“We should get going,” I force myself to say as my cheeks grow hot. “They’re almost across.” Somehow time seems to have slowed from the moment he scooped me up until now. What was only a minute, seconds perhaps, felt like a small eternity he and I shared.
“We should,” he agrees, sounding somewhat…forlorn? Before I can linger on it, Ruvan leaps onto the beam. I tighten my grip slightly. He chuckles and the sound is inside of me as much as I hear it. “Don’t you trust me?”
“Obviously I do. But I don’t like how helpless I feel like this.” The ground is very far away, and while his steps are confident, it’s hard not feeling the snow or ice, not knowing if I am one second from plummeting.
“Shall I put you down?”
“Don’t you dare.” I glare up at him.
He smirks, but keeps his focus ahead. The expression slowly fades when we’re about halfway across. “I must apologize for making you do this on your own the first time.”
“You thought I was a hunter.”
“Even if you were a hunter, this was too risky for a human.”
“It was. But I’m fine. All’s well that ends well.”
“All’s well that ends well,” he repeats. “I like that expression.”
“Haven’t you heard it before?” I ask. He shakes his head. “It’s a fairly common one.”
“In your world, perhaps.”
I hum. “I wonder just how much there is we don’t know about each other’s worlds, still.”
“A good many, wonderful things, I think.” He smiles slightly.
Our conversation is cut short by our arrival at the far end, where Winny and Callos are waiting. Ruvan puts me down gently and we head inside. We roam back through the hallways and rooms, back up to the first hall I arrived at. The sword I brandished against Ruvan is still on the floor, discarded. I can’t help but smile at it now.
“We’ll go first and scout it out. Take the attention of any Succumbed,” Winny says, walking toward the far end of the room. I notice a small circle of stones I hadn’t before. She stands in the center and disappears with a smoky cloud.
“That’s the opening in the castle’s barriers?” I surmise.
“It is,” Ruvan affirms as Callos steps away. “Are you ready?” Ruvan extends a hand to me.
“I am.” My fingers slide against his and he guides me to the circle.
In a moment, I breathe shadow and darkness, bracing myself for whatever this mysterious “museum” holds.
CHAPTER28
I standin a city of stone and ice. Frost lines doorways and sills; ancient stalagmites hold fast to balconies, making idle threats with their dangerously sharp points. City buildings I saw from the castle are more massive than I could’ve imagined. They tower over me, several stories tall. The fortress in Hunter’s Hamlet is only four stories at its tallest point and for all my life I thought it was the highest building that could be made.
Turning, I take it all in. The silence. The snowfall glittering in the sunlight, dancing on my lashes and swirling in my clouded breaths.
“Welcome to the city proper. Tempost, the cradle of the vampir.” Ruvan releases my hand.
“It’s…” The shining spires, the glistening cobblestones, the ironwork that scrolls down the building’s sides…the beauty of it steals my breath.
“It’s not much, not now. But before—”
“It’s stunning.” I find my voice again.
Ruvan’s surprised silence relaxes into an easy smile. He seems lighter outside the castle, stands a little taller. “I’m glad you like it.”
“What was it like before the long night?” I ask.
Ruvan’s gaze grows soft and distant. He stares down the silent streets. “The truth is, not even I really know.”
