A Shade of Vampire 37: An Empire of Stones(46)

I flicked through the books. Nothing I’d read so far mentioned an original power, and without evidence my theory didn’t really stand up to scrutiny.

Reaching for the largest volume, I pulled it toward me, determined to stop speculating and start focusing on the information we actually had.

Soon it was pitch-black outside, so cloudy and overcast that not a single star shone. I lit the candles on the table and fetched a robe from Tejus’s room. I wrapped it around myself—it was so large, I could do it twice. It smelt like him, musky and manly. I inhaled deeply, glad no one was there to witness my love-struck behavior.

Get a grip.

I returned to the book. After studying the impossibly small text, cramped notes and diagrams that only seemed to talk of farming techniques, I felt my eyelids start to droop. The flickering candlelight was making me drowsy, and soon the letters were swimming and blurring on the page.

Just a little rest, I promised myself.



I must have fallen into a deep sleep. When I woke, the candles had burned down to their wick, and only the faint glow of the torches were left to fight off complete darkness. Through the fog of sleep, I realized that something had woken me—but what? I looked around the room, but could see nothing.

“Tejus?” I whispered, thinking that perhaps he’d returned while I’d slept. No, he would have woken me.

Then I heard a faint scratching at the door. It sounded as if it was coming from the bottom of the frame, and I wondered if it was mice.

“Hello?” I called, remembering with relief that there were guards out there. But no one answered me. The scratching continued, more urgent now. It sounded more like fingernails, small ones, running up and down the bottom of the wood.

“Hello? Guards?” I called again, my voice wavering slightly.

“There aren’t any here.”

My brother’s voice sounded through the door, faint but definitely his.

“Benedict?” I gasped, hurrying to the door. I placed my ear against the frame, my palms flat on the cool surface of the wood.

“Hazel, you need to let me in,” he whimpered. “It’s dark out here. You need to let me in.”

I swallowed, a gnawing sickness pulling at the pit of my stomach.

“I c-can’t do that…I promised Tejus I wouldn’t open the door.”

He went silent, and I closed my eyes.

Don’t make me do this. Please, don’t make me do this.

“But I’m your brother—why won’t you help me?” His voice came again, low and pleading.

I took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Benedict, where are the guards?” I asked.

“They’re not here. They left. They don’t care about protecting you, but I do. We’ve always stuck together, you and me, Hazel. Mom told you to look after me. Can you imagine how upset she’d be if she knew that you’d left me?”

That’s not my brother.

Benedict wouldn’t manipulate me that way, not in a million years.

“You need to leave,” I sobbed. I couldn’t bear this. “You’re not my brother. I know you’re not my brother!”

“Hazel! Please—you don’t know what you’re saying. It’s Tejus, playing tricks…he’s turned you against me. I love you, Hazel. I am your brother!” he wailed, the scratching on the door becoming louder.

Tears ran down my cheeks.

I turned away from the door, but was unable to leave.

“I’m going now,” I whispered. “I have to go.”

“Why are you being so horrible?” Benedict cried out, sounding confused and upset.

I couldn’t answer him. I knew what he was—I knew that my brother wasn’t behind the door…but at the same time, somewhere in that creature, my brother remained. I didn’t know how much of him was present, if at all. But I couldn’t bring myself to abandon him completely.

“I love you, Benedict,” I said, addressing the empty room, repeating it softly like it was a mantra, hoping that somewhere my brother was getting the message.

“THEN OPEN THE DOOR!” The bellow made me jump out of my skin, and I scrambled away from the door. He started to bang against the wood, as if he were throwing his entire body weight against it.

Are the barriers still in place?

I didn’t think they were, which meant there was only a lock standing between me and the entity. Why wasn’t he blowing down the door, like he’d done earlier when we were in the tower?

The stones.

Had Benedict not been able to pick another from the lock?

“LET ME IN!”

The creature roared again. It now sounded nothing like my brother, the voice hoarse and full of rage, as if bile were streaming from its mouth. I hurried to my feet, determined to put as much space between me and the entity as possible. I thought about running up to the tower - trying to break the lock with one of the old weapons, but that would leave me even more exposed. My old room. I scurried to the small door of Tejus’s secret room and pulled it open. I had never before been so glad to see the emerald green glow of Tejus’s mind-stones.