A Rip of Realms (A Shade of Vampire #39)(13)

“Oh, nothing,” I said, knowing that I was irritating him. He started to stalk toward the palace and I joined him, idly running my hands along the grass and flowered weeds. When we reached the doorway, I paused, looking up at Tejus expectantly.

“Do you have a key?”

“At Hellswan, yes.”

“Oh.”

He smirked, walking along the columned patio. He stopped at one of the large glass windows, and started unbuttoning his shirt.

“Um, Tejus, what are you doing?” I asked, looking back at the fast-approaching group of my friends.

“Getting us in,” he replied, staring at me as he reached the final button. I started to feel a hot flush running down my back—his eyes had become dark and hooded, his smile like a private challenge.

He removed his shirt, the taut muscles of his torso still ravaged by the scar from the ghoul during the imperial trials. Twisting the material around his fist, he smashed it into the glass with one abrupt strike.

Oh.

The glass splintered with a loud crash, leaving the frame completely bare. It was large enough for Tejus to step through, and soon he’d disappeared from sight. Moments later I heard the door creak, and turned to see him standing in the entrance, still shirtless.

“Put it back on,” I tutted.

He laughed, loudly, but did as I asked.

Stepping into the main hallway, I gasped. The place was magnificent. A huge chandelier dripped down from the ceiling, where the sunset fell on it. Shafts of bright light reflected off its glass surface and covered the room in diamond-shaped dots. The floor was polished marble, leading off into three other rooms, with a large staircase sweeping down from the mezzanine above.

“This place…”

“Is impressive,” he finished, rolling his eyes.

“You’re so…dismissive of it,” I countered. “Why?”

I’d changed my mind about waiting for him to tell me in his own time—it was a puzzle I wanted an answer to, now, before I went off into more raptures of delight.

He sighed.

“Because it belongs to me, that’s why. My mother left it to me in her will—it irritated me that she’d done so. I felt it was her way of saying that I should choose a different life other than becoming king.”

“Because she left you a palace?”

Tejus shrugged. “It seemed that way to me. In her will she wished that I would live here with my family, far from the walls of Hellswan—far from the seat of power.”

“Do you still feel the same way about it now?” I asked, wondering if it was a sore reminder that he was no longer king.

“I feel indifferent about it now,” he replied curtly.

Liar.

Leaving Tejus to his brooding, I started to ascend the staircase, taking care to test the stairs before fully putting my weight behind each one. As I looked around, I noticed that there were dark patches on the walls—places where pictures had once hung. When I reached the mezzanine, only bare stone floors greeted me, and drafty rooms that opened off the main landing. Still, it was habitable—once we got some of the old fireplaces lit and found some bedding we’d be comfortable.

“How is it?” I heard Ruby’s voice echoing from downstairs. I leaned over the banisters, smiling down at her blonde hair, uncharacteristically in complete disarray.

“Amazing,” I called back.

“Like a fairytale palace, right?” she replied.

“Try telling that to Tejus,” I laughed.

Ruby shrugged. “Ash keeps complaining that there’s no outer wall, and no arsenal tower.”

“Is there a dungeon for the evil queen?” I asked, coming back down the stairs.

“They’ve put her in a grain shed around the back, she’s under heavy guard.”

“As long as I can get in when I’m hungry.” I smirked.

“I know you’re joking, but please don’t,” Ruby replied earnestly. “We don’t know how much power she has—I don’t think it would be a good idea.”

“But it’s guilt-free,” I whined, reluctantly realizing that she was right—it would be a mistake to go anywhere near the queen. Now that the entity had risen, we didn’t know what she was capable of.

I motioned that I would come down and join her. I made my way back down the stairs, passing more empty rooms till I came to the kitchen. It was large and basically equipped, but one wall had completely crumbled away, showing an uninterrupted view of the sprawling, unkempt garden. Ruby entered from behind one of the walls.

“Maybe they can put barriers up,” Ruby suggested, “keep out the cold? Can barriers even do that?”

“Maybe I can try,” I replied quietly.

“You should.”

Ruby’s reply surprised me—I still wasn’t sure how she felt about me developing into a sentry.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she retorted. “Of course you should try. It’s what you are now, there’s no use trying to ignore it. And, plus, a lot of the sentry powers are amazing. Think about when we’re back in The Shade. All that stuff, True Sight if you’re lucky enough to have those skills, barriers—it might all come in handy.”

“I guess so,” I replied slowly. I hadn’t really thought about any of the powers being a gift before—something that could help GASP in the future.