“Yes,” I whispered to Rohak as he drew even with me, taking my injured handin his. His emerald eyes sparkled in the afternoon sun like the jewels they so closely resembled as he inspected the already-healing cuts.
Rohak grunted before pulling a bandage from inside my belt. I gaped as he deftly wrapped my hand, tying it off at the top so I still had use of my palm.
“Don’t act so surprised, my love,” he grunted, tucking the remainder of the bandage away in the exact spot he found it. “I’ve watched you for years now. I know what you need and where you keep things.”
I went up on tiptoes to press a light kiss to his stubbled jaw, my stomach swooping with the contact.
Rohak tucked me beneath his arm, pulling me tight to his side, as he examined the new lines of runes.
“Now what?” he asked.
“Now”—I took a deep breath, excitement pulsing through my veins—“now we can enter.”
“We couldn’t before?”
I shook my head, curls bouncing around my forehead and into my eyes. I blew them away, but they just came back to rest in the same spot once more.
“Wards designed for only a person with a certain knowledge to access,” I explained giddily, pointing at a few runes as I spoke. “That one and that one were runes I only learned about once I accepted the visions in the Seeing Room. If I hadn’t gone to the Valley before, I never would have been able to dismantle his protections.”
Rohak’s eyebrows rose appreciatively as he hummed again. “And you’re certain this is meant for you? Not some other Keeper?”
“They’re all dead, Rohak,” I deadpanned. My Bonded winced, remorse coursing through the Bond, but said nothing. “Yes,” I sighed. “It’s meant for me.”
“How can you be sure it’s not a trap?” His arm tightened around me, crushing me to his chest, where I could feel his heart beat heavily against his ribcage. I soothed my hand between his pecs, relieving the sudden tension in his muscles.
“He said something, once, the day he died,” I admitted softly. A light breeze picked up just then, rustling our hair as if the Keeper was listening. “That I’d come back here, to this shop. That there was a book meant for me inside there. But thathewouldn’t be here.”
Rohak grunted again, unconvinced.
“I was going to ask you to accompany me,” I admitted lightly, nudging my shoulder into his side.
Rohak turned his intense gaze to me. “I was going with you whether or not you asked,” he growled.
My heart pattered erratically at the timbre of his voice, the familiar warmth of arousal pulsing in my core.
How can he turn me on with just a protective growl?
“The feeling is mutual, my love,” he whispered into my hair, pulling me across the wards and up the steps.
It wasas if the inside of the Curious was frozen in time. I recognized many of the items and books that dotted the overflowing shelves from my last visit.
A shiver worked its way down my spine as goosebumps erupted on my skin. Something about this place was hallowed, like it kept more secrets than any one building should be privy to.
Rohak’s hand tightened around my waist, and I made no move to dislodge it.
Clearly, he felt it, too.
Apart from the soft taps of our boots against the well-worn hardwood, the shop was silent as a tomb.
It was completely eerie and yet oddly reverent.
“Where is this thing you were supposed to have?” Rohak asked, fidgeting slightly with the collar of his black tunic. He’d lost a gold bar from his right shoulder at one point in his haste to make it to Isrun, and the disheveled look was not one I expected to love so much on my normally tight-laced General.
“Does this place make you nervous?” I asked, slowly extracting myself from Rohak’s hold to explore the shop unobstructed. My fingers traced the edges of the shelves, never fully brushing objects but still close enough to feel their energy.
There was so much here—so much that was new or different. Maps of places I’d never seen, charts of stars I was certain didn’t exist in our night skies, books in languages I couldn’t decipher. All shoved haphazardly into shelves next to seemingly mundane objects like a broken pot and a tin mug.
It was strangely alluring.
