Chapter 31
The days here blend together. Floor after floor, room after room, I keep exploring. The higher I go, the smaller the bedrooms become—and the more statuesque I find the Chosen Ones lying in their beds.
On the topmost floor, I find most of the rooms empty, and the few people I do find are so rigid under their sheets, with the faintest, slowest heartbeats I’ve ever witnessed, that it takes me minutes to even be certain they’re alive at all.
While there’s been no sign of my mother or Diggory, I won’t give up until I’ve searched every room in this godforsaken palace.
I take my meals in my room, thanks to Eleni, to avoid running in to any of the vampires in the dining room.
But asking her any further questions has proved fruitless.
She doesn’t make any more attempts to communicate with me, despite my rambling, and I’ve hidden the necklace away from her in fear that she’ll feel obligated to turn me in to the Guardians.
Most importantly, I haven’t run into Arad—well, until today. My first Sanctuary Sunday as a Chosen One.
Even though I can sense him as soon as I open my bedroom door, I still gasp when my eyes find him comfortably splayed out in my armchair in the corner.
A sharp pain of fear cracks inside my stomach, but I won’t be the first to speak—because I know as soon as I open my mouth, I’ll keep pushing. And even though I didn’t promise Lucan anything, my heart still wants to be good for him.
I wish he were here now. It takes everything in me to keep my eyes trained on Arad and not glance at my mattress, where the necklace is hidden underneath.
Arad’s crimson eyes lazily take me in, his elbow perched on the armrest, his fingers pressed against his disturbing smirk.
“I require more blood, Saskia.” His voice slides into the air between us, more soft and soothing than the angry way his face contorts at the sight of me. “And I don’t like having to wait.”
“You’d think someone who’s supposed to live forever would have a little more patience,” I dare to say, striding over to the edge of my bed with my head held high.
My confidence wavers when Arad rises and situates himself next to me on the mattress. It dips deeply from both our weights, and I have to lock up my muscles to avoid falling into him.
I bite back a gag when his fingers skim down my arm until he grips my wrist and pulls it to his freezing cold lips.
I jerk my head away, refusing to watch as those fangs pierce my skin and the suction tugs at my arm. Instead, I let my mind wander to the only one who makes any of this bearable.
Lucan checks in with me every night to make sure I’m okay, but my poor attempts at flirting to get him to stay go absolutely nowhere. Each time he leaves me again, a new weight seems to drop into my stomach.
I miss him. And I shouldn’t. I shouldn’t want him this much. Because if I ever do find a way to escape, I’m still going to turn to stone, and Lucan will blame himself—even though he shouldn’t. I don’t want to go back to the way I was before, blissfully ignorant.
So if I have to endure this as a means to an end, then so be it.
After Arad retracts his razor sharp fangs from my vein, his tongue swipes along the two reopened wounds along my inner wrist. His pleased hum vibrates up to my shoulder before he releases me.
“I want this more than once a week, Saskia,” he says, dropping my arm back to my side. He doesn’t let go, though. His thumb rubs a circle over my pulse, and I imagine vomiting all over his lap. “But at the same time, I want to savor you.”
Actually, good thing Lucan’s not here right now to overhear this.
Scoffing, I wrench my arm away. “And if I refuse? What? You’ll throw me over the Wall?”
“Don’t tempt me,” Arad replies smoothly.
My heart ticks against my sternum as Diggory flashes through my mind. Maybe, if I can get Arad to keep talking… “I thought only prisoners go over the Wall. That’s what they teach us in school.”
“Prisoners are disposed of,” he says, “in any manner we see fit. The Wall is just my favorite option.”
I briefly wonder if anything that comes out of his mouth is ever the truth. My anger hardens. “What happened to all of those Chosen Ones who lie in bed all day? Which option is that?”
Arad sears a look into me, his pupils like pinpricks that make me want to shutter my eyes. I resist.
“If they want to laze around in bed all day, then who are we to stop them? It’s their choice. They don’t have to explore the palace.” He pauses briefly to lick his lips. “Unlike you. I’ve noticed you’re taking advantage of your freedom. Tell me, Saskia, what’s your favorite part of your new home?”
The way he says home makes me shudder, as if what he meant was graveyard instead. But an idea pops into my head, so I force my mouth to move.
“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 foot outside.”
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 high up 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.