Chapter 33 Saved
I smelled it. The sharp, metallic tang of copper.
He was bleeding. The glass had cut through the leather, slicing into his palm. He was mixing his own blood with the wine, crushing the shards into his own flesh to keep from crushing her skull.
He dropped the remains of the glass.
The bloody shards hit the floor at Vespera’s feet.
Klaus took a step forward. Vespera hit the edge of the fountain. She had nowhere to go.
He leaned down. He brought his face close to hers, invading her air, forcing her to look into the abyss of his eyes.
"You locked her in with a Starving One," Klaus whispered.
It wasn't a question.
"I..." Vespera’s lip quivered. "I didn't..."
"Do not lie to me," Klaus breathed. "I smell the dust on your skin. I smell the fear."
He raised his bleeding hand. He didn't touch her. He just let a single drop of the wine-blood mixture fall from his finger onto the bodice of her pristine pink dress.
It bloomed like a dark rose on the silk.
"You wanted to see something bleed," Klaus said softly. "Are you satisfied?"
Vespera shook her head frantically, tears spilling down her cheeks. "Peri, please. It was a joke. Just a prank. She... she doesn't belong here!"
"She is under my protection," Klaus said. Each word was a heavy stone dropping into deep water. "Which means an attack on her is an attack on me."
He leaned closer, until his lips brushed her ear.
I heard it. The whole front row heard it.
"You are alive right now," Klaus whispered, "only because I do not want to stain the Emperor’s floor."
Vespera sobbed, her hands clutching her chest.
"But listen to me closely, Vespera," Klaus continued, his voice dropping to a register that made the hair on my arms stand up. "If you ever—ever—touch her again... if you look at her... if you even whisper her name in a dark room..."
He pulled back, looking her dead in the eye.
"Next time, it will be your throat."
He held her gaze for three agonizing seconds. Letting the promise sink in. Letting her see the monster behind the General’s mask.
Then, he straightened up.
He turned his back on her.
He reached for me with his uninjured hand.
"Come, Nerissa," he said, his voice returning to a flat, bored monotone. " The air in this corner is stagnant."
I took his hand. I didn't look at Vespera. I didn't need to. I could smell the terror coming off her in waves. She was broken.
We walked away.
The crowd parted for us again, but this time, it wasn't out of curiosity. It was out of fear. They looked at Klaus’s bleeding hand. They looked at the shattered glass on the floor. They looked at me, covered in dust and blood, walking with my head held high.
We crossed the ballroom floor.
"Your hand," I whispered, looking at the dark drops trailing behind us. "You're hurt."
"It’s nothing," Klaus said, staring straight ahead. "Pain is a focus."
"Focus for what?"
"To keep from tearing this entire castle down brick by brick," he muttered.
"Peregrine!"
The voice came from the dais.
We stopped.
The Emperor was standing. He wasn't smiling anymore. He looked... alert. His blind eyes were fixed on us, his head tilted as if listening to a frequency only he could hear.
"Bring her here," the Emperor commanded.
My stomach dropped.
Klaus stiffened. He squeezed my hand once and turned us toward the throne.
We walked up the steps of the dais.
I curtsied, though my knees were screaming. Klaus bowed, his bleeding hand held behind his back.
"Your Eminence," Klaus said.
The Emperor ignored him. He walked down the steps of the throne until he was standing in front of me.
He sniffed.
"Dust," the Emperor murmured. "Old blood. Rot."
He reached out a skeletal hand and touched the bandage on my arm.
I flinched, but I didn't pull away.
"You fought a Starving One," the Emperor stated.
It wasn't a question. He could smell it on me. The feral musk of the beast.
"Yes, Your Eminence," I whispered.
"And you are alive," the Emperor said, a note of genuine surprise in his raspy voice. "Did Peregrine save you?"
I looked at Klaus. He was watching the Emperor with the intensity of a hawk watching a snake. He was ready to take the credit, to protect me from scrutiny.
But I remembered the creature. I remembered the way it had whimpered. I remembered the feeling of my voice turning into a hammer.
"No," I said clearly.
The court gasped.
"No?" the Emperor repeated, leaning closer.
"Lord Falkenstein opened the door," I said, lifting my chin. "But the beast was already down."
The Emperor went still. "Down? You killed it?"
"I told it to sit," I said.
The silence that followed was heavy enough to crush lungs.
The Emperor stared at me. His milky eyes seemed to swirl.
"You... commanded a feral?" he whispered. "A creature with no mind? No will?"
"I am a Siren," I said, my voice steady despite the trembling of my hands. "We do not ask for attention. We take it."
The Emperor threw his head back and laughed.
It was a dry, rattling sound that echoed off the vaulted ceiling. It was the sound of a man who had found a diamond in a pile of coal.
"Vespera!" the Emperor shouted, still laughing.
Vespera, who was trying to sneak out the side door, froze.
"You tried to break my toy," the Emperor called out to her. "And instead, you sharpened it."
He turned back to me. He looked at Klaus.
"You were right, Peregrine," the Emperor said, grinning, revealing his needle-sharp teeth. "She is not a beggar. She is not even a Queen."
He reached out and took my hand—the one stained with dust. He raised it high, presenting me to the stunned court.
"Behold!" the Emperor roared.
"The Sapphire Witch! The Voice of the Empire!"
The vampires cheered. They roared. They clapped until the windows rattled.
But I didn't feel like a winner.
I looked at Klaus.
He wasn't cheering. He was watching the Emperor holding my hand. His jaw was tight. His eyes were dark.
And his bleeding hand was clenched into a fist so tight that the blood ran down his wrist, staining his white cuff black.
He had saved me from Vespera. He had crushed the glass. He had threatened a Duchess.
But as the Emperor proclaimed my new title, binding me tighter to this cursed throne, I saw the truth in Klaus’s eyes.