CHAPTER29
I should have swungwhen I had the chance. I should have sunk my sickle right into Ventos’s smart mouth. I ease out of my stance; Ruvan does as well.
“I wanted to show her the cavern,” Ruvan answers, even though I’m the one Ventos is staring down.
“She has no business here.”
“She does if I say so.”
“I don’t mind leaving,” I interject. Both of their attention is on me. “Despite what you might think, Ventos, my goal isn’t to make you uncomfortable.”
“No, your goal is to kill us.”
“I’m not trying to kill any of you.” Not anymore, at least. Though Ventos keeps testing my resolve.
“No more.” Ruvan rests a firm palm on Ventos’s shoulder, giving the hulking man a shake. “She is not your enemy.”
Ventos looks from Ruvan to me. “If you step out of line in here, even just a toe, I will kill you. I don’t care if you’re the bloodsworn of the current lord. I wouldn’t care if you were the queen of the vampir herself. I will kill you.” This isn’t an idle threat. He’s not trying to make me feel strong or bolster himself. This is a firm and resolute promise. Calm and assured in its deadliness.
“Vento—”
Before Ruvan can finish, Ventos has already stomped away, his form becoming hazy among the chill that curls in the air almost like frost, illuminated unnaturally by the jagged points of crystal. The vampir lord turns to me. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? I don’t begrudge him his skepticism.”
“You don’t?”
I shrug. “I had been planning on finding a way to kill you the second the oath was over.”
Ruvan blinks, shock passing across his face quickly before he releases the tension with a low chuckle. “The thought crossed my mind, too.”
“Good to know we had so much in common from the start.”
“Ah, yes, both contemplating murder, a smart match made right there.” Ruvan holds out his elbow. “If you’re still willing to see, I’d like to show you my people.”
I take his elbow and enter a cavern colder than death.
Everything is awash in a faint red glow. But the light is so faint that it cannot reach the cavernous ceiling overhead, nor the walls on either side. The space is so vast it seems as if it goes on for infinity. I blink, forcing my eyes to adjust, leveraging the magic Ruvan gave me to see. But even I can’t see to the farthest reaches.
The glow is emitted by jagged points of what look like rubies the size of people. I nearly trip down the short stairs to the floor of the room as I realize—there are people. Hundreds of them.
I cross over to one of the vampir, frozen in time. It’s a man with his arms folded over his chest. He’s suspended just off the ground, the crystal built up slightly underneath his heels and toes. Small orchids bud up around the base of the crystal, also glowing, and emitting a faint, floral aroma. He seems peaceful, as if he’s sleeping. I tilt my head this way and that, getting a better look through the jagged edges and smooth planes of the chrysalis.
Ruvan allows me my inspection and then continues to lead me through the rows of sleeping people of all shapes, sizes, and colors. I’ve never imagined a place of so many people. But it would take a mighty population to fill the streets above. “This is…everyone?”
“This is only a third of what we were. And these are just the people we could save. The people who could be rounded up fast enough and who could manage the blood rites to slumber through the long night.” He comes to a stop before a book positioned on a pedestal at the center of the room. People are missing in rungs out from the tome—jagged crystals on the floor, no longer glowing and as dark as old blood, are the only remnants of hundreds.
“Did the magic fail at one point?” I ask.
“No, these are the ones who were awoken. The lords and ladies and their covenants who came before us.” Ruvan sighs. “About every eighty to a hundred years, assuming everything goes right, the guardians and leaders are turned over. There’s a new vampir lord or lady awoken and seven are woken with him or her as their assistants and sworn protectors. At the end of their life, however quickly it comes, if the curse has still not been broken, they awaken the next round.” He rests a palm on the book. “The original founders planned five thousand years of lords and ladies. Who would’ve thought that might not be enough?”
Every jagged crystal base, dull without the magic of the vampire within to sustain it, represents a person. Someone with a dream. Someone who had a life that they left behind as they closed their eyes for the long night.
“It must be jarring,” I whisper, kneeling to run my fingers over the crystal points. “To go to sleep and wake up thousands of years later.”
“It’s certainly not easy. It can take us months to acclimate… Callos wandered the academy for days on end when we first were restored and Lavenzia sat in the shell of her favorite bakery, silent,” Ruvan says, guarded. His gaze is distant and haunted. “The guardians are little more than ghosts. And from the moment we’re awoken, we know our chances of ever seeing our loved ones again are next to none.”
He turns away from the pedestal and book, starting down the rows. I follow silently. I can imagine the eyes of the vampir staring at me as I pass from behind their lids. Accusatory.
