He rested his head on his fist, letting out a breath. “How could we have known we had enemies when we didn’t even know what or who we were supposed to be.”
The oldest book of the lot sat closest to me, and I flipped it open, turning the pages carefully. “Does that mean you’ve heard of the Breaker of the Spine?”
“Yes. You haven’t?”
“No.”
“How…”
“Don’t know.”
Elex was thoughtful as he turned the pages in the book in front of him. “The Breaker of the Spine is the one who must not only mind the spine as it falls back to the earth but mind all of S’Kir as it does. There’s a lot of magic in that, and it’s not an easy thing to be in charge of.”
“Jallina called me the Breaker.”
With his finger tracing the drawings on the page, Elex was preoccupied with the designs on the page for a quiet minute.
After several false starts, he finally found his voice. “I suspected you were the Breaker when the mountain called you. I was nearly sure when we entered the cave. And after the kidnapping attempt, I’m not the only one who thinks you are.”
A deep sigh left me. Suddenly, I felt resigned to this fate. “You think that I’m going to break the spine?”
He pursed his lips, trying not to answer the question, but eventually, Elex gave in. “Yes. I do.”
The slam of the book echoed through the empty library hall. “Shit. Dorian was right.”
The laugh that bubbled up in Elex wasn’t as full of mirth as he wanted it to be. “That pains you?”
“Elex, he’s an asshole.”
“We’ve established that, yes.”
“I don’t want him to be right.”
His fingers caressed my chin and turned me to look at him. “He’s so much older than everyone else. He’s going to be right more than you can possibly imagine.”
His beautiful black eyes sparkled in the dim light of the library.
“Jallina is going to spy for us.”
“You asked her to do that?”
“No. She offered. She’s part of the Outlier Temple in the market, and Milgran is a big mouth who hasn’t realized she’s not on his side.”
A pleasant chuckle passed between us as he studied my face. The dark olive tones of his skin were softer than I remembered from our interlude the other night.
I could feel the heat between us rising. In a move to deflect the growing sexual tension, I tried to ask a question. “If I’m the Breaker, who are you?”
He drew in close. “The man who gets to fuck you.”
My resolve to stop this got up and left the room, abandoning me, happily, to his advances. “Does that have an official title?” I teased.
“Mm. We’ll have to come up with one.”
My hand found the rising shaft in his pants. “You have no trouble coming up, do you?”
He lost his voice for a moment and then grabbed my hand to still my motions over his erection. “I wanted to show you that last night, Kimber. But you never came to my apartment.”
“You could have come to mine.”
