The conviction in his voice hit her like a spark to dry kindling. Sudden, searing, and impossible to ignore.
It lit something deep inside her. Not just hope but need. A pounding ache that pushed against her ribs, rising into her throat. The helplessness, the fear, the wanting to do something all crashed into her at once, fierce and unrelenting.
She had to find the answer. She didn’t know how. Didn’t care how. Only that it was there. Buried somewhere in that infernal whispering book, tangled in the thorns and the ink and the truth it never wanted her to see.
And she would find it. Even if it destroyed her.She would find it.
“How much time does he have?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Only the hourglass knows.”
The hourglass that was nearly empty. The hourglass that ticked away more of his life with every drop of sand.
He leaned forward, and for the first time since she’d known him, Dickens reached for her.
It startled her—not the touch, but the choice to touch her at all. His hand settled on her forearm, cold and light, like he wasn’t quite sure he was allowed to make contact. His fingers were long, too long, and there was something off about them. Abouthim.
The chill of his skin bled through her sleeve.
Not cold from the draft.Lifeless.
Her breath hitched.
It felt like he was fading before her eyes. Like he’d been carrying this story for too long, and it had finally begun to hollow him out from the inside. His hand trembled faintly, and still he didn’t let go.
For one awful heartbeat, she wondered if death had already begun to take him, and he was simply trying to leave something behind before it finished the job.
“You must help him, my lady. Youmustbreak the curse. If you do not, he will roam this world forever in his beast form. And this…” He swallowed hard, shook his head, and leaned back in the chair releasing her. “This place will be no more.”
“This place?”
“This castle will disappear. And so will I.”
Chapter 25
Disappear.
The word haunted her.
The thought of Leopold remaining a beast forever sliced pain deep within her. The thought of Dickens disappearing from this world forever distressed her. And she was the only one to save them from this abhorrent fate. The weight of that knowledge pressed down on her as she carried their desperate hope on her shoulders alone. Her hands broke into a cold sweat. Her mouth turned bone dry.
She never wanted this responsibility. She never asked for it. She did not know what she was agreeing to that day on the street outside the bookshop when Leopold—a prince—hired her to translate the book with no name. But she accepted it now and she would do her best to finish translating the book. She rose from the table, smoothing her damp palms down the length of her skirt.
“Iwillfind the answer, Dickens.” She sounded far more confident than she felt.
A rush of relief flickered over his face as he gave her a rare, weak smile. Then it was gone in an instant, his expression returning to the passive one to which she was so accustomed.
Her attempts to read the thorny language were, at best, difficult. The runes were not willing to give up their secrets so easily. And though she had not figured out the remaining words in the book, her resolve remained strong. She experienced moments of breakthrough. And other moments when she simply stared at the page, the thorny lines swimming before her tired eyes.
The idea of going to that cavernous library alone, divided from Leopold, sent a cold pang of longing through her. She couldn’t bear it. She didn’t need the library’s endless shelves or ancient tomes to find the answers. She only needed her magical mind to work. And she needed to be close to him while she worked. Not only to be near him with nothing more than the small space separating them, but to ground her. To help her focus. To help remind her what was at stake and what she was fighting for.
Him. She fought forhim. For his very existence as a man.
It would give her courage and motivation to untangle the thorns.
“I wonder if, perhaps, I would be able to remain with Leopold while I work?” she asked.
It was a long shot. Dickens may want her to stay far away from him while he was in his current state. But the old valet didn’t seem bothered by her request.
