Chapter 34
I land on my knees. My bones rattle, and my stomach drops. I clutch the dirt for purchase, then look up at massive gates and the castle behind them. We were in the forest a moment ago … and now we’re in front of a sprawling estate. I blink.
“You—you portaled us?” It isn’t a word I’ve ever used outside of the context of my mother’s passed-down stories, or when my sister and I would imagine opening a door and entering another world entirely.
“The blade did,” he says sharply, before walking through the gates, which open at his approach.
I look around. Raker is nowhere to be seen.
“He’ll be in the stables, as suggested,” Vander Evren mumbles from up ahead. I swallow. He’s going to be really fucking unhappy about that when he wakes. If he does.
Panic is like ice through my blood.
Raker needs medicine. This immortal I was warned never to summon is our best bet. I just have to convince him to give it to me.
Vander Evren’s castle is crafted of glimmering light gray stone, with tall arching windows, and over a dozen gray-blue turrets with blade-sharp points. It sits like a beast, taller than that massive bear in the skyquill forest, with spires that brush the lowest clouds.
I can imagine a ball taking place here just as much as I can imagine it becoming a fortress.
I follow Vander down the pine-lined path, through a courtyard, up stone steps, and past towering silver doors.
The ceilings are impossibly high, sculpture carved into the corners. There’s a front room, then a glorious double staircase, hewn from pure marble—white, infused with silver veins like bolts of lightning.
Vander looks over at me, gaze snagging on my dirt-crusted clothes and still-bloody hand. “Attendants will see to your needs. Then dine with me.” He turns and makes to go upstairs. I know I’m supposed to wait here, for his attendants. But I take a step after him.
It’s a risk. He could kick me out of his estate for disobeying him, or—more in keeping with the fact that the hunter seemed to fear even his name—slay me where I stand.
But Vander just sighs. He grips the marble banister so hard that his already-pale knuckles get whiter.
By the tense set of his wide shoulders, he looks one moment from either cutting me down or simply snapping at me.
Luckily, he picks the later.
“What—”
“I need medicine,” I say quickly.
He frowns, looking over at me in a cursory way. His brow raises. “You’re sick?”
“Not for me.”
That makes him pause. I see a shadow of interest pass across his face. “You care for that knight?”
My laugh seems to startle him. “I care about making it to the end of the Questral.”
I get the sense that Vander’s patience and attention are as thin as needle thread.
His eyes are sparkling light blue, the color of the sky here on the clearest day, but they hold no warmth.
They’re as cold as ice as he looks me over, as if I’ve already wasted enough of his time.
“Dine with me. Then we’ll discuss the medicine. ” He turns back toward the stairs.
Ordering me. All these people, always fucking ordering me. I should probably be thankful for it, I should just shut up and listen, but I have met enough powerful men to know that they are all capable of steamrolling right over a woman’s voice the moment they think she won’t speak up for something.
“And if I don’t want to?”
That makes him go predatorially still. When he turns around again, he looks not only angry but also genuinely confused. “I am heir of the most powerful house on Starside. It is an honor to dine with me.”
I laugh. I can’t help it. “Wow. Most powerful house on Starside …” I shake my head. “I’m sorry, was I supposed to bow?”
Silence.
The entire house seems to go still, as if the stone is listening.
Maybe, on second thought, it wasn’t a good idea insulting the heir of the most powerful house on Starside in his own home, while I’m in need of medicine and Raker is at death’s door.
What would he do? He certainly wouldn’t cower before this immortal.
Confidence I didn’t have before holds me still. Keeps me from backing down. I hold his gaze, waiting for his next move, hoping it won’t be reaching for his godsword.
But Vander simply frowns. “What a strange human,” he says.
I glare at him. “What a proud immortal.”
He takes a step down the stairs toward me. “Stellan didn’t teach you many survival instincts, did he?”
My chin lifts. “He taught me not to bow before bastards.”
At that, the ghost of amusement plays on his lips. “Stellan would never bow before anyone.”
He’s right. The fact that he knows that makes a strange mix of pain and comfort run through me. Like part of Stellan is here. Like I’ve finally met someone who knew him as I did. “And neither will I.”
“I didn’t ask you to.”
I snort. “Your attitude practically commands it.”
I can see my pushing has limits when a flash of irritation passes across his expression.
His eyes narrow. “I don’t think you understand how lucky you are to be alive.
