Page 126 of Spring Guardians & Songbirds

“Give her our thanks,” I said, and the girl bowed her goodbyes.

“I can’t go anywhere.”

I turned to her. She looked mighty fine to me. “Remove your hands.”

She shook her head.

I took her hand covering her chest down and Snow cringed as the fabric parted into a deep V that dropped all the way down to her belly button. Fuck. I then took her other one down and the white gossamer parted to reveal all of her thigh all the way up her hip.

“It doesn’t cover my seal either,” she said, turning round to reveal the deep plunge of the back that ended barely above her hip.

Fuck. “Fuck.”

“I know. How the hell do I hide that?”

“You look deadly, Snow.”

“I need you not to be a man for a moment.”

“I think it would be hard to be a woman at this moment, too.” I shed my jacket and threw it over her shoulders. She promptly pushed her arms through, and I buttoned the jacket only till midway.

Hooking a finger under her chin, I raised her face to mine. “What?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t hm at me. What is it?”

“Nothing.”

“Good try.” I pinched her chin and lifted her face to me again. Her eyes darted all over, the usual feistiness in them blurred with regret. Though I couldn’t see the colour of the emotion, I tasted the bitterness in my tongue. “Last night. It’s about last night.”

Her jaw clenched and she put a bit of distance between us. “I better sleep in a bonfire these days. To get a real sense of what waits for me in hells.”

“You could be put in one of the frozen ones. The god of death probably knows all about your skin troubles and would want to punish you.”

She smacked my hand away and glared murder at me.

I offered her a hand which she took—reluctantly. “No gloves?”

“I couldn’t find where I left them last night. Perhaps a servant took them. As long as I keep them covered,” she said, showing me her scarred palm that had fresh scars too.

There were not enough shades of colour to show how much it hurt me to see Snow still soothe by hurting herself.

Theros library stood massive between the city buildings, the beige rock was painted in gold and cobalt, figures of gods and guardians adorning its walls. Guards loitered the grounds in every corner of the city, encircling mostly in the library’s distance.

“Precaution,” Magnus said as we climbed the stairs to the entrance. “Silas knows we hold valuable information here. If he was brave enough to rob a tomb in the broad daylight of our goddess, I wouldn't hold it past him to rob this one as well.”

Magnus had been right. The library was a colossal giant of knowledge. Shelves ran several floors tall with feet long ladders attached to them, all over filled with books and scripts of all sorts.

Nia sneezed and waved a hand in front of her face. The dust and humid musk was heavy in the air. “The library is safe. Silas’s soldiers will collapse from allergies before taking a second step in.”

Snow pointed to a gilded copy of the Astrum liber perched on a plinth. “Look, your favourite book. Maybe this edition has a bonus chapter you can indulge yourself with. You know, all that godly goodness.”

Magnus laughed, shaking his head as he directed us further inside the library corridors until we reached a golden metal door guarded by two sentries. For the king’s eyes only, the engraving on it read in Tahuma.

“My personal collection and some very precious pieces,” he said, ushering us inside.

The room had no windows or other exits beside the door. Hundreds of small holes in the ceiling illuminated the much smaller area, pouring like beams of liquid gold onto the floor that was painted in geometrical motifs of all colours.