Page 269 of House Ignis

“You’re the size of a horse and you’re intimidated by stationery?”

His head snapped toward me, ears flat and fangs flashing in the dim red light.

“These are not books, Little Flame,” he said quietly. “These are cages. And we just walked inside them.”

I rolled my eyes, stepping ahead anyway, though my skin was crawling.

My fingers drifted along the spines as I passed. Some were warm, humming with a low energy; others were so cold that frost rimed my nails instantly.

“Relax,” I muttered. “It’s just a bunch of—”

The aisle shifted.

Not gradually. Not subtly. It was violent. Stone groaned, and the shelves lurched inward like jaws snapping shut.

The floating flames scattered in frantic, jagged spirals as the entire corridor twisted.

Books flew from their places, hovering in the air like a flock of dark, leathery birds, and runes flared in blinding bursts of crimson light.

Behind us—the path vanished.

One blink and the row stretched back toward the entrance; the next, it bent sideways, the shelves twisting like ribs beneath skin.

They split into three new paths that hadn’t existed a heartbeat ago. The floating flames hissed and tore away from us until only dim, blood-red embers remained.

Darkness pressed close.

My smirk faltered.

“…Aether?”

He was already glued to my leg, his claws biting into the flagstone hard enough to scrape sparks.

His golden eyes were wide and furious in the gloom.

“I told you.”

I swallowed hard. “Okay… so maybe you were right.”

The whispers surged louder, a cacophony of voices rising from the parchment.

Flame… Queen… Lost One… Come deeper…

They weren’t just in the air anymore.

They were inside the stone, inside the books, inside me.

I turned slowly, my pulse hammering against my ribs like it wanted out.

Each path stretched endlessly into shadow, bending in ways corridors weren’t meant to bend.

Panic clawed up my throat, hot and choking.

And then—fwoom.

Light ignited at the farthest end of the leftmost corridor.

A single book had slipped free from its shelf.