There’s something about the space that makes it feel… safer, as if the stories woven into the pages might offer clues, protection, or, at the very least, distraction. Even the air seems thicker here, brimming with secrets waiting to be exposed. It’s the only place where the heartache of missing home subsides. I sigh, still wishing I could see Ashwing one more time, to feel the foal shift beneath her soft hide.
I run my fingers along a shelf until one volume thrums beneath my skin. Bound in soft, sky-blue leather with crimson-gilded edges, it seems to pulse with a warmth of its own. The title is etched in delicate gold leaf:Flames and Fate.
I cradle it like a secret and retreat to a worn velvet armchair near the window, curling my legs beneath me as I open to the first page.
The story pulls me in like a tide. A fire god named Murth. An ice princess called Amala. Two souls bound by prophecy and forbidden desire. Doomed by their very nature, they transform into foxes to meet in secret each dawn and dusk at the border between the lava fields and snow-covered plains. Only when the world is neither too warm nor too cold can they hold one another without melting… or burning. Each word strikes like a bell in my chest, as familiar and beautiful as it is painful.
I don’t realize how long I’d been reading until the sunlight softens, brushing the stone with honeyed shadows. The lights flicker, or maybe the shadows breathe.
And then a voice shatters the stillness. “Good book?”
I jump, slamming the book shut as I turn, heart hammering.
King Keiren leaned against a nearby shelf, arms crossed, golden firelight dancing across his skin. His sharp blue eyes lock onto mine.
Chapter 15
Ink & Venom
His gaze is unblinking, unreadable. He doesn’t move, just watches me. The library, once safe, suddenly pulses with a relentless awareness ofhim, like the stones themselves are holding their breath.
He smirks. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“I doubt that. In fact, you seem to be making quite the habit out of it,Your Highness.”
The words slip out before I can stop them. Stars help me, what is it about this man that makes me speak so recklessly?
“If you’ll excuse me.” I turn abruptly, stalking back to the shelf.
My fingers brush over the familiar spot where I foundFlames and Fate—only now, the space for it is gone. In its place is athick book bound in black leather, its silver runes pulsing faintly beneath the dim torchlight like a heartbeat.
As I reach toward it, a sudden hiss emits from its spine. I jerk my hand back as the air turns cold.
“The library is enchanted,” Keiren says softly behind me. “Everything in this accursed place is.”
I turn, still shaken. “Enchanted?”
He steps closer. “It’s alive, in its own way. It chooses what stays, what leaves…” Another low hum echoes along the spines, like the shelves themselves are listening.
“Then how do I put it back?” I ask.
“You don’t,” he says, amusement flickering at the corners of his mouth. “Not until the library is ready to take it from you.”
“But I just… How is that even—”
“I’m surprised it let you take anything at all,” he says, studying me now. “It doesn’t typically like—”
“The hundreds of pesky women who’ve infiltrated your halls?” I fill in.
“Visitors. I was going to sayvisitors,” he says, his grin widening. “Though, now that you mention it…”
He steps toward me. Tall. Impossibly tall. So tall that, even standing at my full height, I barely even reach his chin.
“There have indeed been a few truly obnoxious women,” he says. “Ones who refused help before a Trial, for example. Ones who didn’t get to live to regret it.” He moves closer still, and I try to hold my ground, but instinct makes me lean back, pressing into the shelves behind me.
“Had you come to the garden this morning,” he says softly, “I would’ve told you the one thing that could ensure you survive tonight’s Trial. I waited. All day, until the moon rose in the sky.”
I blink. He waited all day? A king, waiting for me?Unlikely.
