Page 113 of Her Ivory Flame

“What are you looking for?” Xander asked quietly next to her.

“Anything that has to do with the reason the war started.” She sighed and walked to the first set of books to figure out how they organized them.

“I heard it was over a female.” Boone shrugged.

“That’s what we thought too but when I looked in Elnora, all the history books were gone.” Her finger grazed over a few books and realized there was no dust on any of them.

“That’s strange.” Boone added.

“Seems they are hiding something.” Xander mumbled behind her and she glanced over her shoulder with a smirk.

“Exactly.”

They wandered around the hundreds of books that had lined the walls and shelves throughout the room. She could tell some of the books came from the capital; she recognized similar spines from when she looked with Kaden.

She grabbed a few and flipped through them. They had no real useful information and she let out a sigh as she placed them back.

Boone and Xander started to get bored and decided to look around themselves while keeping an eye on her. Not that it was dangerous, they were the only ones there and it was quiet except for the sound of them closing books.

Over an hour passed and she knew Kaden was going to be seeking her out soon.

Disappointment started to overtake her, only a few references to the kings being brothers and how Mavros was supposed to be crowned king, but last minute Emris took it. After that it skipped to the beginning of the war and nothing more.

They had made it to the far wall and to the last of the books, her face covered in annoyance. She thought maybe they would havemoved the books from Elnora here since it was a smaller town, but apparently she was wrong.

The last section of books were just ahead of her, and she sighed as she picked up another book with no hope it would have any use. Xander and Boone stood behind her, leaning against the books with defeat on their faces.

A sudden draft of air hit her, the edge of the bookcase cold and she studied it carefully. It was unlike the rest of them, and when she looked down she could see a faint wear line on the floor.

“Xander.” she waved towards him, his body instantly tense and only took a few steps to stand by her side. “You see what I see?”

He kneeled down, Boone joining them and he studied the bookcase along with the floor.

“Let's find out if we are correct.” Xander shrugged and motioned for Boone to step closer.

Both men grabbed onto the shelf and tugged on it, the corner sliding along that already worn mark and a burst of air hit her face. It was a secret stairwell and she smirked.

“Nice job.” Boone smiled at her and Xander peered into the dark room.

“Looks like it's a long way down, I’ll go first.” Xander said, his tone blunt and she walked up behind him.

There was a Fae light just inside the door, instantly lightning with Xander’s touch and he started down the stairs holding itahead of him. She followed in step, Boone behind her and they descended down the spiral stairs with caution.

“You think it's only books down here?” She whispered

“With the feelings I get from this place, probably not.” Boone mumbled behind her.

Xander stayed silent, his body on high alert and she could see his face looking around for any traps or dangers.

She summoned a little spark of her power, letting the flame give them a little extra light until they got to the bottom of the stairs. They must have gone down at least two floors, meaning this was somewhere underground.

An iron door was at the bottom, the thickness of it was double what a normal door would be and they all looked at each other with a puzzled look. They had all halted at the bottom of the stairs, both men on either side of her and she let out a long breath.

“Yeah, definitely more than books.” Boone mumbled next to her.

Xander continued forward and cautiously grabbed onto the door handle, his shoulders instantly tensing but opened it slowly. Boone took a step in front of her, his hand on his sword and she realized she didn’t have a weapon on her.

She gently grabbed Boone’s dagger from his hip, his eyes quickly glancing back at her and nodded in agreement that she should have it before looking back towards the door.