Page 150 of May: Bloom & Bane

A book snaps shut somewhere in the stacks above us.

I step closer, careful to keep my voice measured so Arteus does not swallow him whole.

“Have you found anything?”

“Define anything.” He glances up, his light blue eyes reflecting the candlelight. “A loophole? No. A workaround? Also no. A way to break a curse cast by someone we have notbeen able to find in over a full epoch?” He turns another page. “Still looking.”

Arteus tightens around my shoulders.

Doesss he get pleassssure out of being a kaesssh‡? Arteus spits in my mind. (Prick)

“How long do we have?” I force myself to ask. “Before Sage’s visions get worse? Before he confesses everything to Eden and she⁠—”

“Leaves his territory?” Tellian cuts in. “Triggering his first reaper cycle and dooming them both?”

He removes his glasses and rubs the bridge of his nose.

“Not long enough,” he murmurs. “And we cannot just keep them in a cage until we get it figured out.”

Arteus’s head peeks over my shoulder, his eyes locked on Tellian’s throat.

He ssspeaksss of cagessss while sssitting in one of hisss own making.

“He deserves more than a few months of borrowed time.”

“That is something that we both agree on, Therael. But I am not the one who cursed them. I am simply the one tasked with reading the obituary of their happiness before it is even written.”

He gestures to the stacks above us, where thousands of years of history lie unread.

“You want a miracle for Sage? Then you need to realize whatever is coming for our charges does not care about soulbonds or fate. You know that better than anyone, do you not?”

“Watch your tongue, Tellian,” I whisper. My halo bursts into flames. “Or I might forget that I need your library.”

Tellian rises from his chair and cuffs his sleeves.

Arteus’s hood flares wide, his scales shimmering from deep emerald to bright jade. “You ssspoke her name once before, and I let you keep your tongue asss a courtesssy. Do not make me regret my generosssity.”

“This is my library, Arteus. You may threaten me elsewhere if you wish. But not here.”

His eyes flick to me. “Control your mate’s companion, Therael. Or leave.”

Words shimmer beneath his skin. “I am trying to help your charge,” he continues. “But I cannot do that if you tear out my throat every time I state an uncomfortable truth.”

He picks up his glasses and slides them back into place.

“Eden is not Rosea⁠—

The final syllable dies on his tongue, replaced by a loud thud as he is slammed back into the mahogany shelves. Arteus is coiled around Tellian’s neck before I have blinked, his fangs unsheathed, hovering mere millimeters from Tellian’s jugular.

“I warned you.” The library floor fractures beneath us. “I told you what would happen if you used her name as a whetstone for your tongue.”

Tellian’s hands lock around Arteus’s thick, muscular body, his knuckles white as he tries to pull enough air into his lungs to speak.

“Ssshall I do it, Rael?” Arteus hisses. “I promisssed to leave him tonguelessss. I think it isss time to collect.”

I kneel down until we are eye-to-eye, ignoring the way his skin is already beginning to blister from my halo’s proximity.

“You would think,” Arteus rasps, “That you would be sssmarter than thisss with how much you have read about the world. But I find you are no ssssmarter than the mice I sssnack on.”