“It is,” I agreed. “He was just sitting alone in a corner. He thought I was a server girl, so I brought him wine when he asked. We talked for a bit about the dancers, and then I had to return to the kitchen to help my father. But later that night, I saw him again. He said he would draw my face into one of his works. Then I never saw him again.”
“And did he?” Kythel wanted to know.
I shrugged. “I have no idea. I never looked. And most of his works are unreleased. Only for him.” I looked back to the shifting hologram. “If I owned one of these…I would keep it locked away. Aren’t you worried it could get damaged out here in the atrium?”
“It seemed selfish,” he murmured, “to keep it all to myself.”
I nodded, understanding. Looking back at the hologram, I watched it loop twice more, admiring the way the lines faded and appeared, a dance all their own.
Then I cleared my throat, noticing the hushed quiet in the atrium and the weight of Kythel’s eyes.
“The library,” I prompted quietly. Ruaala. I couldn’t forget why I was here.
“This way,” he murmured, gesturing toward the staircase. The banister was cold and smooth, like black marble, beneath my palm as I started the climb, Kythel at my back.
“Where are your keepers?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“Most are sleeping at this hour,” he informed me. “We won’t be disturbed.”
The hallways were mostly dark on the second floor, the only source of light the moon streaming in through the plethora of windows. Kythel guided me to a set of arched black doors. When he opened them, I discovered a large room with floor-to-ceiling shelving and an open upper level with even more. Thick, dust-free tomes and pristine rolled parchment were carefully nestled within the metal bookcases.
There was a soft place in my soul that brightened at the sight. Moonlight streamed across the floor, but Kythel tapped a panel next to the door. Halo orbs hummed to life. Gentle, lilac-colored light illuminated the library, and I found myself wishing I could curl up on the chaise in the center of the room and juststay.
“Do you actually read in here?” I wondered. Kythel left the door open but guided me deeper into the room.
“No,” he admitted. “I rarely have the time to read for pleasure anymore.”
“Pity. I can imagine you in here so easily. It suits you.”
He slid me an assessing look. “Everything in my keep suits me. I planned every last detail.”
Confusion dipped into my tone when I commented, “I thought Erzos Keep has been here for generations.”
“It has,” he told me. “But no one in my family has lived here for nearly a hundred years. When I took over the territory, I had almost every room worked on. I kept the original structure in place, of course. It would be a travesty to tear down these walls.”
I was…impressed.
“Where did you find the time?” I asked.
“I barely slept for two years,” he confessed to me. The corner of his lip quirked. “Though I had been planning its renovation since I was a child, so I had long-held ideas for this place.”
“You always knew Erzos would be yours?” I questioned, intrigued. I knew all the brothers of House Kaalium oversaw different territories, but it hadn’t always been that way.
“My twin was always going to have Laras,” he told me. “Erzos was practical for me. Logical. So yes, I always knew.”
But there was a curious tone in his voice that had my ears perking.
“No,” I said quietly, tilting my head to regard him. “You didn’t. Did you want Laras instead?”
“No,” he scoffed. “Never.”
Another thought occurred to me, and it was out of my mouth before I could stop it. “Did you not want any territory at all?”
Kythel looked away sharply to regard the tomes of his library. He moved forward, sliding his long, thick finger down the black spine of a book before he plucked it from its place.
“I’m sorry—it’s none of my business,” I said quietly, his obvious silence prickling over my skin. “My father always said I was too nosy for my own good. But I like to understand people.”
But there was something in my words that must’ve struck a chord. I’d never given much thought to theKyzairesof the Kaalium. I’d never given much thought to their lives. It surprised me greatly to learn that the female my father had loved so dearly had been tied to House Kaalium. He’d never told me who she’d been betrothed to. It made sense now.
