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The structure dominates the landscape, but that’s not the only change. All around us, the sky is dark. It’s never fully daytime in the Penumbra. It’s been heavily enchanted so that it’s always at least a little bit dark. It lightens a bit during daylight hours, or at least it’s light enough that I can see, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call this ‘daylight’.
Now the vampires can move freely no matter what time of day it is. Donovan looks around skittishly, his claws and fangs retracted, trying to make himself as harmless as possible. He’s not going to get away with that. In one way or another, he’s going to get noticed.
The area around the castle looks like the rest of the forest, only a little more cultivated. Like someone has recently been taking care to plant new trees and flowers, and to trim what’s already there. It all feels rather fae, actually. Which is not something I’d ever thought I’d say about something involving fucking vampires.
We don’t get much time to admire it, though. Almost immediately, two vampires approach us. They’re not dressed as guards, they don’t have armor or swords. Rather, they’re wearing clothes that are designed for swift movement. Only the insignia on their shoulders lets you know that they serve the vampire king.
“Halt.” One of them, dark-haired, steps forward. “What are you doing here? Do you have an audience? Are you expected?”
It’s not exactly friendly, but it’s still more polite than I would’ve expected from vampires. Perhaps there is something to the rumors about Malcolm after all.
Cain still looks extremely suspicious. Raven seems relieved. It’s hard to tell from North’s expression how he’s feeling.
“We’re not expected,” North says. “But we’d like an audience with the king. We have some information we think he needs to hear, and we’ve brought an offering as a sign of our goodwill.”
The two guards look down at Donovan with some confusion.
Donovan seems to be trying to make himself invisible, like he can make it happen just by willing it.
The guards look at each other. They seem to be having a silent conversation between themselves over whether or not they should let us through. After a few agonizing moments, they nod at one another, and then turn to look at us.
“Follow me, please,” the blond one says. “You’ll be patted down and then escorted to the throne room.”
“They’re lucky there’s nothing on the agenda today,” the dark-haired one mutters, probably thinking he’s quiet enough that we can’t hear him.
I look over at my mates. Cain is glaring at the vampires like he’s imagining setting them on fire, but Raven and North have stoic, blank expressions on.
North catches my eye and nods at me. I take a deep breath and start to follow the vampires through the park up to the castle.
It is a beautiful castle, I have to admit that. Imposing, yes, but also lovely. It wouldn’t look out of place in Europe. Was it transplanted here? Is it based on a castle in Europe? I don’t know. For all that the vampires are our enemies, I don’t know much about their culture beyond the basics.
I feel woefully underdressed for this occasion. Wearing a full-length gown wouldn’t have been practical, but like I should be dressed in much fancier armor or something. All around us are the trees and plants, their leaves bright green and shiny.
“Nice garden,” Raven comments to the blond guard. “Must be hard to grow plants when there’s not really any sunlight.”
“Our queen manages,” the guard replies. “She appreciates nature.”
His tone is polite but admiring.
Their queen…
I’ve heard a bit about the new vampire queen, married to Malcolm. Rumor has it she’s half fae. Whether that means she had a fae parent and a vampire parent or she was full fae and then turned into a vampire later in life, I don’t know. Either way, I haven’t really put much stock in it.
Even if it was true, and I had no proof that it was, why would that mean anything changed?
Just because one vampire liked one fae that was also a vampire, that didn’t mean jack shit was going to change for the fae at large. Just ask any gay person who was in the jurisdiction of a homophobic lawmaker who was secretly gay. Just because you could make a single exception to a rule didn’t mean that you were going to change the rules completely.
Still, I can’t help but admit that the atmosphere of this place is not what I expected. I would’ve thought that a vampire’s castle would be similar to Donovan’s place, his headquarters in New York City. But this has a more relaxed feel. No, maybe relaxed isn’t the right word, exactly. Everyone seems very serious and attentive. But nobody looks like they’re ready to beg for their life if they get something wrong.
I see vampires flitting about, none of them close enough for me to get a really good look. It’s all just enough to set my teeth on edge. We’re absolutely surrounded by vampires. Not even Roanac’s shade army when we were at his castle made me feel so high strung and paranoid. It’s years of instinct screaming at me that I’m not safe, that I’m going to be attacked, and it’s hard as fuck to fight that instinct down.
Raven puts his free hand on my shoulder and it’s only then that I realize how tense I am. He doesn’t say anything, but I know what he’s thinking.Breathe. It’s okay.
I sure hope it will be.
We’re taken by the two guards through the main gate of the castle and into a small guard post, where someone who seems to be of a higher rank than these two pats us down for weapons. After that, we’re checked with some kind of wand for any magical trickery, which makes sense, and then the other guard nods at the two that have been escorting us.
“This way,” the dark-haired guard says, leading us out of the room and back into the main courtyard of the castle.
