I said nothing. My throat was too tight to allow it. His pain was one I knew all too well. That kind of gnawing grief that’s never sated.
“So now I’m helping you,” Rowan continued, softer. “It doesn’t undo what happened. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. But this—”he gestured to me. “Training you, keeping you alive… It’s something.”
I stared at him, chest aching. There was something unspoken beneath his words. Something jagged and heavy and buried so deep it had probably never seen the light.
The silence between us pulsed.
My knuckles were bruised, my ribs ached, and my throat felt like it might close—but some tiny sliver of me felt… steadier.
“Okay,” I said.
“Okay?” he echoed.
I squared my stance again. “Let’s go another round.”
Rowan’s mouth twitched, and he raised his fists.
He nodded, “Again.”
Chapter 36
“Bonds are strong when the cord is pulled taut.
Loosen the thread, and the knot unravels.
The same is true of people.”
- The Old Book
The Facility - Month 2
Ispent the week studying the librarian. In doing so, I learned he preferred romance novels, often mumbled to himself, and was very sensitive to sound. I also discovered that he removed the keys from his neck when seated at his desk and put them on a nearby hook.
I was in my room reading another book about the Bloodborne dynasty. If the tome locked in that case about Acaelar Bloodborne shed light on what happened to Willam, like I hoped it did, then I needed to know as much about him as possible.
I opened the book and stared at the first line of text.
Blood is thicker than water.
It was a phrase that my father used to say often. But when he said it, he meant that a family should stick together and look after one another. He preached that family was the most important thing, because in the end, it was all we had left.
But in this book, the phrase was twisted. It used the quote to refer to the strength of the Bloodborne line. I scoffed. It was a family name only passed down to heirs.
They were a mockery of a monarchy, and I held the opinion that it should be abolished. An opinion that could get me hanged for treason if I ever aired it.
I flipped through the pages until I found an illustration of the royal family tree. Starting with the first Bloodborne king, Avalion, I went down. I stopped a few generations down when I reached his descendant, Acaelar.
I skimmed through his biography; most of it was information I already knew. He was the Prophet King and supposedly saved thousands of lives by predicting several natural disasters. What I didn’t know was that Acaelar was said to have had a journal, which was lost over fifty years ago.
Was that what was in that glass case? If so, why was I being pulled toward a dusty book that surely had nothing to do with Willam?
I continued reading.
My jaw dropped. The journal was said to have been a collection of his prophecies. Had Acaelar predicted what happened to Willam? It was yet another question I needed answers to.
I went back to examining the family tree. Tracing my finger downward, I ended at the current king, King Albador. It didn’t list his heir, but everyone knew what his name was. It had been paraded throughout the kingdom the day he’d been born: Prince Auren.
All I knew about him was that he was very young, and first in line to be crowned King of Ravaryn. If something were to happen to King Albador, then a child would ascend the throne.
