Shadow’s Fate and the Wrath of Ruin.
“Aren’t you something?” I asked, straightening without touching the book.
Pherin peeped, and only now did I realize she still clung to my shoulder.
Take,I could swear she said.Now.
She’d guided me well already, so, without hesitating, I snatched up the book.
The walls started trembling, each jerk bringing them closer. Closer. If I stayed here, I’d be crushed.
“Hold on,” I shouted, spinning and flinging myself at the wall I’d come through. It sucked me in and spit me out the other side. I landed hard on my knees, the book dropping from my hands to thud on the floor.
Pherin hopped off my shoulder and landed beside it. She ruffled her feathers and shook, sending dust in all directions.
I felt like doing the same thing myself.
Lexie latched onto my arm and dragged me to my feet while Kerralyn collected the book.
Derren peered over her shoulder at the front of it. “That doesn’t sound ominous at all.”
“Interesting title,” Kerralyn said with awe spiking through her voice. “Have you read it yet?”
“I wasn’t gone long enough for that.”
Derren shrugged. “You were gone half an hour or so.”
My breath caught. “It was only a minute. Maybe less.”
My friends shook their heads.
This was… I wasn’t going to think too hard about it right now. Had I traveled to a different realm? That might explain the dust on this book and the loss of time.
“When I fell through the wall, I found myself in a small room.” I described it to them.
“Old,” Kerralyn said. “Maybe not even of this world.” She strode to the wall and ran her hand across it. “It feels normal to me.”
“A hidden room in a different realm?” Lexie said with a grin. “You get to have all the fun.”
Derren put his arm around her shoulders. “No worries, love. You haveme.”
She stood on her toes to kiss his cheek.
“I wonder if the librarian knew about it,” Kerralyn said.
“We can ask her.”
She scrunched her face my way. “I’d like to avoid her if you don’t mind.”
Derren snorted. “No wonder you tried to hide the last time we came here.”
“This is why I had the smithy make a second key. I knew she’d tell me to give it back, which she did.”
We left the library, locking the door behind us.
Inside my room, I shut and locked my door and settled on the bed beside Kerralyn, while Derren dragged over a chair and sat. He pointed to his lap, and Lexie climbed onto him and draped her arms around his shoulders, holding tight. The way Lexie fit against Derren’s side wasn’t just comfortable, it was inevitable, like puzzle pieces that had spent lifetimes looking for each other.
I laidShadow’s Fate and the Wrath of Ruinon my lap and opened it carefully. The pages were so brittle they nearly fell apart at my touch, but the ink hadn’t faded. It had such tiny writing, I could barely make it out.
