Words I’d once longed to hear sat on the page lifelessly. Where was thislovewhen I knelt on an execution block? Where was it when Kairos dragged me from my cell?
He hadn’t even mentioned Rheya. The only family I had left, and he couldn’t spare her a single line. JustI love youandI’m coming for youand nothing about the promise he’d made to help me find her.
But why would he mention her? Both of these males saw me as a tool first, a person second.
Kairos, at least, was honest about it. He’d keep me here, safe in this gilded cage, until he figured out what runes he needed broken. And I’d sit here, comfortable, while Rheya was gods knew where.
I re-read the letter, searching for something real beneath the pretty phrases.You were never a distraction.Then what was I? A secret he kept hidden. A relationship he refused to claim. Someone he loved, but not enough to defy his father for.
I tried to imagine forgiving him. I pictured the moment he swept me in his arms and said all the right things, but I felt no heartbreak. Just a strange, hollow calm.
Some betrayals couldn’t be undone. That was the lesson—not that Vaeris was weak, but that I’d been a fool to trustthat he’d risk his position for love. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
I folded the letter and shoved it in the back of a drawer. Then I yanked on the bell cord, the chime echoing down the corridor. Thessia appeared minutes later, concern creasing her face.
“Mistress?” she said softly. “Oh my, you don’t look well.”
“I’m fine,” I lied, blinking through the lightheadedness. “Just a little dizzy. Can you take me to the library?”
She hesitated. “You won’t try to run, will you?”
I smiled at her. “I won’t. Promise.”
Thessia pushed open a set of massive double doors. We passed through an antechamber, where I stared at a mural of a stunning fae bride standing between two thrones—one crowned in sunlight, the other in ice.
“Who is she?” I asked.
She tensed. “A princess who was supposed to unite two realms.”
“Which ones?”
She was quiet for a long moment. “It doesn’t matter now.”
I looked at the painting again, a beautiful bridge between worlds that was never crossed. Then I followed her into the library, gasping.
Rows upon rows of shelves. Light filtered through high windows, dust motes dancing in the beams like the ones that floated through the attic. Rheya would try to catch them in her palms.
Thessia waved an arm. “Our clan’s archive.”
“No guards?”
Thessia raised a brow. “Why would there be?”
“Back home, only clerics enter the library. Books on rune magic are forbidden. Locked away from everyone except nobility.”
“Skaldir hoards knowledge. We don’t do that here. Information serves the realm, not whoever sits on the throne.” Her eyes found mine. “Some things are restricted, obviously. But we don’t lock the doors.”
“So anyone can just…walk in?”
Thessia shrugged. “An educated realm is a stronger one. Though, tell that to the archivist—he treats every book like his firstborn.”
A soft cough made me turn.
A dark-skinned fae watched me from across the library, silver threading through his black hair. Earthy green robes draped his slender frame. His deep-set eyes flicked from me to Thessia.
Thessia brightened. “Aelie, this is Lioren. Our head archivist.”
He frowned. “What’s a human doing in my library?”
