I hold my wooden sword to his throat. “I win?” I say.
Nolan grabs the sword out of my hand and throws it across the deck.
He’s already kissing me before I get an answer.
CHAPTER 10
Nolan informs me that night that in the time we’ve been on the outs, he’s been pondering how best to track down the Youngest Sister.
“In case it came to that,” he clarifies.
“Which it has,” I remind him.
“There’s a library woven through the fae’s ancient legends. One hidden on the island of Yggdrasil. A library said to be protected from intruders by magic.”
“The Ashen Library,” I gasp, hands over my mouth.
“I’m taking that noise you just made as evidence that you’ve heard of it.”
“Heard of it is an understatement. John had a phase as a child when it was all he would talk about. My father actually paid him—actual money—to discuss different topics. My parents always said it was mythical.”
“Well, I wouldn’t take your parents as an authority for where to get accurate information,” says Nolan.
Which is fair.
The journeyto Yggdrasil is painfully slow. Nolan explains that the Shifting Sea is temperamental in this part of the world, and while we manage to avoid any major storms, navigating around them means the journey takes an entire month. Finally, we dock, though dock is a rather generous term. There are a few boards jutting out into the water, behind which is a rocky beach the color of sandstone.
“You’re sure this is it?” I ask Evans, our navigator. He glares at me, which after a few lapsing seconds I realize is the only response I’m going to get.
We takea small crew onto the island. Just Nolan, Charlie—her miniature cannon strapped against her hip—Maddox, and me.
Nolan had been hesitant to let me come at all, but when I reminded him that I’d won the spar, he hadn’t pressed the matter.
The island is cold, the chill of the wind coming off of the waves reminding me of Neverland, but that’s the only similarity. The sand here is lighter, and there’s not a single tree in sight. In fact, the entire island appears barren. It only takes a quarter hour of striding across it to glimpse the other side.
“Am I supposed to be seeing a library?” asks Charlie.
My heart sinks. “Maybe it’s just a legend after all.”
Nolan takes my hand in his. “Chin up, Darling. We traversed all the way out here. Might as well search a little longer.”
We do. In fact, we circle the island three times, each time hope slipping from my fingertips until I have nothing left to hold onto.
We’re on our way back to the ship, when I trip over a dead root. Pain jolts through me, and Nolan goes to help me, but when I look down, it’s just a scraped knee, the stain of my blood already being soaked up by the earth.
“I’m fine,” I say.
And then the earth trembles.
Nolan wheels me around behind him, and from beyond his shoulder I look toward the center of the island, where the rumble is originating. For a moment, I think the earth is caving in.
But then something appears.
Greenery, lush and lavish, breaks forth from the ground. But it’s not bushes I’m seeing, I realize as out from the earth sprouts a tree, giant and vast, its trunk severing the island in two as the earth gives way.
“It’s a reaping tree,” I whisper, remembering the one in Neverland. “The library—it’s under its roots.”
We watch in awe as the tree expands, taking up the entire island. We trip and stagger as roots creep through the grass, taking their place underneath our feet, until the island is completely overtaken with roots underfoot, the sun blotted out by a dense canopy overhead.
