Page 75 of Veil of Night & Flames

He shakes his head. “The book may well be here. Much of this collection is even older than I, and there are corners of it that have not yet been cataloged.” He spreads a hand at the stacks. “If it exists anywhere in the five realms, it could as easily be here as not.”

“You really think so?”

“It’s possible.”

I frown, remembering the way I’d found Chase’s cure. If it is here, maybe I can find it on my own.

I let go of Adric’s hand and walk into the stacks.

I don’t read titles. I don’t scan spines. I just walk the seemingly endless aisles, my mind reaching for the thing I need as I move deeper and deeper among the books, past sections in languages I don’t recognize and then back into books with familiar words but incomprehensible topics, as if the books themselves are gibberish. After what seems like hours, I’m exhausted and no closer to finding the book.

Try it. Just try it.

The little voice in my head is firm. Determined.

I sigh. Why not? The worst that can happen is nothing.

So even though I feel a little silly doing it, I reach out, imagining the book in my hand.

And as I do, a small leather volume with no title on the spine begins to wiggle its way out from between two others. Except I remember those two books. Both blood red and side by side.

The little book wasn’t there before.

I’m doing it again.

Awe mixed with relief washes over me, so strong it almost knocks me over, but I manage to keep my balance as I pull the little volume from the shelf. The moment I do, a sense of rightness washes over me, so strong I don’t even need to open it. I do, anyway, and even though I don’t know Latin, I know enough to recognize that Liber Tenebris Liminis has something to do with thresholds.

And that’s good enough for me.

“You found it.”

I jump a little, then turn to face Adric, his expression a little awed.

“Weird, isn’t it? I don’t know how it works, but that’s how I found Chase’s cure, too.”

He says nothing, but when he looks at me, I see the hint of a smile. “Then let us hope this magic still speaks truth.”

I nod vaguely, then look up to meet his eyes. “Maren didn’t have a clue. Doesn’t she catalog the books? She should have known.”

He chuckles. “Would that my staff were that well-informed.”

“What do you mean?”

“Beloved, there are more books in this library than exist in your entire Realm. I don’t think her memory deserves to be faulted. More, as you say in the Real, you should cut her some slack. I imagine you make her quite nervous. You are her queen, after all.”

“Not yet.”

“Close enough to make a librarian forget herself in your presence.”

I shrug, silently conceding the point.

“I have to get back,” I say, tucking the book into the inner pocket of the cloak the realm put on me when I crossed. “Tia’s going to lose her entire mind. I just need to swing through and pick up the rest of the books Maren’s pulling for me.”

Adric catches my hand. “You only just arrived.”

“I know. I’m sorry. But this matters, and the longer I’m here, the longer the people in the Real are out there with no idea what’s coming.”

I go up on my toes and kiss him—quick, then not quick, because quick and Adric really don’t go together. When I finally pull back, we’re both breathing hard.