Page 15 of The Vampire Castle in the Sky

Avision of myself standing in the middle of the Castle’s library pierced me right between the eyes, and I decided it was probably wiser not to go against what fate had already written.

Perhaps the wordvisionwas a bit dramatic, but I didn’t know how else to describe the nature of my magic. First, I would get this tingling sensation at the nape of my neck, which would quickly shift into a feeling of weightlessness. Then the physical world would wash away, and scenes from the future would unravel before my wide-open eyes. Scenes that were often so brief and trivial that I almost felt like a fraud calling them visions and myself a real seer.

On the cusp ofsomething—that was how I felt inside my skin. I spent every hour of every day waiting for the truth of my life to crack open and reveal itself to me.

Regardless, I gathered my skirts and stormed up the stairs, following the corridor that used to lead to the library, various lounging rooms, and the ballroom. After that I knew that another sweeping staircase led even higher to the observatory and Esperida’s study, but I was certain the vision, no matter how fleeting, had shown me the library, for I’d gotten a glimpse ofan impossibly high ceiling, black as the night sky and encrusted with just as many stars.

The familiar door with its gilded frame inlaid with whorls of nacre emerged at the end of the corridor, grand and mysterious like a portal to another world.

I hesitated before it with a ribbon of anxiety wrapped around my heart.

You shouldn’t have come, Thea. There is nothing left for you here.

I wasn’t sure if the feelings Hector had harbored for me once were as passionate as he’d described, but I did know his pride was formidable enough to have erased every trace of them after our separation. I also knew that pushing people away was what Hector did best. He never burdened others with the things he thought he could handle himself. He never said,I’m tired,orI’m lost,orI’m heartbroken. He never asked for help. So, now, I was going to ask forhishelp. I was going to stay here becauseIneeded him. And if somewhere along the way he realized that he, too, needed someone to get through this, then I would be right here, by his side.

I took a heartening breath and opened the door.

The room was… different, as most things about the Castle were. Yes, the expansive walls were still covered with towering bookshelves stuffed full of books, promising you a sweet escape into the boundless realm of imagination, and yes, the ceiling was still a dark dome, holding the moon and all the other twinkling mysteries of the sky, but no celestial bodies were dancing amid the clouds, no glowing star was flooding the room in silver light. They were magnificently painted, but they were notalive.

Even the grand fireplace, which occupied most of the wall left from the door, was hollow and lightless behind its hive-like screen. In fact, the only light came from the stainedglass window, casting cobweb shadows over the mahogany bookshelves.

Before me sprawled a series of cushioned couches and armchairs, floating over a sea of elegant rugs. The little wooden tables between them were all littered with stacks of books, unlit candles, and porcelain vases holding bouquets of dead roses. And in the center of it all, on a large velvet couch, lay Hector, absorbed in a massive black book. On the side table next to him, a half-empty cup of blood glinted vividly, and as I sailed a bit closer, I was pleased to see that the purple shadows beneath his eyes had vanished and the color had returned to his face.

Well, at least he was no longer starving himself.

See? I was good for him. The idiot needed me here. He just didn’t know it yet.

Hector changed the page on the book with an indolent flick of his thumb, continuing to ignore me.

“So,” I prompted, strolling inside the room with my arms wrapped around my middle for some warmth. “Are you going to tell me what happened to the Castle?”

“Whatever do you mean?”

“Well, it’s cold and drab and miserable.”

“It can also hear you.”

“And what’s with all the ugly paintings?” I persisted. “How can you even sleep with all these red-eyed skulls watching you day and night?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, what exactly did you want the Castle to display for you in its moment of grief? Baskets of kittens? Beach landscapes? Perhaps one of those caricatures of half-naked men one finds in the backs of those infernal books you like so much?”

“Donotinsult my books.”

The way he returned his attention to that ridiculous tome of his without so much as a hum of acknowledgment was a study in indifference.

“Insufferable man,” I hissed, whirling around.

I intended to go down to the kitchen and look for some firewood. But then I noticed it. Atop the pedestal by the door, the roses inside the small crystal vase were in bloom.

Slowly, I veered again, my mouth falling open as I watched the bookshelves lit up from within, the countless rows of books glowing vibrant and precious all around me. The sky above exploded like a firework, stars twinkling softly in the tender hands of the Castle’s eternal night. Under the sea of stars, the sea of candles flickered to life, tiny flames bobbing up one by one. Next to them, the dead bouquets unfurled into blooming buds, dark red and pulsing like my heart, which was about to grow wings and fly up into the coruscating ceiling.

The sudden uproar of the fire made me spin once more as crackling flames emerged on the hearth, painting the screen a dreamy russet and enclosing the room in a wonderfully balmy embrace.

I could not remember the last time I’d felt such overwhelming joy. Perhaps it was the last time I’d been here, in this very room, when Hector and I were still friends and life was more dream and less responsibility.

I heaved a sigh. It felt as though I hadn’t taken a breath in four years. The smells of the Castle filled my lungs. Woodsmoke and roses and the magic of it all.

“Hello, old friend,” I whispered, grinning so wide my cheeks hurt.

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