Page 1 of Veradel

At more than two hundred years old, I can confidently say that time is fucking weird.

Sometimes, like during the slow, rainy days when trails of water crawl down the windowpane and the world breathes as if it’s sleeping, timetrickles. At others, like when the blood-tinged moon anchors itself in the sky and I can smell all of the humans being Chosen as sacrifices on the other side of the Wall, time bolts ahead, faster than I can catch it in my jaws.

Right now is one of those times.

I practically beg time to slow down. Delay the moment Saskia hits the ground.

Give me more time to find a way to save her.

But it doesn’t. Rebellious as ever, it speeds up, as if gravity wants to claim her faster than I can even register her body—her real, physical body—fallingthrough the mist above my head.

Her scream slices through the woods cloaked in sunset, vibrating in my heart right where our connection usually stirs. I’d howl back at her if I was in my other form, but I’m human now, so all I can do is maneuver myself right below her hurtling figure and hold out my arms.

It doesn’t matter if I catch her. The Wall is too high, her fall too great. Her bones will still crack in my arms upon impact, and her lungs will explode, just like all the other Chosen Ones who jumped before her.

But I won’t let her hit the ground anyway. Even though this is the end before we could truly begin, I told her I’ve got her.

That won’t ever change.

A red film of grief and anger clouds my vision as she gets closer, her hair sailing above her, her arms and legs flailing, her scream still fracturing what’s left of my soul into a hundred tiny, jagged pieces. The Guardians always told their citizens they threw transgressors over the Wall as fodder, that the Monster would be waiting at the bottom with an open maw and deadly teeth.

I’m waiting now, but this is a woman I would have devoured in a completely different way if I’d had the chance.

In another life. Another reality. Another world.

Now, her death is going to eat me alive. Consume me until I’m nothing but a skeleton alongside her.

Closer, closer, closer, Saskia falls, and I grit my teeth, bracing for the impact of the end of both our lives.

Then…

Her weight crashes into me, slamming against my arms, but I don’t let my knees so much as buckle when her scream cuts off, the sound dying from her lips and her eyes flicking shut.

Hereyes. Such beautiful hazel eyes, speckled with green, that I caught a glimpse of before they closed forever. And hereyelashes. Hauling in deep, shuddering breaths, I sink to my knees on the forest floor and marvel down at them, so dark and thick surrounded by the light sprinkle of freckles I wish I could have an eternity to count.

I cradle her tightly against my chest and run my fingertips lightly down her cheek, amazed at how intact her body still is. I briefly wonder if it’s because she was already part-stone—if her injuries are all internal…

Tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear, I lift my eyes as they fill with tears I didn’t even know a Monster like me could shed. I try to blink them back, reel in my emotions. She deserved more than this.

One teardrop falls against her neck.

And—

Wait.

Fuckingwait.

Slowly, as if my entire future depends on it, my gaze slides down Saskia’s neck, where the tear zigzags along her skin… and a pulse flutters with life.

More quickly now, I slide even lower, to her chest. Hermovingchest. The vial filled with my grandfather’s blood bobs in rhythm with her breaths, unbroken as the rest of her.

Inexplicably, miraculously, my little nightmare is perfectly whole in my arms.

As my whole world reorients itself, resuming its spin around us, her eyelashes quiver.

She sighs.

And opens her eyes.