Chapter 29
We wake the next morning, eat, and dress for the day. My nerves prickle, jittery and anxious—ready for Elaris’s revelations, but dreading them all the same. The cave must sense my uneasiness, because instead of coffee, the buffet table offers me a steaming cup of herbal tea.
Lowan senses it, too. His solution is far less subtle. He lays me back on the bed, hikes up my skirt, and coaxes filthy words from my mouth with his tongue until I’m too undone to remember what anxiety even feels like.
I reach for him, eager to return the favor, when a sharp knock rattles the door.
“Sound shield, lovebirds,” Zillah calls. “This cave has wicked acoustics.”
Heat floods my face. Lowan presses a kiss to my thigh as I groan. “Later,” I whisper.
“I plan on it.” He winks, adjusting his arousal before we head out.
We’re the last to arrive in the common room, and the weight of everyone’s we-know-why-you’re-late stares nearly buckles me. But Arden swoops in, grinning and elbowing Remli.
“See, Remli? Thanks to Metra and Lowan, it’s not awkward for us at all.”
Remli drops her head into her hands, shoulders shaking, and the tension breaks. Elaris clears her throat. At once, the air shifts. She gestures for us to sit.
“You have revealed yourselves, your truths laid bare. Yet one last trial remains.”
Zillah groans and slumps onto her pouf. If she had her way, we’d be done with trials and slicing down our enemies by now.
Elaris glides on, unbothered. With a graceful wave, she summons our attention to a new door that has appeared behind her.
Carved symbols glow faintly across its surface; the darkness beyond is impenetrable.
“While you have grown close—some more than others.” Her sharp glance flicks toward Remli and Arden, whose bodies all but entwine on the cushions. “Still, there is a rift among you. It cannot remain. You will never succeed unless you are of one accord.”
We fidget, glance at each other, uneasy. Elaris stands, a queen in her own right, and beckons us forward.
“Today, we venture deep into the mountain—into the heart of the magic that binds us here. We seek our answers in the Atheneum.”
As soon as we cross the threshold, the runes over the door shimmer, pulsing with each of us who passes through. When Arden steps forward, they dim to nearly black. The orbs lighting the common space behind us gutter, then flicker as though choking on their own light.
I glance at Lowan. His frown carves deep, distrust etched in every line of his face. Remli looks torn—half wary, half ready to defend Arden—but Arden only shrugs, strutting backward into the dark.
“Guess I’m not the only one who knows what a good time I am, right, Kitty?” he calls.
Remli rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath, “At least he’s fantastic in bed,” before vanishing after him. The rest of us follow, one by one. When my turn comes, Lowan squeezes my hand. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Crossing the threshold is like walking through a spiderweb—only there’s no silk, just a clinging weave of unseen magic. The runes blaze white-hot as I pass, glowing for three full heartbeats. One orb in the common room flares so brightly it explodes, shards tinkling like rain across stone.
I spin toward Lowan, but he’s already moving after me.
“What was that?” I whisper as he takes my hand.
“No idea,” he murmurs, lips brushing my ear. “But I’d wager it’s a better omen than whatever Arden’s magic did…”
The path narrows, forcing us to single file, Elaris at the lead. Orbs float in the air, lighting the way, but long stretches fall into darkness where only glowing runes crawl across the stone like veins of fire.
The air grows colder. Heavier. Thick with magic so old it seems to seep into my skin. Ahead, Selene trails her fingers reverently along the rock, whispering her awe, as if she can’t resist touching the bones of the mountain.
Time stretches. Hours maybe, before the walls widen and the press of stone eases. Relief washes through me—I hadn’t realized how shallow my breaths had become until I could finally fill my lungs again.
Out of the dark, Elaris’s voice echoes:
“The Atheneum.”
At her command, the cavern blossoms with light.
A vast circular library surrounds us, shelves rising higher than my eyes can follow, filled with tomes and scrolls. Above, orbs drift like stars in a night sky. Dust mites gleam like constellations—the air hums, alive with knowledge waiting to be touched.
I gasp and stumble back. Lowan’s arms close around me at once, anchoring me. “I’ve got you,” he whispers. Elaris turns, her eyes gleaming.
“Enter this space,” she says. “But let us seek only knowledge here.”
We step into the vast space, heads tilted back, eyes wide. No one speaks at first, too overcome by the sheer immensity of it all. It’s Selene who finally breathes, her voice reverent. “What are we looking for exactly?”
