“A way to sever the mate bond.”
“Right,” Callum said. “Nothing too onerous, then.”
My brother exhaled his resignation, straightened his shoulders, and took off among the rows of books.
I cast a glance at the vaulted ceiling above me. It looked like the rib cage of a monster long since dead. Images of the Zarythian came to mind, unbidden, and I shook my head to clear my thoughts until only the quiet remained.
The oppressive silence of the space wasn’t a comfort, though. It felt like a warning, and the sense of being watched only heightened my unease.
This was not a place to unwind or lose oneself in the pages. Instead, the Unseelie library was a sanctum of secrets. The kind best left buried, no matter how desperately they wanted to be found.
“How did you shake your hulking shadow?” Callum called from somewhere beyond sight.
“Are you referring to Eamon or Ryker?” I moved toward the first row of tomes and scanned the spines. Nothing stood out.
“Both.”
“Thankfully, Ryker has his hands full with the raids on the food stores. The council is breathing down his neck to find a solution.”
A small smile tugged at the corner of my mouth when I thought about my plans and how they would further unravel his countermeasures.
“And Eamon was summoned to run an errand for the King. I promised him I would remain safely locked away in Ryker’s chambers until he returned.”
Callum snorted. “You left the moment you could no longer hear his footsteps down the hall, didn’t you?”
“Naturally. I wasn’t about to waste a rare, yet golden opportunity.”
I could almost feel the grin that accompanied Callum’s chuckle, and my own lips split into a broad smile as I dove amongst the pages.
What seemed like hours later, my vision blurred as I scanned the brittle pages of the tome that felt too heavy in my palms.
“Anything?” Callum called from the row over.
“No,” I replied, trying to keep the dejection from slipping through.
Years of dust coated my hands, and my back ached from being hunched over. I had nothing to show for the hours we had remained hidden within the library, and I could sense our time was coming to an end.
Callum rounded the aisle. Cobwebs clung to his brown hair, and his lips were turned down as he studied a tattered volume. “I don’t think we’ll find the answers in a book,” he said, closing it.
I glanced around the shelves littered with more tomes and scrolls than I could ever wish to read, silently urging them to give me what I needed: a means to cut the thread that tied my soul to Ryker’s.
A way to free myself from the man whose presence in my life was a slow poison, seductive but toxic.
Frustrated, I shut the book I still held and returned it to the shelf. “We’re wasting our time.”
Callum closed the gap between us, placing a hand on my shoulder. “You’re not alone in this, Cadence.”
He’d meant to offer comfort, but his words only made the swirling pit of dread taking up residence in my stomach that much harder to bear. My brother wouldn’t leave me, and his loyalty would end up costing him his life.
As if summoned by my errant thoughts, a low whimper sounded in the distance. Soft at first, before growing into a mournful wail that rose with alarming speed, swelling into a scream that split my skull like a blade.
It was weaponized grief, raw and unwavering, carrying the weight of every death it had ever foretold. My hands slammed against my ears, and I was vaguely aware of Callum calling my name.
But the noise only grew louder, the last breath of a soul torn from its body, twisted until sorrow turned to rage, so sharp it could kill. The cry echoed where sound shouldn’t reach, threading through my mind, my blood, my soul.
Then, as quickly as it started, it disappeared.
The silence left in its wake was terrifying.
