Page 272 of House Ignis

“This isn’t just history,” I breathed, the realization dawning on me. “It’s warning me.”

“Or baiting you,” Aether growled, circling tighter around my legs. “Time to leave. Now.”

The book suddenly slammed shut in my hands, the force of it rattling my teeth.

The runes dimmed. The air eased.

I sagged in relief, forcing my cramped fingers to unclench.

But then the cover changed.

Where there had been plain black leather before, something began to rise beneath the surface, pushing upward as if it were alive.

A jagged symbol emerged. Sharp. Curling. Like smoke. Like thorns. Like a crown forged from fire and ash.

My breath hitched. It pulsed once.

Alive.

“No,” Aether warned, his ears flattening. “Don’t touch it, Ava.”

But the pull was unbearable, something unseen tugging at the very center of my core.

My hand lifted without permission.

My fingertips brushed the raised leather of the crown.

Agony detonated through me.

“Fuck!” I gasped, jerking back as a white-hot heat tore across my skin. The scent of burning flesh filled the air, acrid and sickening.

I clutched my hand to my chest, my vision swimming with black spots.

When I finally looked down, my heart stopped.

The mark was there. Faint. Fresh. Undeniable.

A crown branded into the center of my palm.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

“Fuck—fuck—fuck—”

The curse was a jagged rhythm to my footsteps as I clutched the book to my chest and sprinted.

Aether kept pace, a streak of black and gold weaving through the aisles as they began to fold and twist like paper.

The library didn't just groan; it roared—the sound of a thousand years of silence shattering all at once.

“I told you!” Aether’s voice was a whip-crack inside my mind. “I told you not to touch it!”

“A little less 'I told you' and a little more running!” I panted, my heels skidding on the stone stairs as the architecture behind us collapsed into a shifting, impossible maze.

We didn't stop until the threshold was behind us.

The second we cleared the doors, the world snapped back into focus.

The cold night air hit my lungs with a sudden, freezing rush, shocking my system back to life.