Chapter 43
Niamh
Abook fluttered over my head out of the wooden crate I’d just put it into.
“No, stop that at once!” Morton yelled from across the library, where his little body was wrapped around a book, attempting to push it into a box despite it resisting. “This is the worst day of my life,” Morton said.
I eyed him. “Don’t be so dramatic. Most of the books have gone into the boxes willingly.” I straightened, gaze sweeping the library, the shelves now mostly empty.
He struggled against the book, grunting as he pushed it down into the box. “Well, the ones that won’t are making this very difficult. Are you sure this is even necessary?”
I planted my hands on my hips. “The entire castle is going to move, Morton. I don’t know what that entails.
No one does. Is it just going to disappear”—I snapped my fingers—“and reappear, or is it going to lift in the air and fly somewhere? Either way, I don’t want to risk our books getting damaged.
We’ve already learned so much from these, learned how we can protect Fairwitch.
We can rebuild shelves, get new furniture, but the books are priceless. ”
Morton grumbled something that sounded like “these books are a pain in my tail,” but I chose to ignore him and keep packing.
Nevan had been working on this particular activation spell for months, and in those last few months, we’d suffered more attacks.
It was imperative that we moved the castle before our defenses completely broke.
We might’ve had our library back, but the castle’s magic still wasn’t working like it used to, at least not from what I’d heard.
Everyone was on edge about moving and what it might mean, especially since we didn’t know if the city would move with the castle.
To be extra cautious, everyone in Fairwitch would have to be in the castle once the moving spell was activated, which had been a hotly contested topic.
Morton gave one more shove, and the book finally thumped down into the box. The bookwyrm slithered toward me. “I still don’t understand this whole spell nonsense. Humans can’t perform spells, so how is Nevan going to activate this?”
I jumped, snatching the fluttering book from the air and pushing it down into the crate, then placing a lid on it. “From what I understand, it’s not that Nevan is casting the spell. The castle is going to cast the spell, but Nevan is going to activate it by using one of his potions.”
“Are we sure it’s even going to work? What if the castle explodes or crashes down over us?”
My stomach bubbled. I’d aired those same thoughts to Wolfe, who assured me we could trust his brother’s potions. I’d seen Nevan’s brilliant mind in action over the last few months, and I knew he was a perfectionist, that he wouldn’t do something unless he was sure it could be done right.
“Nevan wouldn’t say this spell was ready unless it was.” I tried to sound positive. “And I trust Wolfe. If he says his brother can do this, then he can do this.”
“I’m glad someone trusts me.” I turned, and my stomach shifted from knots to flutters in an instant, the way it did every time I saw Wolfe.
His hair was mussed, sweat damp on his forehead. He must’ve been training before he came here. Even though he was no longer a guard, he still got in his daily training sessions, but now instead of doing them alone at his cabin, he was coming to the castle and training with Cillian and Nevan.
He strode toward me, and Morton groaned. “Oh, great. You’d think after four months of this, you two would be sick of each other.”
“Morton,” I said over my shoulder as Wolfe swept me into his arms. “Be nice.”
“Or I’ll spoil the ending of a book you haven’t read,” Wolfe warned.
Morton gasped. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I jabbed Wolfe in the chest. “Stop goading him. You know, you two are going to have to get along. You’re both going to be part of each other’s lives for a very, very long time.”
Morton slithered up onto the arm of a chair next to us. “I’d be more amenable if he would actually smile once in a while.”
I gave Wolfe a look, and his lips twitched. He was loving this, and I suspected this was his form of payback after having to listen to Morton, Jerome, and Nevan geek out over an alchemy book Morton had found for them in the library. They’d spent hours at our last family dinner talking about it.
“Well, maybe you should smile at me,” Wolfe shot back.
“I can’t smile! I’m a bookwyrm!” Morton huffed, smoke puffing from his nostrils.
“Wolfe,” I warned.
He rolled his eyes and stepped toward Morton. “Fine. I actually came here to see you.”
Morton’s shaggy eyebrows shot up. “Me?”
“Mm-hmm.” Wolfe reached into his vest and pulled out a thin book. “I was hoping you’d eat this for me.”
I pressed my lips together, watching Morton tilt his head as his gaze flicked between the book and Wolfe.
“You want me to read something for you? But you hate books.”
“I don’t hate books,” Wolfe said. “I just have never been much of a reader, and I realized now I don’t have to be because of your abilities.”
Morton bristled, as much as a bookwyrm could bristle. “Well, I suppose I could give it a try and report back to you.” Wolfe stretched out the book, and Morton curled his tail around it, placing it next to him. “We still have a lot of packing to do,” Morton reminded me as he slithered away.
I turned to Wolfe, who rubbed my arms up and down, the gesture a comfort. “How are you feeling?”
“Not as terrified as I should be,” I said. “The castle is moving. That’s . . . crazy.”
“But we’ll be okay,” Wolfe assured me. “And we’ll be together.”
“I do like that part,” I said.
“I like you,” he said, and I fluttered my eyelashes.
“You know, you’ve mentioned that once or twice.”
“Only once or twice?” He tsked. “I have a lot of work to do then.”
“Oh?” I asked, drawing a finger down his chest.
“I should be telling you how much I love you at least four or five times a day.”
“Please don’t,” Morton shouted from somewhere behind the bookshelves.
I laughed and roped my arms around Wolfe’s neck. “You do a pretty good job of showing me already.”
He kissed the tip of my nose. “Good.” He hesitated. “Are you happy here? Is this the life you would’ve chosen for yourself?”
I thought about it, considering the question.
“I never saw a life beyond the one I had in Bergenay,” I said honestly, and his face fell.
“Then that life got destroyed, and all I could think about was staying safe no matter what. Even though I loved my life in Bergenay, I was stuck. I never thought about the big, wide world. I never thought about what I could do with my life beyond serving the princess.” I cupped his cheeks.
“The thing is, I couldn’t have chosen this life because I never would’ve imagined it for myself.
But now that I’m here, running the castle library, training to defend myself, going on adventures, dreaming of seeing more of the world.
” I paused, lowering my voice. “Being loved by you. I know that this life is better than any I could’ve dreamed up. ”
Wolfe smiled and pressed his head to mine. He didn’t have to speak; I knew I’d given a good answer.
I was scared of what was to come, but for the first time in my life, I wasn’t letting it hold me back. And that, in the end, was all that really mattered.