“Yeah. I like that idea.” He turned his yellow eyes to me. “Whatever happens, we’re gonna get her out of here. I promise.”
I nodded. I wasn’t sure if he believed it or not. I wasn’t even able to fake such assertions.
“I also want to reiterate how much I love you.”
His words were the first thing that had been able to cut through the fear since we’d left Newton and Caitlin arguing back on the edge of the forest. As much terror as I felt, I had no other option. Cynthia was in there, taken by the ones we’d been taught to fear more than any other. It had been impossible to even consider leaving her or waiting to see the next step the vampires would take after nearly killing my parents and taking my sister. This was the only outcome. Not so for Schwint. He hadn’t even known me two months yet and had only met Cynthia once, if you could even count the bakery debacle as a formal introduction. He should have turned tail and run, gotten lost to the allure and haze of Spor, and found another lover in the back rooms of the Square.
I searched his face, fear pushed away. Regardless of the hurdles we would face in our relationship or what the ins and outs of that union would look like, he was here beside me, walking into a situation that could be the death of him. For what? The only other person I’d really loved hadn’t been able to refrain from running away, even without the threat of me bringing the vampiric Royals down upon him. Actually, it had been the other way around. And now, here I was, getting ready to face the evil that wouldn’t even know my name if it hadn’t been for Brett. And where was he?
“Thank you.”
Schwint grinned. “Don’t thank me yet. Save it until we get through this.”
“No, not for that.” I reached over, wrapping my arms around him and pulling him into me. “Thank you for loving me so much.”
He raised his hand and rested his palm on my cheek, his thumb brushing away a tear I hadn’t been aware of. He didn’t say a word. His warm eyes held mine before his lids closed slowly. The hand on my cheek slipped around to the back of my head and pulled me forward until my lips met his, trembling slightly.
A wave of strength, not fire, flowed through me at the kiss. As prone as I was to jumping in too fast, falling before thinking, I had no doubt this was the man I would spend my life with. That life might be the next sixty years or the next sixty minutes. I no longer had any question in the back of my mind.
He pulled back. “Shall we?”
As we separated from the embrace, we found each other’s hands and held fast as we entered the crevice.
Sunlight filtered in, enough to see that the path in the rock quickly jutted off to the left, obliterating everything but a soft reflected glow. Only hesitating a second, we turned the corner together. Torches lit the winding corridor through the stone as it zigzagged through the mountain. In places, the path narrowed to the point that we could no longer walk side by side, but never enough that we needed to turn sideways to squeeze through. The fissure continued to stretch up twenty to thirty feet over our heads, allowing my typical claustrophobia response to be held at bay.
After less than a quarter of a mile, the torches gave way to daylight pouring through around the bend up ahead. We paused as we came to the end of the tunnel. I took a deep breath and felt Schwint squeeze my hand, and we stepped out into the sun.
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the bright sunlight, and I had to blink several times before any shapes formed into something recognizable.
It seemed fairy eyesight came with no such limitations. “Now, that’s more like it.” Schwint was quiet, in awe.
Eyes watering, I took in the scene in front of us. From the look of things, what we had just traveled through had been what appeared from a distance to be one of the foothills. Across a wide forested courtyard rose the stone-spired mountain. The Vampire Cathedral. The mist was clear until my gaze rose to the very top, which was hidden from view. From between the boulder turrets and sweeping stone arches, there were gashes in the side of the mountain, through which I could see the golden fixtures inside. In some I was able to make out faces staring down at us. Others were filled with sparking crystals of every color imaginable.
Bringing my gaze down, I saw what had captured Schwint’s attention. At the end of the black stone path was an arched gate rising twenty feet in the air. At first it looked like a flattened sphere of lava, but after a second I made sense of the fiery, churning maelstrom. Molten oxidized copper swirled in upon itself, looking like waves making their way down to the ground, leaving enough gaps between the eddies to see glimpses into the Cathedral beyond.
