Page 24

The ground shakes immediately as lanterns begin to light on the ceiling, and the screech of one of the acolytes fills the air. My heart races as I run down the library, only to trip headfirst over a pile of books, smacking my chin on the stone floor. Grimacing, I taste blood, and my chin throbs. As I push the books away, one of them begins to glow in my hands. The thick book flips open, thousands of its pages flapping in front of me before it slams shut with a smack, sliding out of my hands. The marking words on the leather cover glow the darkest blue I’ve seen, but the library is still shaking, so I climb to my feet and drag my eyes from the book to run.

The shaking doesn’t stop, the screeching doesn’t either, and I panic at how close the sound is getting. I need to find somewhere to hide before that thing kills me or worse, according to Ren. I don’t want to find out either way. My mouth parts when I see a dark blue metal key hovering at the top of a very tall bookcase at the end of the row. I realize I’ve been running right towards the feeling in my chest even though the rest of me is being pulled back in the opposite direction. There is gray light wrapped around the key, red eyes peeking out from that light. The shaking is getting too close now for me to worry about what the light is, and I run right towards the key.

First of all, I need to climb the bookcase. “Climbing, I can do,” I whisper to myself. I thankfully spot a rolling ladder connected to metal bars and pull it along towards the key. With the damage this place has sustained, the bars aren’t all connected, but I do manage the gaps and keep the ladder on track until I get close enough to the end bookcase. There’s a small space between the bookcases that’s too large for me to get the ladder across, but I can jump that, and hopefully the acolyte creature won’t think to look up. It’s a stupid plan, but I start to climb. When I’m at the final step, I climb onto the bookcase itself and look around. The shaking has stopped, and the acolyte is gone…why?

I don’t have time to worry about it as I turn and realize the gray light isn’t a light at all, but a ghost-looking cat. Well, it almost looks like a cat, but its features are so much stranger. It has big floppy ears and a fluffy long tail, which is wrapped around the key. Its red eyes remind me of the acolyte, but they aren’t the same blood red, more of a dark pink color. It watches me almost tauntingly as I pull out my dagger and point it at the cat thing.

“I want the key and that is it. I’ll leave the same way I came, and so will my friend. If you attack me, I’ll fight back because, without that key, I have nothing to lose.” It doesn’t blink, staring into my soul with its pink eyes. The body of it is a mix of smoke, gray and white, but it looks firm and real somehow too. I walk over the edge of the bookcase, hating how the entire thing groans under my foot every time, like it might just fall over and crush me under a thousand books.

I jump onto the next bookcase, landing with a thump on all fours, right on the edge and gripping the side so I don’t fall off, but my heart leaps like I might. The ghost cat watches me as I rise to my knees and stare past it to the key, a slight humming building in my blood. “Don’t move, cat.”

It wags its tail almost mockingly, and I bite down on my inner cheek as I crawl over and reach for the key. It doesn’t move until the last second, and I go to block it with my dagger only for my arm to freeze and lock in place. I can’t move. The cat walks up to my hand and pushes its head into my palm, and I gasp as all I feel is cold spreading through my veins like a drug, and my body snaps back, letting me fall backwards onto the bookcase, and I barely stop myself from falling right off the edge. My hand stings and I lift it into the light to see a line of triangle symbols going from my middle finger all the way down to my wrist.

The cat purrs, and her voice fills my head. “You can have the key now. You’re taking me with you off the island. We should save the grumpy one you brought before he ends up dead. My parents are not as kind as I, and they will wake the others. They will feed on you both for many years until you become like me.”

“You’re talking to me,” I splutter. “In my head.”

“Yes, I’m talking to you, stupid mortal. Take the key. We must leave.” She yawns and walks around me as I stand up. “The last map bearer who came here was at least faster than you. They really chose a stupid one this time.”

“Don’t call me stupid,” I snap at the cat. I’m arguing with a ghost cat.

I even hear her yawn in my mind. “Don’t just stand there staring, then. Grab the key—only you can touch it and not die,” she retorts, sitting back, her fluffy tail snaking around her. “Or your mate, if you have one.”

I’m not doing what she commands. “What’s your name, and how do you go away?”

