“Is this real?” Aliz asks, stealing my words before I can utter them.
“Your sister lived for nine hundred years,” Elia says from the bottom floor, sitting on a wooden table. “One collects a lot of books over the centuries.”
We make it to the bottom, and I feel the hall growing cold. Aliz is still wonderstruck, looking up at the balconies circling the hall, with their countless bookcases. “And I thought the library at home was big,” she says wistfully.
“I asked Father if we could build another wing to allow for more books, but he said no.”
The voice, with its thick continental accent, echoes against the walls. We all look up, and she’s on the second floor, legs dangling over the edge. Her white hair cascades down to her ankles, matted, full of knots. Her eyes glow bright blue.
“Hello, Ada,” Elia calls.
Chapter
Thirty-Two
Aliz stumbles back, face losing all colour as she takes in the sight of the sister she never met. Only Elia, who clearly comes here often, given the immaculate state of the library, doesn’t seem surprised by her presence.
“I don’t understand,” I say, and my words echo back at me. Ada Astra’s head snaps in my direction, her blue eyes seizing my gaze. Her whole body, I notice, glows with a faint blue shimmer. She vanishes into a cloud of blue smoke, reappearing right behindme.
“Dinner?” she asks, her incorporeal hands resting on my shoulders. Her touch is like frost against my skin. I stagger forward, trying to shake her offme.
“No, not dinner,” Elia says, in a chiding voice.
“Ghost,” Aliz chokes the word out by mistake, her voice shaking. And upon hearing her, her long-dead sister saunters towards her, causing Aliz to back away until she hits a statue. They’re both the exact same height, but where Aliz’s frame is boyish, Ada is all curves, an hourglass figure that is visible even beneath her tattered nightgown. She has sharp and angular features, a jaw and cheekbones thatcould cut glass, and sunken eyes with thick white lashes. And I’m not sure if she’s as beautiful as she is terrifying.
“Ghost?” Ada echoes the word with an almost mocking tone. She steps closer to Aliz, cocking her head to one side. “I am theheirto the Astraempire,the most powerful vampire to have graced the earth, the Dreamwalker of Rome, the—”
“Ada, dear,” Elia interrupts, her airy voice making the ghost turn. “How many times are you going to forget the fact that you are dead?”
“Oh.” The truth of her predicament doesn’t seem to faze the old heir too much; she suddenly looks down at her shimmering body and holds up her hands, seeing Aliz through them. “Who would think that bastard would dare to procreate again?” Ada asks, knowing, somehow, who Alizis.
My knees are about to give way. My head spins, because only now do I realise that I’ve been holding my breath the entire time. When I inhale, I try to do it as quietly as possible, to keep her from noticing me again. Aghost.My stomach burns, and I am certain that I’m going to be sick—certain enough that I cover my mouth as I try to calm down.
Aliz’s hands tremble, one hand gripping the bookcase behind her as she tries to believe what her eyes are seeing. Finally, she squeezes out the word: “Novér?”
Ada Astra’s expression shifts, softening just a little. The ghost’s ethereal voice switches into another language, and Aliz nods her head. She still looks like she’s about to faint, but slowly, she lets go of the bookcase behind her and focuses on her sister.
The pair speak for a minute, and Ada slowly turns to look at me as Aliz explains our situation. “Ah,” Ada finally says, vanishing and reappearing straight in front of me, her face inches from mine, her dead spirit clinging to my skin like condensation. “Whywouldn’tyou want her as your Familiar, sister? She has the eyes of a soldier. When war comes, wouldn’t you want her to fight for you? I know I would,” says the dead heir, her blue eyes not losing their unnatural hue. Does she know I’m a hunter? Has Elia told her?
I think of Ada’s own Familiar. Callisto’s founder.
“I don’t want a slave,” Aliz hisses.
“Slave?” Ada turns from me, aghast. “Oh, but she would be so much more. A Familiar is a part of your soul. And you would be a part of hers. Being able to compel her with words alone simply makes the transition easier. After a few months, she will no longer distinguish between her will and yours.”
“No,” Aliz says, all the more disturbed by the prospect.
“Well, then,” the ghost says with a sigh. “I presume you’re looking forThe Book of Blood and Roses.” She floats off, sinking through Elia, who coughs and tries to swat her away. “I won’t stop you from looking. What is mine is yours, dear sister. And this simple librarian will assist you however you need her to.” Ada’s ghost makes her way to a green sofa, and when she lies upon it, half of her body sinks through the cushions, disappearing.
Elia sits beside her and looks up at Aliz and me. “Go,” she says.
A ghost.I still can’t quite believe it. “Your sister,” I whisper, and Aliz still looks shaken. “Are you all right?” I ask her.
“Well, I used to think my father was exaggerating when he talked about her. But she really is unhinged. I don’t know how Elia can bear to be around her.”
“Me neither,” I mutter.
We split up, Aliz heading to the top floor, while I start with the first.
