“How would you know?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I paid attention. I told you, Adelia, I’m not a little kid anymore.”
No, I was beginning to see that now, but I still hadn’t told her the truth about her lineage—her destiny.
“So, you and Shade? What will happen after the wishes are made? Can he stay, then?” Straight back to what she wanted to know, like a hound to a bone.
“No, he can’t,” I murmured, wandering toward a painting of dancing nobles, the landscapes too melancholy for this conversation.
“What happens?” Eleanor’s voice was careful, like she didn’t want to upset me.
I sighed at her treatment. I wasn’t fragile just because of what happened with the king, even if I was prone to more panic attacks. “Once all three wishes have been made, he’ll be locked inside the lamp forever.”
“What? Why?”
I shrugged. I’d considered this question before, but my mind had always been so wrapped up in everything else that I hadn’t given it much serious thought.
“I don’t know.” I hesitated, then admitted something I hadn’t even admitted to myself. “I want to free him.”
I’d use the second wish for our escape, then I would wish him free. He deserved true freedom, and selfishly, I couldn’t live without him. I refused.
Eleanor smiled wide, then drew me into a tight hug. “Of course you do, Lia, because you love him.”
That feeling—love—filled my chest when Eleanor voiced what I had been too afraid to. With everything we had been fighting against, I refused to acknowledge the warmth growing in my heart. His utter devotion and caring had chipped away at the walls there. Eleanor saw it. Anyone looking close enough would. Even Terym suspected. Why else would he demand I keep Shade locked away while in view of others?
“I do.” Tears pricked my eyes.
When Eleanor pulled back, her eyes shone brightly, then she wiped away the stray tears and carried on down the wall of paintings. “This whole lamp thing is very strange. Why would someone agree to lock themselves inside one for all eternity if there wasn’t a reason? I mean it would make sense if it was tosave someone you loved, but how would being trapped in a lamp do that?”
Her contemplations continued, but I stopped listening when her words triggered a memory with Terym. Not one of pain and panic, but a story of a brother who sacrificed himself to save his kingdom.
Shade had said he made an impossible bargain, the scent of purloe a gift from the Gods.
I had to check.
I was distracted the rest of the morning spent with Eleanor, and once she had left for her daily classes, I hurried to the library. I needed that book, the one Terym had shown me in Ferveem Forest.
The Keeper was hunched over his usual desk when I approached, and Pierce had stopped to hover at the door, giving us a small amount of privacy. “After assistance today, Miss Masters? I would have thought you knew this library off the back of your hand the number of times you’ve visited.”
I was already used to his strange sixth sense. Without even looking, he could tell who was in the room with him. When I didn’t immediately respond, he glanced up, wise eyes locking onto me with a raised brow.
It would build suspicion to ask, but I didn’t have time to search for it myself, not now that I suspected, and I needed the confirmation. “I’m searching for something, a history tome. From before the Great Divide, when we were one kingdom.”
He placed his quill on the scratched table and regarded me with clasped hands.Shit.He was definitely going to tell the king.
“When these lands were known as Galisordis? The time of the Emyrdeis rule?”
My heart thudded in my chest. It was her line that ruled in those castle ruins. Eleanor’s ancestors.
I nodded once, waiting for his demand for someone to fetch the king, but his eyes lightened with interest, and he rose from his chair. “Quite a fascinating history that.”
He ambled to the stacks, and I assumed that meant I was to follow, so I did. His walking stick clicked against the stone floors as we moved deep through the many rows of bookshelves.
The deeper we traveled, the thicker the dust became, our footsteps disturbing the thick coat and tickling my nose. I scrunched my face to avoid sneezing; such a loud noise would have the Keeper barking at me. He had already done so on one of my other visits.
“Our collection of that time isn’t as vast as the Entiam Library. Mortremon was far more interested in preserving the old kingdom’s history than Torglea during the Great Divide. Here we are.” The Keeper pointed his walking stick at a large row of books. I could hardly see a thing this far into the library, with lanterns lining the end of each row instead of spaced above, so I had to squint to make out the titles.
The books were ancient, spines faded and covered in a thick coating of dust. What I could see of the spines was a language I didn’t understand but was still familiar. Halfway down the shelf, several books were dust free, and I pulled out the gray tome I recognized. The story of the old king and the everlasting flowers. I brushed my fingertips along the ancient lettering on the leather cover.
