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This shelf was slightly less dusty, but still unlabeled. I pulled a scroll from one of the shelves and removed it from its leather casing.
Finally! I bounced on the balls of my feet with excitement at the first glimpse of the ink on the parchment. I hurried to the table and pulled out the full scroll, delicately smoothing it flat on the table.
My eyes widened as I peered at the map, drinking in the unfamiliar lines and words. It wasn’t Frasia—it was a region I’d never seen before. It looked mountainous, riddled with winding rivers and small lakes, with a jagged coastline. A few towns were illustrated and labeled, but I couldn’t read the language. Where was this? What kind of people lived here? Were they shifters? Mountainous—maybe dragon shifters? The thought thrilled me. I traced the path of the rivers, imagining I was there charting them myself. I saw it clear as day in my mind, myself in functional pants and heavy boots, standing on the bank of a freezing cold river as I gazed up at the crest of an unfamiliar mountain range. I imagined myself sketching the shapes of the mountains, adding detail to my maps.
“What do you think you’re doing?” a rough, unfamiliar voice said behind me.
It surprised me so much I nearly jumped out of my skin. I straightened up and whipped around, and found I was staring directly into a broad, leather-armored chest. The wearer was standing close enough that I could see the detail embossed into the leather, the delicate winding vines running down the sides of the metal and the crescent moon coat of arms right at the solar plexus. Did all the guards have this much detail in their armor? He wasn’t wearing one of the fine fur-line cloaks, though, despite the chill in the library, and his bare arms were thick and muscular. I had to tip my chin up to meet his eyes, and his face made my wolf whine with curiosity and a slight edge of anxiety.
This man had dark, thick hair falling loose into his dark eyes, a straight nose, high cheekbones. He would’ve been handsome if not for the golden flicker breaking through the chocolate-brown of his eyes like lightning strikes. When he smirked at me, I couldn’t tell if his teeth were sharpened or always looked like that. His wolf was close to the surface. My wolf could sense it—it woke her up, and made my hackles rise. Like this man could shift at any moment. I supposed this was how the guards of Nightfall behaved—like animals.
“I asked you a question, little wolf,” the man said. His voice edged into a growl.
I scoffed. Little wolf? “I’m a Lady of the Court Daybreak,” I said curtly. “I’m here at Lady Glennis’ instruction.”
“Lady Glennis instructed you to stick your nose in the court’s private archives?” The man smirked. “I find that a little hard to believe.”
“I have the lady’s permission,” I said. “Is that not enough?” I wasn’t going to let some random guard bully me out of my map exploration—not when I finally had access to such beautiful and unfamiliar ones.
“Hm,” the guard said. He bared his teeth as he watched me, thoughtlessly, like he didn’t realize he was doing it at all. The expression sent a nervous shiver down my spine, and internally my wolf whined and lowered her ears. We were no match for this wolf—that much was obvious.
“I’d appreciate it if you left me to my reading,” I said.
He exhaled a short laugh through his nose. “I have no intention of doing such a thing.” He stepped somehow even closer, and I backed up until I bumped against the table behind me.
“Step back,” I said, low. “Or I’ll scream.”
“And who will come to save you, little wolf?” the guard said. His brown eyes swirled with gold, and I could smell the animal musk on him. He was about to shift, I could feel it crackling around me like an oncoming storm.
My breath caught in my throat. I was frozen with him this close to me, like my wolf was pinned in place by this show of dominance. Part of me wanted to run, part of me wanted to shove him away, part of me wanted to bare my neck in a show of submission. His gaze flickered to my neck, too, like he was thinking the same thing. Like he wanted to set his teeth at the nape and force me to behave. Something low in my gut tightened at the thought. It was so animal. Why did it make me so frozen? And why did it make my wolf so awake?
But then, the guard just stepped back and laughed. He brushed me aside and briskly rolled the map back up, sliding it back into the leather tube and returning it to its place on the shelf.
The spell he’d held over me suddenly shattered. “Hey!” I said. “I was using that!”
The guard shot me a look. His eyes were brown again, and slightly widened in disbelief. “There are plenty of maps in the public archive,” he said. “You’re free to peruse any on that shelf there.” He pointed to a well-stocked shelf on the other side of the table. “This shelf is off-limits to visitors.”
I huffed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Then why is it unmarked?”
“Visitors rarely take interest in the archives,” the guard said.
“Who are you to establish these rules, then?” I asked. My wolf was settled again, easy to ignore, and now my irritation was taking the forefront in my mind. “The cartographer?”
“Something like that,” he said with a smirk. He flashed his teeth at me again, and a shiver rolled across my skin. It wasn’t an entirely unpleasant one though. “Stick to the shelf I showed you and we’ll have no trouble.”
Before I could argue further, he strode back through the door and closed it behind him. Part of me wanted to pull out the map he’d snatched away, but I knew I’d pushed my luck enough today. I still had to represent Daybreak well, and I didn’t want this interaction to make its way back to the king. So I pulled a few scrolls from the shelf he’d directed me to, and tried not to think about the man behind the locked door.
4
The richly detailed Frasian maps made it easy to lose the hours. It wasn’t until my stomach rumbled demandingly that I finally was able to pull my attention away from the richly detailed representations of cities and coastlines I’d never seen. With some regret, I rolled the maps back up and slipped them into their leather tubes.
Downstairs, I found Fina curled up in an overstuffed chair by the fire, entranced in a novel and already three-quarters of the way through it.
“Hey,” I said.
She jolted so hard she nearly toppled out of the chair. “Oh!” She blinked rapidly. “Wow! What time is it?”
I bit back a laugh. “Looks like you’re enjoying the book,” I said.
