Page 100 of Nocte

If they request to. If they want to. But who would? Surrounded by the beauty and safety of the Citadel, no full-blooded fae would want to leave.

“A lie I’m sure they feed your kind,” Altaris remarks with a smile. “It’s in the magic that created that place. Something the fae did to seal it away and sever their hiding place from this one. But it traps them there. Full-bloods at least. You, my dear, are a very interesting anomaly.”

Anomaly.The term stings, seeming more insulting thanabomination. It smarts, searing harsher than any wound ever inflicted by the Lord Master’s punishments.

“Caspian,” I say. “You said you can help him.”

“Ah, yes. Frankly, I’m surprised that Cassius let him loose off his leash. He’s been so very protective of that particular toy. He must be seething.” He smiles as if he knows of him, this Cassius.

But how? If he has never been to the other realm, then how?

“His poor mind is a right sort of damaged,” Altaris continues with a laugh. Then a sigh. He is puzzled by the damage of this so-called Cassius’ mind. Puzzled and intrigued. Maybe a little excited.

Like me, he loves a mystery, though for very different reasons. I liked the challenge and the risk. He prefers the thrill, and he very much enjoys never solving his mystery in the end. It’s the unraveling he enjoys.

“Typically, I would assume it would take him a few decades to come around again.”

“Decades?” My heart hammers. I feel so heavy. Decades to a vamryre is mere seconds in mortal life. But fae, as long-lived as they are, still live mortal lives. I am mortal. For me a decade is not measured in seconds. Ten years. Ten agonizing years. Several stretches of ten agonizing years.

Could I wait for him so long?

This mystery doesn’t require any solving on my part:yes. Even if it took a thousand years, I would wait for him.

“There is a way to speed up the process, I suspect,” Altaris adds.

I brace my hands on the counter to keep from lunging across it. From grabbing the front of his pretty purple clothing and demanding an answer.

“Really? Tell me!”

He laughs and unfurls his arms to lace all ten of his tall fingers together. “An experimental option to be sure,” he admits—but there is something he is hiding beneath those words. A threat. A dare. “You would have to put your trust in him, and I would have to put my trust in you.”

“How?” I demand, impatient. Desperate. “Tell me!”

“For starters, you brought something with you. I can smell it, bundled in ragged cloth and decaying floral. Tell me what it is. Do not lie.”

I hesitate. For so long, the sketchbook was my secret to hold. To protect. I can’t risk losing it.

Then I think of Caspian, poor Caspian.

“A sketchbook,” I say. “I took it from the archives, but it didn’t belong.”

“Oh my.” Altaris tilts his head back, his gaze reflective. “Interesting. Interesting…”

He trails off, thinking whatever dark thoughts a vamryre might think.

I fidget. “Caspian?—”

“Helping him will take time. You would need to wait for the moment to present itself,” Altaris says. “But you will also need to submit to… Well, let’s just call it an examination. You are a strange creature, you do realize. I am sure, as naive as you are, even you do realize that?”

I do. Don’t care. My nature is dirty and unwelcome, but it doesn’t matter. Caspian is all that matters. For him, I will submit to anything.

“Just tell me what to do.”

“For a start you can tell me what you are,” Altaris counters, leaning in closer. His curiosity is evident. Draining. It’s as though he prefers to sink his fangs into the mind of his prey rather than their throat. He aims to drink their knowledge. He aims to drain their very essence dry. “Tell me where you are from and start from the beginning. Should you lie to me, even once, I shall send you away and you can wait for your boy on the street. Understand?”

“Ask me,” I croak. Even if he bleeds me dry, I have to submit.

He sighs and raises a black eyebrow in my direction. The glance he shoots me next is unreadable. In an instant, he transforms from strange, willowy stranger, to a hint of ancient vamryre. A creature that transcends all time. Decades to him are mere seconds. A handful of rocks in a desert of sand.