I could sense at least five different creatures and warrior sects in those woods, all headed toward you.
Not to mention the cavalry.” He studies me again, as if searching for what could possibly make me that special.
His gaze is piercing. I feel the power around him in my very marrow.
He’s right, of course. But just like any predator in the wild, he will sense my fear or hesitance and take it as weakness. I try my best to look casual and unaffected. He can’t know how desperate we are for his help. How Raker will die without his medicine.
I shrug. “What can I say? Apparently, my head is worth a lot.” My own eyes sharpen. “Is that why you saved us? Are you going to turn us in for the reward?”
His lip curls in disgust. “I don’t need a bounty.”
“Right. Heir of the most powerful house on Starside. I almost forgot. It’s a good thing I’m sure you’ll be constantly reminding me.”
He sighs in a long-suffering way. But he hasn’t killed me yet.
All because of Stellan. They must have—somehow—become friends, during the quest. His eyes shut tightly, and I’m sure he regrets ever responding to that call in the forest. Finally, in a manner that suggests it’s almost impossible for him to get the words out, he says, “Will you dine with me?”
He opens his eyes when I don’t immediately respond. They are fierce, and confused, as if saying, I just gave you what you wanted. Now respond the way I want you to.
I have a feeling that being here will be filled with winning and losing battles. This, I think, is something easy to agree to.
“Yes,” I say. “I’m starving.”
He sighs again.
“But at least give him tea for the fever. Please.” I’m not sure Raker will make it even a few hours without it.
His eyes narrow. “Fine.”
I try not to show my knee-wobbling relief.
Then, Vander shifts his grip on the hilt of his weapon, and I tense, but a moment later, an attendant walks through the door, as if called. By his sword?
“Ethel. If you would please show—” He frowns, turning back to me.
“Aris,” I say.
He frowns even more after hearing my name. “Aris to the guest chambers.”
The woman looks like she would rather do anything else, but she bows and strides forward. She practically drags me away from Vander, past him, and up the stairs.
“I can walk myself, I assure you,” I say, yanking my arm back after her nails sink into it.
She just huffs at me. I wonder if Ethel is this unpleasant to everyone or if I have somehow already made her dislike me. Perhaps she heard my conversation with Vander.
His castle, I admit, is commensurate with his ego. It is enormous.
The halls are made of marble as cold and pale as its owner. We stride down a grand hall, and the immortal woman turns toward me, eyes narrowed. “Your insolence will not be tolerated,” she spits.
I raise a brow at her. So, she did hear our conversation. She seems unconcerned by the blade on my back. Her glare, I think, is practically just as sharp.
My silence only makes her angrier. “Do you know anything about the lord?”
I snort. “Do you really call him that?”
“Of course we do. He’s the greatest heir of the last millennium.”
I roll my eyes. “So I’ve heard. Have you even been alive a millennium?”
She bares her teeth at me. “Lord Evren is the only reason any of us is alive. He does not make us call him ‘lord,’ but we do, because he has given every part of himself for us. In ways you could never understand.”
Interesting.
“He was about to leave me for dead,” I offer.
She lazily looks me over. “You’re human. How much time do you have left, anyway?”
My glare casts flames. She doesn’t look at me again, but turns down another hall, then opens two towering double doors with more force than necessary. “Here,” she says, before turning on her heel and leaving me, grumbling something about already being busy enough with preparations for a houseguest.
I’ve spent nights on cave floors, in cold waters, in ethereal woods, against a rock face with a ruthless warrior pressed against me. I’ve seen magnificence.
Nothing compares to this.
It isn’t a room—it’s a wing. I walk through space after space, all crafted out of white and silver-speckled marble.
There aren’t many attendants, at least from what I’ve seen. If this castle is full of rooms like these … it would be impossible to keep them maintained.
The bed is a monstrosity, with columns and sparkling fabrics cloaking it. The windows are enormous, showcasing a garden that is manicured to perfection. Right now, at dusk, the statues and ponds and shapes are shrouded in darkness. I wonder what they look like in the sunlight.
The bathroom is almost as big as the main room. A white claw-foot tub sits in the center of it.
Another attendant must have been in here, I think, as the tub is already full of steaming water. It doesn’t have flower petals like the one in the Traveling City, but there is a sparkling dust like crushed diamonds swirling on the water’s surface.