into the lines of her skin. With my nails, I tame her knotted hair and tuck it behind her head, then smooth out her clothes.
“There,” I say quietly when I’m done. It takes another beat for me to speak again, the words stuck like a pit in my throat. Nothing justifies or makes up for this. “You won’t be forgotten,” I whisper to her. “I’ll makesure of it. I’ll tell everyone how brave and courageous you were. How you stood up for what is right and how much you sacrificed for others. How you helped end this. How you were the one behind the camera, giving them the truth.”
I halfway expect her to say something back, but of course, her lips remain still. When Lucan hoists himself out of the hole, he helps me lower her down onto the soft earth.
At least I can give her this: a place of eternity to rest instead of a stone garden where she’d be a decoration for the Guardians, like my mother. I think she would have preferred it this way, even if I never really got the chance to get to know her within those palace walls.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper again, for the last time. Because even if Claudia knew the risks, I was the one who told her about the Chosen Ones turning to stone and came up with the idea to reveal the truth. The only way I can avenge her death now is by making sure she didn’t die in vain.
When Lucan and I are done blanketing her in the loose earth and placing a stone overtop her grave, he sucks in a breath and brings out something pinched between his fingers.
The crimson vial that used to hang from my necklace, before he snapped it off.
“Taika gave this back to me, and I’ve been hanging on to it, just in case…” His eyes rove over my chest, where the vial used to sit.Just in case this new communication between us quit working and you needed it back,he doesn’t have to say. “But now,” he continues, “I think it’s time to put my grandfather’s blood back where it belongs.”
As the wind makes the branches beyond the graveyard creak, Lucan leads me to a pair of gravestones a few rows away from Claudia’s. They’re weathered from time, patches of algae growing in various spots despite the fresh bouquets of wildflowers lying at the base of each one. Unlike the nameless Chosen One graves, these ones are labeled.
WARREN VERADEL
ADRIAN VERADEL
“My father’s body is buried here,” Lucan says, nodding at Warren’s headstone, “but we didn’t have anything to bury my grandfather with. Until now.”
Slowly, he bends and places the vial of blood in the middle of all those wildflowers, and it looks… perfect. Exactly where it was always meant to be.
A rustle sounds behind us. I whip around, my nerves still on edge, but it’s just a couple dozen pairs of amber eyes blinking at us from the edge of the cemetery. The other pack members, come to pay their respects to their ancient king who is finally resting in some semblance of peace.
Swallowing the scream I want to fling back at the Guardians for all they’ve taken away, I turn toward Lucan, something much different hovering on my lips.
Half of me feels like now isn’t the right time to be declaring anything heartfelt, when we just buried a woman who might have been my friend in another life.
The other half of me knows that it’salwaysthe right time to tell someone you love them.
So I do.
“I love you, too,” I declare, raising myself on tiptoes to press my lips to his. Lucan captures my kiss with a surprised widening of his eyes before closing them, gripping me tighter, the centrifuge in my cloak’s inner pocket pressing between us. “I love you,” I mutter against his neck, “and I should have said it earlier. Life is too short, too fleeting not to—”
I choke on those last words, and Lucan pulls back to swipe a gritty thumb along my cheekbone, wiping away the single tear that spilled over.
“Then we have a weapon the Guardians could never see coming,” he whispers back.
Realizing what he means, I suck in a breath and nod. Arad might know I’m a vampire now, but I’m willing to bet he could never predict the depth of the love I have for the Monster. Or how much he has for me.
And together, we’re going to avenge Claudia and all the others who have suffered.
I just hope like hell the object in my pocket was worth it.
Just as the new morning sun crests above the Wall, Saskia places a handful of bottles and a little machine on the workbench in Taika’s patient room.
I hover, crowding her and staring at it in awe.
It’s not much. Just a foot long, a foot wide, maybe half a foot high. It has a few buttons on the front screen, and the little gray door on top is transparent. But apparently, it spins really fast.
“Sit,” Saskia demands, wheeling around. She pushes me down by the shoulders into the woven chair, and I obey upon contact, the backs of my knees knocking against the hard wooden edge.
