Okay. That’s interesting. Right as the attack on the wall began, Alwar and Tiago took me to a room inside the keep. Like all the rooms I saw, it had a massive ceiling, as you’d expect in a place where giants live. But this room had a huge wall of doors. Some bigger. Some smaller. Like a patchwork quilt made of different-colored planks.
When I asked Alwar what all that was, he said they led to different bridges. To where? He wouldn’t say specifically. Then Tiago, his bad-tempered sidekick, whipped out the biggest key ring I’ve ever seen, filled with skeleton keys of every shape and size. They opened one of the doors and pushed Master and me through, locking it behind us. That was how I ended up in the bathtub.
My mind flashes to that one time, right before I was taken to Monsterland, when I could’ve sworn someone touched my back while I was shampooing my hair. Moments later, Alwar’s voice came through the wall. Now I know they can reach through the windows and grab things without getting sucked across the bridge. Pancakes, water bottles, and soup cans, for example. And me.
So was Alwar spying on me in the shower? I don’t even know what to think about that. Especially because of a comment he made right before I left the keep—something about wishing he could bed me and thinking I was beautiful. Then he kissed the top of my head.
I groan out a breath, refusing to think any further on the matter. I mean yes, he’s a beautiful man. Even more beautiful than Gabrio or Benicio. But I’m one-tenth his size.
And I’m sure he didn’t mean anything by his comments. I’ve learned that males in their world say what’s on their minds. Sometimes it has meaning. Sometimes it doesn’t. God, I can’t even imagine what I’d do if he made a move on me. A fifty-foot-tall warlord.
“So some of the doors in that room back at the keep lead to bridges Grandma didn’t know about,” I say to Gabrio, thinking out loud. “And we need her keys to lock them.”
“Yes.”
“If she didn’t know about those windows, then why would she have a key for them?” It’s the obvious question.
“The wall was built before her time. Each party—you Norfolks and the Wall Men—has a complete set of keys. Perhaps she did not realize there were extras on her key ring.”
Doubtful. She knew everything. I would too if her journals hadn’t burned in the guesthouse down the hill where I used to live. If only I’d read them before the fire.
“Do not worry,” Gabrio says, “I know the locations of all the windows. I simply need her keys. I must ensure everything is locked from this side. I must secure the main bridge upstairs, too.”
Luckily the main bridge is in a room with a very strong door. It would take someone a lot of time to bust it down.
But what if they find another bridge? A terrifying thought hits me. “Benicio’s voice was coming through the wall downstairs. Do you think he’s already here, somewhere inside the house?” He’s taken control of the wall, so why not?
I shudder. I can’t face him. I just can’t.
“Benicio is not foolish enough to cross. He would be transformed. But nothing is stopping him from sending his men for you, which is why I must lock everything down. Quickly.”
I see Gabrio’s point; Benicio is a vampire and a powerful one. He has the ability to put you in a trance and make you do things against your will. And while you’re doing them, you’re happy. It’s how he got me to lie in his bed and hand myself over. He never had sex with me, because that’s prohibited under the Proxy Vow—must keep the human proxies’ bloodlines pure—but Benicio still used me as his personal juice box. The sad part is, I know if we ended up in the same room together, I’d let him do it all over again. That’s how good he made me feel. His bite left a mark on my soul I can’t erase.
“I won’t ever be safe from him,” I mutter.
“Untrue,” Gabrio says. “We will defeat him. No matter how long it takes, it will be done.”
“Then you should stay and protect me until it’s over.” Plus, Gabrio’s safer here. For now at least. “And don’t forget; I am the only thing preventing an all-out war.” Remember when I said vows mattered in Monsterland? Well, hundreds of years ago, the kingdoms agreed to a treaty to stop the constant warring that once plagued their world because it was cutting into their food supplies. Specifically, they eat each other.
That’s when the kingdoms, all but one, came together and created the Proxy Vow.
No more waging war between kingdoms.
Killing for food or self-defense only.