Page 125 of The Crown’s Temptation

"You as well."

She disappeared around the corner.

I waited.

One minute.

Then I turned, grabbed a lantern from the mantle, and quietly made my way down the back stairway, which was not hard since there was no guard there.

Teorin must have killed whoever used to be stationed there.

I walked out easily. Then made my way away from the palace and back toward the tunnel.

The Library Below

SEVRIN

The library was below the east wing, past a corridor that smelled of damp and old wood and something mineral that belonged to the castle's foundations rather than its contents.

Aviaryn had not waited for him. By the time he reached the bottom of the stairs she was already moving through the shelves, her bare feet silent on the stone.

He moved toward the histories. It was where he always moved first in any library, where his father had taught him to always go. Where a king should go if anything in the library is to be worth his time.

"That section is dull," Aviaryn said without looking at him.

He looked at her. "You have read them?"

"It is unnecessary." She ran her finger along a row of spines without stopping. "They are mostly about men who did not do much other than hurt people to get what they want." She glanced at him. "I imagine you are already quite skilled at that."

He said nothing.

She crossed the room and took his wrist without asking and pulled him away from the histories. Her grip was small and certain. She released him the moment he started moving, as though redirecting him had been the only purpose.

She rejected three sections without explanation, paused at a fourth and considered it, then moved on. At the far end of the library, in a low alcove that the light barely reached, she stopped.

The books here were smaller. Older. Several had illustrations visible through cracked spines, the colors faded but still present.

She pulled three from the shelf and looked at them carefully, one at a time, her expression focused and solemn.

"Has anyone ever read you a story?" she said.

He considered that. "No."

"Have you ever read anyone a story?"

"No," he replied.

She looked at him. "Then you are inexperienced in the matter." She tucked the books under her arm. "I will find someone to assist me first. Once I learn how, perhaps I will read one to you."

He raised an eyebrow.

She paused. "But only if you do something about your strength." She said firmly. "You are so weak that even the weakest guards here could kill you. And then I would not have a friend at Kelsey to share my stories with." She paused. "And then you would be of no use to me."

He could not hide his surprise. "A friend?"

She sighed as though he had missed something obvious. "I have not had one before and mother seems to think they are preferable to playing barefoot in the tunnels."

Sevrin did not know what to say to that.