“I do not have claws.”
Shade practically snorted.“You absolutely have claws.”
“I have boundaries.”
He nodded.“But those boundaries are weaponized sarcasm whenever you’re emotionally cornered.”
She stared at him in offended silence.
Mostly because he was right, and she hated that with the intensity of a thousand burning suns.
Shade rose slowly to his feet.
The room seemed smaller when he stood.
Or maybe she just noticed him more now.Had he gotten more muscular?Surely not.Had his chest become more broad?No, absolutely not.It was the book playing tricks on her, attempting to make Shade look more appealing, as if he needed any help.Dammit, Myanin, stop it.She was trying, but he was just there, looking all fierce and warrior-like.Which was abso-freaking-lutetly unacceptable.
“I’m not your enemy, Myanin.”
Her laugh came sharp enough to cut.“That feels debatable considering we’re trapped in a homicidal magical scrapbook because you came hunting for me.Or,” she paused.“Was it Thadrick you were hunting?”
He glanced away.His hands picked at non-existent fuzz on his pants.
“Shade?Which was it?”
She saw the acknowledgment flicker briefly across his face.But he didn’t retreat.Not fully.It was as if he was battling with himself.Then he took a deep breath, apparently coming to some conclusion.“Honestly ...”
It took everything in her not to say “duh,” but she could tell he was being genuine.
“At first it was for him, and then once he was dealt with, I’d come for you.”His words sounded regretful, and his eyes matched, but she still wondered if what he said was true.
Myanin didn’t want to even consider a dead Thadrick, even if there had been many times that she herself had wanted to kill him.But that was her choice and her actions.She didn’t want someone else doing it.Or someone else having that on their conscience.Especially not Shade.Pause.Why especially not Shade?Why did that bother her more than it being someone else killing Thadrick?Why was she still stuck on killing Thadrick?“Someone stab me in the eye with a dull knife,” she huffed as she tried to get her emotions under control.
“You’re afraid,” he said quietly.
“Yes,” she said sharply.She’d nearly forgotten he was sitting there while she had epiphany after epiphany that she had no desire to have.“We’re trapped inside cursed emotional warfare.”
“No.”He shook his head.“Not of the book.”
The turning pages around them slowed.
Listening.
Myanin felt it immediately.
The Nushtonia was responding.Not to magic.To truth.
And suddenly the room around them shifted.
A low groan rolled through the shelves.Pages fluttered violently overhead as somewhere beyond the chamber another corridor began unfolding from darkness, stone and parchment twisting together into a new path.
The book had reacted.
Again.
Shade looked slowly toward the opening.
Then back at her.
