Page 169 of The Fifth Heir

The promise changed the invitation. He was not taking me somewhere to produce information. He was offering me something beautiful and accepting that whatever my body did there would remain mine unless I chose to share it.

We left the Fifth Wing.

The academy observatory occupied a narrow tower above the Shadow archive. Sebastian’s torc opened the lower door, but the upper staircase remained dark until he sent a small thread of violet light into the wall.

Shadow lamps illuminated one after another.

“Do you come here often?” I asked.

“Whenever the archive feels crowded.”

“There are six people in the entire restricted archive.”

“Exactly.”

The staircase ended beneath a circular room.

Bookshelves filled the lower walls. Instruments occupied the tables: star maps, sighting lenses, rotating brass rings, and several devices I could not identify.

Above us, clear glass formed the entire ceiling.

Night covered the academy.

Without the tower walls blocking the view, the stars appeared in numbers I had never seen from the ground. Their light was faint compared with the rune lamps, but the glass had been enchanted to magnify it without changing its color.

Sebastian deactivated the lamps.

The stars brightened overhead.

I walked to the center of the room.

“Why isn’t this in the public academy tour?”

“Most visitors prefer the dragon arenas.”

“They’re missing this.”

“I know.”

He remained near the staircase, giving me space.

Shadow rested at his feet instead of filling the room. He had brought me into one of the few places where he came to be alone, then made certain I did not feel watched inside it.

I tilted my head back.

The scale at my wrist caught the starlight.

A faint line of color moved across my hand.

Sebastian saw it.

He did not comment.

I appreciated the effort that required.

“White light isn’t actually white,” he said after several minutes.

“That sounds like a comment.”