“Careful with that!” I snatched the book from her hands, checking the spine for damage. “This is old.”
“Old and useless,” she quipped. “And boring. Do you think your pirate lord has a copy of theSensuain here? Or a Votruvian equivalent?”
I rolled my eyes and shook my head, but I smiled as my mind drew forth a fond memory from the Living Library.
“It’s no wonder no one has been up to the Arx,” she continued. “Without a Bellator’s caeluma, nobody could reach it. Though I supposed if Olienna was still around, she could have flown a ship to the top.”
I nodded, frowning at the mention of the old Bellator. According to Tynan, Sintarrak had indeed entered the Realm of Vael already, and Olienna had been his first target, forcing his way into her body and ripping her powers out. That scream we had all heard after the gate opened had been Olienna dying. Sintarrak had used his power over the mind to project her cry into our heads—a threatand a promise of what was to come—before he disappeared, leaving her body behind in a husk.Where had he gone?
I turned back to the papers, forcing the phantom scream out of my head and focusing on the threat at hand. Yet a certain rush of anticipation squeezed my chest as the thrill of a new discovery surged in my veins.
All the texts in Kellan’s library came down to the same thing. There were no records of anyone traveling to the Arx, yet there was plenty of evidence that suggested people once had. Most notable were the cages that hung on long chains from underneath the rocky mountain. Low enough to be accessed from a ship below. They had been used regularly as a form of punishment and ultimately a death sentence in the last hundred years the Marisarma Lords had been in control.
I stood and stretched my arms, telling Isla I needed some fresh air, and made my way through the captain’s quarters, pausing at Kellan’s black wooden desk as I spied the white copy ofFabia’s Fables. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t told Kellan this book had appeared in the Living Library last year… Saying it out loud somehow felt like admitting something I wasn’t sure I was ready for.
I flipped the book open, thumbing my way to the first story, “The People of the Stars,” the humans and demigods who stole the power from the gods and brought it to the Realm of Vael.
I scanned the pages, my brows drawing in as I read about the lowly Messenger god who tricked the humans, orchestrating their rebellion and fathering an entire race of demigods without them knowing.Sintarrak, the Messenger god with the Palaega power, the power of the mind. Kellan’s lineage led back to the very god who posed the biggest threat to our realm.
My brows furrowed as I thought back to that power. Olienna had harnessed the Palaega power. Did she have some connection to Kellan? And would Kellan be able to access that power? Did he even want to? He’d been searching for a different Bellator Bone, the Celestyn, because he believed it belonged to his family.
The pirate lord had some power over the mind for our consciousness to have merged into some shared dream last year, but he’d been so angry afterward. As ifI’dbeen the one to intrude onhisdream.
My vision went foggy as a sudden rush of memories swarmed. Heat surged to the center of my core as our shared dream played behind my eyes, and I slid the pads of my fingers from the book forward across the smooth wood of his black desk. It had been so real…
The door to the captain’s quarters swung open, and I jumped, snatching my hand away from the desk and pulling it to my chest.
Kellan’s dark form filled the space, the tip of his enderleaf smoke glowing orange in the dim light of his cabin as he stepped inside and paused. The door swung shut, and he pulled the smoke from his lips, his eyes darkening as they landed on me, and then the desk.
“I was just looking—” I sputtered, heat creeping up my exposed neck.
“Looking…” he mused, closing the space between us and tilting his head, the scar on his lower lip lightening as it curved upward in a rogue smile. He arched a single brow. “Remembering… Who’s thinking about our dream now?”
I huffed a laugh and brushed nothing off my leather vest as I pulled my gaze away. Sweat dampened my chest. The room was notably warmer as Kellan took a step forward, the tips of his fingers tenting over the surface of his desk.
My stare slid from his hand and up the length of his arm to the tattoos snaking along his strong neck, looking strangely similar to the darkness that slithered under my own skin. I paused as my gaze landed on Kellan’s dark eyes, marveling at the marbled gray hidden deep within.
He unclenched his jaw as he shook his head slightly, eyes darting between my own.
“That dreampalesin comparison to what the real thing will be like. When I’ve handled you?—”
“Handled me?” I cut him off with an arched brow, heat building in my midsection.
His chin dipped, and his features darkened as he leaned his head down, a stray strand of hair following the movement and brushing my shoulder.
“When I’ve luredmoansto your lips, Bonscaíh. When I’ve studied you like a book,” he purred, his hand sliding along the black wood and landing on the opened book beside us.
His gaze slipped to my mouth, and my teeth pressed down on my lower lip.
“When I’ve splayed open your pages…memorized every line, everywordthat is you. When I’ve?—”
The door to the hidden library slid open in a soft hush, and my face snapped to the back wall where Isla’s petite form slipped into the office. Her ebony brow arched as she surveyed us.
“Don’t mind me,” she murmured through a grin, shuffling slowly through the room and scanning the small amount of space between our forms.
The door leading to the main deck whooshed open before she could reach for the handle, and Raek’s face peered in.
“We’re an hour out from the Arx,” he said, nodding to his captain. “And the web has been strung.” Raek’s red brows narrowed, and his mouth stretched into a bloodthirsty grin.
