Page 86 of Taken By Shadows

I looked away in answer.

“I will not hurt you. And I will protect you.” The darkness had ebbed from his eyes when I looked up at them again. “Whether you feel you owe me your life or not. I will protect you.” Kaed didn’t look away. Stars glimmered in them as they sparked with something I couldn’t place. His eyes darted between mine as though he were searching for something in them.

Pulling my gaze from his was like trying to shift a current from its path. The weight of his stare had my breath hitching.

I wanted to joke about it, to shake off the gravity that hung in his words, but the reality was, he was being serious. “That’s a promise that isn’t yours to make, Kaed.” My words were guarded. Stiff.

His jaw tightened. “Thank you,” He finally breathed after a considered pause, and his chest and shoulders relaxed. “For choosing to free me.”

The sincerity in his words hit me. And I felt something deep and low twist in me. I hadn’t done it for his gratitude, but having it now was a nebulous thing I wasn’t sure what to do with. The arrogance of the male I’d first met was shifting like sand beneath my feet. Every time he did something like that, disarming me with that rawness in his voice, I saw another part of him. It was getting hard to reconcile the facets of him as they glinted from the shadows. The earlier revelations Eryk had given me, the fact that the Crown had vanished—destroyed—Aurora wasn’t new information to me, but forcing that to live alongside Kaed was more difficult in that moment than I had thought it would be. He was more than a prince of the Crown. He was more than the male who had taken me—saved me. But I just wasn’t sure what that meant yet.

His blue eyes looked deep into my violet ones, and the current pulled me to him.

“Goodnight, Kaed,” I breathed hastily and pulled out of his bounds.

Chapter twenty-six

Islammed the book closed.

“Nothing in this one either.” I was beyond exhausted. Whether I found something useful or not in the books before me, part of me didn’t care. I was too distracted by wanting to read something that wasn’t trying to sniff out faebane. My family, my own research had stalled entirely. And the cities Eryk had mentioned, they beckoned me.

But no matter the stalls, the stacks or the levels I had looked on since returning to the library, I had found nothing on Aurora. I’d searched heraldry and family lines for my own interest, but there was nothing much to go on. The necklace around my neck was worry-worn from the number of times I’d touched it and hoped to divine its secrets like bones might read your future.

Audrie’s eyes flicked up to me.

“Sorry.” I fumed. I wasn’t angry at her. Or the books. But it was maddening being forced to focus on one thing while my heart ached for another. My body was beginning to itch at the confines of the city. Some part of me was missing the savagery of the Banes. And being cooped behind neat little walls with doors and locks, sealed in with thousands of books, none of them the ones I wanted right now, was not helping that feeling that gnawed at me.

Audrie dropped her eyes back to her book.

“It’s just …” I began, and her eyes tugged back up to me, my arms now folded. “I don’t understand why he needs it. It’s not like the Crown needs riches. Or weapons.” I huffed.

It was just us tonight. Gavrin had wandered off in search of distractions from within the walls of the library.

“I don’t pretend to know what the king needs.” She looked back at her text. Audrie wasn’t usually so cagey. Normally, words flowed like water with her.

Growing in frustration, I threw my hands up and stood. I wasn’t mad at her. I wasn’t. But I wasn’t able to act any better.

Without explaining to Audrie, I grabbed a pile of useless books to return them.

I had just finished putting the last cracked-spine book back in its place on the shelf when I heard him.

“I can guarantee better reading material.” Eryk’s smooth, resonant voice hummed over me.

He didn’t startle me, but I was surprised to see him in the dark corners of the library so late in the evening. The fae orbs had begun to bob with their soft, glowing light.

“I don’t think it would be hard to find better reading material.” I planted my hands on my hips as I stared at the replaced volume. I smiled at Eryk, and it was returned with one of his own.

Eryk took a step towards me, hands clasped behind his back. His tall frame was broad in the cramped space of the stacks. I suddenly felt very alone with him here in the growing dark. Did I feel uneasy? I wasn’t even sure.

“I have something for you,” he said as he produced a box-like shape wrapped in muslin from behind his back.

I looked at the parcel he held out. And then to him as I took it.

“I thought, perhaps Aurora might interest someone like you.” His voice dipped an octave, and I felt his words cocoon around me.

My eyes went wide as I took the parcel from him, slipping the cloth from the book.

Auroran History and Triumphs; the title swirled in gold curving script.