Taking in his surroundings in an opposite pattern than I, Schwint gestured toward one of the window-like openings in the mountain. “It seems they are indeed aware of our arrival.”
I followed his gaze to one of the faces I’d noticed before. A movement to our right caught my attention. Turning toward the forest, at first I didn’t see anything. Another movement and I found her. A woman stepped from the trees, her modern white sheath dress looking out of place in such a setting. As she walked closer to us, she moved into a patch of sunlight that broke through the trees, and her long blonde hair shimmered alluringly in the light. Expecting a goddess in such surroundings, I had to stifle a look of surprise as I gazed at her face. Aphrodite she was not. Unlike demons, who as fallen angels are the most beautiful creatures on earth, vampires are no more beautiful or ugly than they had been in their human existence. While not repulsive, I wondered what had captivated a vampire to the point it desired to turn her into an immortal. While the few vampires I’d seen hadn’t been much on the beauty spectrum, they’d been run-of-the-mill vampires. This female was obviously a Royal, as she wasn’t bursting into flames in the sunlight. I’d expected more.
As if reading my mind, her upper lip rose, exposing glistening white fangs. I averted my eyes, trying to convince my pounding heart that they hadn’t brought me here to make me an appetizer before I’d even entered the Cathedral.
Either Schwint didn’t notice or he wasn’t concerned about the hostile vampire striding toward us. He kept us walking toward the gate.
A few feet away, a seam that had been invisible before emerged as the gate began to separate, moving barely enough to allow us entrance in single file.
We stepped into the heart of the Cathedral, and I wanted to look around, take in the ceiling I could tell was soaring above us, or find out what was causing the iridescent-colored lights shimmering over the stone floor. Unable to look away, my gaze was captured by the figure in front of us.
Now, these clothes suited the surroundings. Long, flowing robes cascaded down the girl’s thin body, parting at her waist and trailed several yards behind her. Deep-red cloth, with gold and silver swirls embroidered over every inch of the fabric, intermingled with clusters of diamonds wherever a new twist in the design began. Under the robe, her chest was bare, and coal-black skin glistened in the flickering light of the room. The only other clothing was a simple white skirt that fell just above the knees, revealing nubile calves and gold-sandaled feet.
At last, I forced my gaze up to the queen’s face, knowing this might be the instant Schwint and I would die for whatever whim had summoned me here.
My mind screamed for me to get control of my expression, but I knew I hadn’t reacted in time. Circuits blew in my brain at the face that stared back at me. Not a queen. Not a princess. A boy. Maybe a young-looking teenager, a very young-looking teenager. As if seeking confirmation, my betraying gaze flitted to the uncovered chest. Thin and willowy but definitely that of a male, of a boy. I forced my eyes back up to meet the black gaze.
The boy began to walk toward us, the long train of his robe brushing the stone floor as he moved. “Welcome, Finn de Morisco. I appreciate the expedience of your arrival.” The soft timbre of his voice would have had me glancing at his chest again to confirm I hadn’t mistaken his sex. Instead, I felt myself bristle at his easy welcome. No mention of nearly killing my parents or forcing my compliance by kidnapping my sister. None of that, only thanking me for being quick.
If he noticed my anger, he didn’t let on. “My name is Gwala. I am King of the Royals.” He made a sweeping gesture across the vast expanse of the room. Out of my peripheral vision I could see we were encircled by vampires. He let out a soft, feminine laugh. “King of all vampires. Of all creatures that inhabit the earth, actually.” He paused, eyebrow cocked in anticipation.
Hesitantly, I looked around, unsure of what he was expecting. I hadn’t heard a question. The few vampiric faces my brain registered sneered in contempt. Sweeping my eyes across the room, I noticed Schwint bowing at the waist, his wings folded back and jutting parallel to the floor. He turned his head ever so slightly, caught my gaze, and he gestured with his chin toward the king.
