I broke the embrace. “Oh?”
“Not that I do not want to tell you, son, but your mate should hear it first.” He took a step back.
The joy that had been on his face mere moments before dropped. Replaced by something? Unease? What could Mother need to tell Neve that would make Lord Riis, a fae well practiced at hiding his emotions, so clearly troubled?
“Do you know where she is?” my father continued.
“You look ill.”
“What I must say won’t go over well.”
“Neve is understanding.” I couldn’t say the same of her sister, but my mate always tried to see the best in people. And Lord Riis had always been so helpful towards us.
“Everyone has their limit,” he replied. “So, Neve?”
“In the library,” I answered after a pause filled only with the clicking of gryphon beaks and the stomping of pegasus hooves in the far back pens. “With Thyra.”
Chapter 7
NEVE
High above me, balanced on a rickety ladder, Thyra tossed a book.
I caught the soft leather-bound tome one-handed, and took a handful of steps to place it on the table where Duran, Clemencia, and Anna scoured page after page.
“This shelf is clear. Coming down.” My twin’s silver wings, a shade darker than my own, fluttered gracefully as she descended.
The library at Valrun Castle wasn’t large, and precious few books were on the top uppermost shelves, but we’d been checking each and every one for information on shadow magic.
“The stacks are getting high over here,” Duran called out. “We would appreciate some help before adding more to the piles.”
We only had a few hours until we left for Myrr. After that, I didn’t trust anyone staying behind to research the Shadow Fae.
“If only there was some sort of magic to find isolated words within a text,” Clemencia muttered. “That would make this far easier.”
You knew it was bad when the two most studious of your friends were complaining about reading.
“How many mentions?” Thyra took the seat across from Duran. I settled in next to her and pulled a book from one stack.
“Only five worth investigating further.” Duran placed his hand on the stack to his left. “Shadow Fae take up multiple paragraphs in these books. The rest only had a mention or two. Nothing that isn’t common knowledge.”
“You’re aware that Myrr has a wonderfully enormous and supposedly lovely library, right?” Clem spoke without bothering to lift her gaze from her text. Her thin finger trailed across a line, helping her to keep her place. “They might have entire shelves dedicated to Shadow Fae or their magic.”
“They might,” I agreed. “They equally might not. And what if the one line Thyra and I need is here, in one of these books?”
“We can’t risk it,” my twin said. “We have to figure out how to use this magic safely.”
We were certain that, eventually, the Shadow King would make himself known. And while he would be met with suspicion, at leasthehad mastery over his power. Mastery and a tale about Sassa Falk—his mate and our ancestor—that would throw more ire on our family line. Add to that the support of King Magnus, and I had a feeling that the Shadow King would find acceptance sooner or later.
Thyra and I did not know how to use our magic, and our father was famous not just for being a king, but an unstable one. We had to keep it together. Whichever one of us took the throne could not be seen as a Cold Queen. A dangerous queen.
Our group fell into the silence of skimming dusty texts and flipping pages. After some time, my vision blurred with the words, but I blinked heavily and soldiered on. The work might be dry and, mostly, boring, but things could be far worse. The smell of old books surrounded us. We were warm, and therewasn’t a monster in sight. A significant improvement over our circumstances of two days prior.
“Here’s an entire chapter!” Anna took a scrap of paper, slipped it in place, and shut the book with a snap. She handed it to Clemencia. “To the useful stack it goes.”
“That author is the same person who wrote two other books with large Shadow Fae segments.” Clemencia’s face brightened with recognition. “If you see this name, pay extra careful attention.” She flipped the book around to show everyone.
I memorized the name and began to skim once more. I was closing in on yet another end to a chapter when a motion among the freestanding shelves beyond caught my attention. Lord Riis appeared, his long red hair tangled and a pungent reek of fish coming off him.
