Page 182 of House Ignis

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The transition from the warmth of Asher's bed to the cold, ink-stained reality of the Tower was jarring.

The last few weeks had been a blur of whispered secrets and shared chocolate, punctuated by the frantic decoding of ancient symbols in the hushed archives.

We weren't really studying; we were excavating the truth behind Jax's journal, and with every translated sentence, the lie I was telling Asher grew heavier.

His presence was a warmth I craved and a betrayal I hated.

Every time he came to check on me, Jules and I would scramble, burying our heads in textbooks and pretending the shadows between us were nothing more than academic.

Gods, the guilt was a physical thing—a knot in my stomach that tightened every time his silver eyes lingered on mine.

I wanted to blurt it out every time his hand brushed mine. I love you. The words sat like glowing embers on my tongue, but I kept swallowing them back.

I love you.

The words sat like glowing embers on my tongue, but I kept swallowing them back.

I knew he was circling the same words. We were both dancing around it, and the tension was killing me.

"Agh, I don't know why your brother went to such lengths with Veyari script," Jules murmured, a piece of chocolate melting on her tongue.

Her eyes, big and brown behind her glasses, were glued to the text.

“The last passage confirms it,” I whispered. “Jax encountered a Veyari.”

We spent hours buried in the pages, the silence of the archives broken only by the scratch of Jules’s quill.

My mind kept drifting back to that morning, to the safety of Asher’s arms and the way he’d made me forget the world.

I held onto that feeling like a shield. If the world was falling apart, at least I had him. He was the only thing that felt solid.

Jules shot upright, her glasses slipping down her nose. “Wait!”

My heart leapt into my throat.

"What? What is it?" I asked, my voice barely a whisper.

Jules shoved two papers she'd been scribbling on into my hand.

They were more of Jax’s entries, finally translated into our tongue.

I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding, Aether's coat a warm, grounding weight against my legs.

I read the first entry, my pulse quickening:

My fingers shook as I wrote. Then—eyes. Red, with slitted pupils like a feline’s, most of his face shrouded in shadow. My heart beat wildly as he smiled and revealed his fangs. "Veyari," I whispered. Oh my gods. Solas told me to run, but I couldn't. I had found something far more important than Eclipsa. Something Father needed to know about.

The male just stared at me, and that felt far worse. I had a feeling I might not return.

—J.

My mouth went dry, the words a physical blow.

Tears pricked at my eyes. This was him.

My brilliant, reckless brother, Jax. He had found one of them. My worst fear was right there, inked on the page.