“Debatable.”
My humour fades as we start walking. We press forwards, the corridor curving into deeper shadow, lit only by the soft glow of Kael’s palm and the occasional flicker from the runes embedded in the wall.
Each step echoes too loud. My nerves are frayed, the high from earlier gone, replaced by something colder. My thoughts keep looping—what if we’re trapped, what if this isn’t the library, what if there is no library and this is some elaborate, cruel trap? What if we’re too late and Dawson dies, and the prince dies, and it’s all on us?
My breathing shortens. Tightens. Kael’s hand in mine grounds me—but only a little.
“I don’t get it,” I whisper, voice edged with panic. “Why are we the ones to find this? How does something like this even exist? Secret libraries are great in books, sure, but in real life, they don’t just appear conveniently after a death match and a weird dimensional leap. It’s too much. It’s?—”
“Sonny.”
I snap to him. Kael’s eyes are glowing low and steady. He steps close. One hand rests against my chest, right over my heart. His voice enters my mind like a balm:“Breathe. With me.”
I try.
It takes a second, but our bond helps regulate the spiral. My pulse starts to match his. One thrum. One rhythm. Our hearts beating as one. Handy feature, really. Then Kael leans down and kisses me. Slow. Firm. The kind of kiss that doesn’t rush, that doesn’t promise anything exceptI’m here. You’re safe. We’ve got this.
My lungs finally expand properly. “Okay,” I whisper, forehead pressed against his chest. “I’m good. I’m notgoodgood, but I’m… better.” I nod. “Let’s go find whatever bloody secret was left down here like a twisted escape room prize.”
We pass into a wider space. Rows of shelves line the room, though most are broken or bare. A few scrolls remain, as well as dusty tomes and scattered bits of parchment. The air smells of old knowledge—paper and time and something a little metallic.
“This is it?” I murmur, stepping forwards. But it doesn’t feel right. Too empty. Too… easy? “This can’t be it, right?” I whisper, turning in a slow circle.
Kael’s hand tightens around mine. His expression is wary. “You’re not wrong.”
Then I feel it. That same thrum of energy. But this time it’s not from Kael—it’s from the ground. The pulse hits my boots and vibrates up my legs like a silent alarm. Kael stiffens beside me.
“It’s beneath us,” he says.
We both look down. To anyone else it would look like the same stone flooring as before. But there—right ahead—is one tile. A different shade. A little too clean. A little too deliberate.
He steps towards it, dragging me with him. His sword shifts into his free hand.
The moment his foot lands on the tile, light explodes. Bright sigils spiral outwards from beneath his boot—etched into the tile in the same sharp, elegant lines as Kael’s own markings. They glow bright, identical to the faint pulse of bioluminescence thattravels up his arms. He gasps—and I feel it before I even see it. A shock of burning power races through our linked hands.
My scream catches in my throat. I shove up my sleeve just in time to watch his markings etch themselves into my skin in glowing blue and gold.
“Oh fuck—Kael, what the hell is this?—”
He looks at me, stunned, his mouth moving, but I can’t hear him. There’s a ringing in my ears, sharp and high like pressure building inside my skull. Then comes a burn on my shoulder—hot, fierce, biting—and I collapse to my knees with a strangled cry.
Kael drops with me, holding me tight.
I see his lips move again as my name appears aloud and in my mind.“Sonny.”
But everything else? White-hot light and the sound of my pulse, my breath, the crackling roar of energy rising.
This isn’t a library. It’s something more. Something ancient. And whatever we’ve just activated… we’ve crossed a line we can’t uncross.
The tile vanishes beneath Kael’s boots. Just gone—like some twisted trapdoor in a nightmare—and with it, we fall.
A-fucking-gain.
“Shit!” The scream rips from my throat as we plummet into open air, no wind, no up or down, just black and endless.
I can’t even think—I only feel Kael’s grip, his hand crushing mine, our fingers laced so tight, my knuckles grind together. My other arm flails, useless in the void, my hand still gripping my dagger. We’re just falling. Fucking falling.
This isAlice in Wonderlandbullshit on steroids. And then—light.
