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“I did, but first, I wanted to see if I could find some old books in here.” I turned around in a circle, eyeing the shelves lining the walls and crowding the space.
“You? Books? Why?”
I sighed and turned back to her. “I think I know what Conri is searching for.” I told her about the first alpha, the witches, the creation of our pack, the crystals … “I don’t know where the crystals are hidden, but I was wondering, maybe some of these books have something about it.”
Raika’s brows lifted. “The pack’s recordings.”
“Exactly.” It hadn’t been my intention to come here for the records. I just wanted to see her again, but now this sounded like a good excuse. “My father showed me them when I was younger, but I haven’t studied them.” Yet. Someday, if it all worked out, I would become alpha, and then I would read them all. “I don’t know how far back they are dated.”
“We can find out.” Raika took the lead. She stopped at the front counter, from where she got a set of heavy bronze keys, then she weaved through the bookshelves to the farthest wall, where the shelves had doors. With the bronze key, Raika unlocked a section and opened the doors wide open. A heavy leather-bound ledger stared back at us. “These should be the town’s records.”
Dates were written on the ledgers’ spine. I counted down, until I found the first one—from almost eight hundred years ago. That wasn’t far back enough, but I still picked it up and flipped it open. A fancy handwriting covered the pages and skimmed through the first part. Like I thought, this was the first record from our pack, but it came when the pack was already two hundred years old.
“It’s not here.” I returned the book back to its place. “Could there be more? Maybe somewhere else?”
Raika skimmed the spine of the records. “I don’t know. If there are more, they aren’t here. Maybe they're hidden.” She would know better than anyone else since she had spent a lot of time in here, and later, this had become her workplace.
“Maybe.” I frowned as she continued looking at the spines. “What are you doing?”
Raika picked up the last ledger on the entire shelf. “I thought I could see something.” She sat on the floor, folded her legs, and placed the heavy book over her legs. “I’m not sure it would be recorded, but I have to check.”
I crouched beside her. “Check what?”
She glanced at me. “Why my family was demoted. Why we became the pack’s omega.”
Shit. I knew why and I also knew she wouldn’t find it there. My father hadn’t wanted anyone to find out about one of his lowest points, so he didn’t write it down.
“Raika,” I started, not really sure what I should say. “Does it really matter? It’s not like you can change the past.”
She glared at me. “It matters to me.” She flipped the pages of the ledger until she found the correct year, but several pages were blank there. Incredulous, she flipped back and forth between the pages. “What the hell?”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“You knew it wouldn’t be here?” She pushed the ledger to the side and shot up to her feet.
I rose with her. “Raika …”
“You know, don’t you? Why your father did that to my grandparents. To my mother. To me.” She stilled. “Tell me.”
I shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”
She took a step back. “Didn’t you hear me? It matters to me.”
“But it’s not important.”
“You’re not going to tell me,” she whispered. Nodding, she turned and marched between two shelves. “I knew I shouldn’t trust you. You’re just here to make sure your siblings are okay. You don’t care about anyone else. That’s okay.” She continued mumbling nonsense and weaving through the many shelves as I followed. “We’ll find a way.”
She abruptly halted and scanned the books in front of her.
“Find a way for what?”
“I don’t know why I didn't think of this before. I guess I didn’t need it because you had abandoned us. But you’re back now, and you’ll take over once we defeat Conri. It’ll be easier if it’s gone.”
“Raika, what the hell are you talking about?”
She picked a book from the shelf and flipped it open. “Breaking the bond.”
I blinked. “What?”
