“What is this?” Roane breathes. “Nothing like this has ever happened before. Did you do something?”
“Me? What could I have done?”
His eyes narrow on me. The glowing river is reflected in them. “I don’t know. You’re the only new thing in this world.”
“Athing. Fantastic.”
“Hells. We should get going.” He slides an arm around my back and herds me upslope. The gesture is unexpected but welcome, as the climb uphill is taking its toll on me. “The cabin isn’t far.”
“Cabin?”
“Hunting cabin. Of sorts.”
Huh.That has to be the refuge Talton mentioned earlier. But my mind is on other matters, even if the warmth and strength radiating from Roane’s hand pressed to the small of my back is distracting.
“The tales…” I say slowly as we walk up the incline. “They are mashed up. There aren’t clear-cut divisions between them. Thehydra comes from the Lirnean epic and the Achlys river features in the War of Wilus, and who knows what other creatures and landmarks exist here, taken from all sorts of tales.”
“I never thought of it like that,” he says softly, guiding me up the slope. “Does it change anything?”
“Probably not. It matters to me because understanding plots and patterns speaks to me. Gives me pleasure. Makes me think I’m a step closer to understanding how the world works.”
It’s an illusion that helps me sleep at night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
NOT REAL
ADELINE
A cabin.
I laugh under my breath when I see where he’s taking me. Exhausted out of my mind as I am, I find it ridiculously funny that he considers the strange ruins in front of us to be a hunting lodge.
“What’s wrong?” he rumbles.
“Nothing. Do all cabins here have pillars? For that matter, does all architecture? Couldn’t help but notice it was a key feature in the library, too.”
“That’s my impression, yeah.” He drags me up the last few yards to the structure. “I’m not an expert.”
“In local architecture?”
“And its key features.”
“You live here.”
“It’s not among my interests.”
“So what are your interests?” I ask. “You know, apart from killing monsters and occasionally succeeding in sending them back into their books?”
“Well, that takes up most of my time.”
“Plus hunting for food,” I prod.
“Exactly.”
“But do you read the books?” I focus on setting one foot in front of the other. “Do you lie on your back and stare up at the ceiling, imagining stories?”
“Why, doyoudo that?”