“Limi.” She almost laughs. “We’re bound for life now. I die when you die, and I will be at your side, or near it, for a long time. You can thank the gods when you see them for the blessing of me. I won’t be thanking them for giving me you, stupid girl.”

I give Limi the middle finger and turn to the key. I reach out and grab it, and I don’t know why I expected anything to happen, but it doesn’t for a long moment. Then my waist begins to light up blue, and I lift my top to see the map changing on my stomach, a path leading to an island with ten crescent moon shapes surrounding it. I lower my top, praying that isn’t what I think it is. I jump onto the bookcase I came from, and she follows me as I climb onto the ladder. “Don’t fall and die. It would be annoying. I’m all filled with hope of leaving this depressing place.”

“Why does it sound like you’d enjoy it if I did fall?” I mutter.

Limi laughs. “Because I would.” She climbs onto my back before I climb down, and I flinch as she curls herself around the back of my neck, her tail hanging down my arm and her head resting on my other shoulder. She feels ice cold everywhere she touches me, and I want to throw her off me, but when I reach for her, my hand passes through her body like smoke. “Only magic-blessed weapons can touch my kind. You’re mortal.”

“You can walk,” I snarl as I climb down the ladder.

“I can, but I won’t. I prefer this. It’s almost like you’re my chariot.” She yawns again. “I might even have a little nap here.”

“Where is he?” I demand when my feet hit the ground. “You want us to leave? Tell me where I can find Ren. The powerful, big man I came in with?”

“You can find him faster than me, stupid girl.” She insults me again. I slide the key into a pocket on my waist clip, buttoning it to make sure it doesn’t fall out, and I run the way I came. I reach the wall where Ren was last on the other side. “Is there a secret lock or something to get out?”

I might as well be talking to myself, because she ignores me as I feel the wall and shake my head. Dammit. Taking a guess, I run down the wall, looking for another archway. I’m sweating and my legs are aching by the time I come across an archway over ten minutes later and step out into a corridor that I’ve not been in before, but it leads to the main part of the library. I walk into it, looking down the rows like I might be able to see Ren. I’m tempted to shout for him, but the last time I shouted, one of the acolytes came, and I can’t risk that.

I don’t have to do anything because suddenly three of the bookcases in the middle are thrown aside and shadows of black ink spiral into the air like snakes, snarling and attacking a massive acolyte. In the center of the inky shadows is Draven, his hair wild, and the magic is pouring out of him. Blood is pouring down his arms, and I realize he must have cut himself to use that power. The shadows change from snakes into two big wolves, and they are rabid as they dig into the acolyte, pushing it back and back. “REN!”

He looks back at me, and I swear I see relief in his eyes, just for a second, before he turns back. I run down the steps to him, getting closer as he chases the acolyte, which is trying to get away now. It’s running from Ren, like he is the monster here and more frightening than anything the acolyte could ever be.

Ren pulls the sword out, the black blade glittering in the firelight. He launches himself straight at the acolyte with a speed and precision that make me realize I would never have won in a fight with him. The shadows work with him like a team—the wolves holding the acolyte down as he slams his sword straight down the acolyte, tearing through it before his shadow wolves finish the job. Limi said only a magic weapon could kill them, and he just did with that black, glittering sword that he sheathes on his back as he storms over to me, his eyes running over my body like he is checking for something.

“You got the key?” he questions. I thought for a moment he was checking that I was okay, like I was checking if he was. No, he wants to make sure I got the key. Maybe Limi is right. I’m a stupid girl with stupid feelings after all.

“Yes.” I nod, noticing that Limi is nowhere to be seen.

“Let’s go, then. We are done here.” He grabs my hand, and he pulls me with him, his blood pouring down into my palm between us. He knows the way out, but he never seems to look at his ring, and I wonder more than once if he has been here before.

We both push the boat back into the sea before climbing into it, letting the soft waves pull us back out and towards the ship hovering on the rainy sea. When I look at Ren, his arms are healing. The blood crawls back into the wounds and seals itself up right before my eyes.

“How?” I question. He can heal himself from anything? He doesn’t need Clark at all.