‘In exchange,’ I repeated, louder this time, ‘I will marry you.’
He tried to sit up, then fell back down.The pain wasn’t enough to dull his smile.It shone bright enough to light up even the darkest of crypts.
‘It’s a deal.’
Thirty-Three
WE REMAINED IN THEcrypt until Moira found us lying side by side, delirious in joy and relief while we waited for our injuries to heal enough to tackle the monumental task of walking upstairs.She was covered in so much ash her hair had turned grey and there were bloody claw marks down one arm, but she was very much alive.She didn’t stop running when she spotted us, instead hurling herself onto the floor beside Raleigh.
‘I thought you were dead, you idiot!’
Yann appeared at the base of the stairs in time for Moira to shoot him an accusatory glare.‘You told me he was dying.’
‘Hewasdying.’
‘Oh, I am quite dead,’ Raleigh said lightly.‘Clara made sure of that.’
I grinned as Moira raised her leaking face to me.I hadn’t worked out how to retract my fangs yet.They were the first things she’d see.‘Don’t kill me,’ I said.
‘When did you have time to— Actually, never mind.You can explain it all later.If you’re not on the brink of death, you can help us upstairs.’
She and Yann helped us both to our feet.Raleigh’s eyes lost focus from the pain, but he remained gallantly upright.My ankle protested, but it felt more like an old sprain than shattered bone.I could walk, slowly, though with each step my throat felt ever drier.
As we walked, I studied Yann for any visible trace of what was going through his head.No one could be more justified than him in wanting Raleigh dead, and yet he’d brought Moira to us.Perhaps more incredibly, the enchantment had let him find my room during the battle.I opened my mouth, but didn’t know what to say.Then I stopped altogether.
‘Could I have a word with you, Yann?’I flicked my eyes to Raleigh and Moira.‘Alone.’
Moira furrowed her brows and opened her mouth to say something I knew I wouldn’t want to hear, but Raleigh cut her off.‘We’ll see you upstairs,’ he said simply, then urged Moira along with him, leaving me alone with my former fiancé.Yann looked like he would rather follow them.
‘Thank you,’ I said once they’d vanished around the corner.‘You saved us all.We’d be dead if you hadn’t arrived when you did.’
‘I saved you,’ he said.‘You savedhimyourself.’
He hadn’t changed, then.It was a strange relief to hear the familiar bitterness in his voice.
He closed his eyes, then sighed.‘You’re about to break off our engagement, aren’t you?’
I felt a pang of shame.It hadn’t occurred to me that he’d still think we were engaged, but of course he would.When we last met he thought I was entranced; he wouldn’t have taken my words seriously.‘I’m sorry,’ I said.
He was quiet for a very long time.‘Do you remember, when we first met the prince, when he first returned to the valley?’
I nodded.I remembered the night vividly, down to the taste of the krapfen we’d shared on Yann’s doorstep.
‘I’ve never forgotten the face you made when you first saw him.You loved him, right from the start.’
That was ridiculous.‘I wasten.Do you know what a handsome prince looks like to a ten-year-old girl?’
‘Yes,’ he said.‘You used to look at me the same way when you told me you loved me.’
I froze, not sure how to respond.
‘You were always obsessed with him,’ he went on.‘You’d bring him up, all the time, even after Juri banned us from speaking about him.Maybe it’s my fault.When you were grieving I thought the stories of him being a monster would cheer you up, but you never let them go.’
‘There was a vampire prince living on the mountain who we thought was slowly killing the entire town,’ I reminded him.‘Did you expect me to go about my life like that was normal?’
‘No one thought it was normal.Obviously we all talked about him when you and Juri weren’t around.But you fixate on things, Clara, you always have, and there was a passion in the way you hated that no one else shared.And you never showed that passion when you talked about me.’
I stared at him, horrified at myself, stricken with grief for him.There was nothing I could say in my defence.Even on the day he’d proposed, how many times had my thoughts turned to Raleigh?‘I did love you,’ I said, truthfully.