Elaris’s answer is simple. “It is not for me to decide.”
She glides toward a massive table at the chamber’s heart, where an ancient tome rests as though waiting. The book stirs at her approach. Its cover creaks open, pages fluttering past in a blur until it halts on the first blank sheet.
“An offering of magic,” Elaris says softly, pressing her fingertip to the parchment. A drop of her power bleeds into the page, glowing before it vanishes.
One by one, we follow. Each of us leans forward, gifting the tome a spark of ourselves. When I press my magic into it, the page drinks greedily, and a pulse shudders through the chamber.
The book slams shut with a sound like thunder.
For a breath, the entire Atheneum holds still, as if weighing us.
Then—the library erupts. Scrolls unfurl, and tomes tear themselves from shelves, flying with eerie precision.
They land in neat stacks upon the table, pile after pile, until the wood is nearly buried beneath the weight of knowledge.
I clutch Lowan’s arm, laughter bubbling up in me unbidden. My chest feels like it might burst. I’m standing in the mountain's heart, in a living library, and it’s giving us its secrets.
I am giddy. Overwhelmed. And unable to contain my awe. Lowan’s mouth curves into a grin. “If I’d known books made you this happy, I would’ve shown you our library back at the Veynar estate.”
I whip my head toward him. “You had a library?”
“Of course,” he says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Who doesn’t have a library?”
“Why wouldn’t you have told me that?”
He lifts a shoulder. “You didn’t ask.”
Before I can sputter, Remli cuts in, shaking her head like she’s embarrassed for him. “Lowan, you don’t wait for a woman to ask about the library. You take her to the library, you show her the books, and then you leave her with snacks. That’s how you win her heart.”
The group laughs, but Arden doesn’t. He’s watching Remli instead, and the weight of his gaze makes even me squirm. His lips curl, slow and deliberate.
She catches him staring. “What?”
“Nothing,” he says smoothly. “Just…making notes for later.”
“There is no later,” she barks, though the faint blush climbing her cheeks betrays her.
“There’s most definitely a later.” His voice drops, velvet and dangerous, promising more than he should in front of everyone.
Her eyes flash, shoulders squaring. “Listen. Just because we needed a release after last night—”
Arden coughs, grin widening. “Releases.”
The silence that follows is thick with heat, Remli torn between outrage and arousal as Arden all but devours her with his eyes. I glance at Zillah, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Were we ever this obvious?”
She shrugs, fighting a smile. “Something like that.”
I step closer to the stack of books, drawn like a moth to a flame, covers etched in shapes and whorls I don’t recognize, curling into symbols that defy comprehension. Still, my hand drifts out to steady the edge of one volume, to tilt it closer for a better look.
The instant my fingers brush the cover, a rush of power surges through me, sharp and hot, shooting up my arm and into my chest. I gasp and jerk back.
“What was that?”
Every eye turns toward me.
“What was what?” Zillah asks.
“You didn’t feel that?” My hand trembles as I flex my fingers. The lingering tingle feels like lightning in my veins.
Lowan frowns, stepping closer. “Feel what?” His hand hovers at my back, steadying me.
“I didn’t recognize these words,” I say, pointing to the looping script across the book’s spine. “But when I touched it—something happened. Now I can understand it. As if the book itself taught me.”
Selene’s brows knit. “I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
All of us look toward Elaris. Her expression is grave, though not surprised. “Few among the Donovans possessed this gift. It is one reason they were the portal-openers, the realm-walkers. With but a touch, they could connect their magic to another’s—bridging language, bridging worlds.”
Her words drag me back to a memory—an argument with my mother. Languages were never an issue for you, she’d accused.
“Even then,” I murmur.
Lowan tilts his head. “Even then?”
“My magic was bound in the mortal realm. But maybe part of it was fighting to surface. We moved all the time—new towns, new countries. And yet…I never struggled with languages. People simply considered me gifted. I suppose they didn’t know what was really happening.”
I glance at him. “Your mother once showed me a book at the estate. She was puzzled because I seemed surprised that you all could read and speak this language.”
He nods slowly. “We knew you were one of us. But without your story, my mother must have assumed you were just confused after the trauma your body endured. None of us could understand why you didn’t know you were one of us.
But now I see it—I see why it frightened you when we could speak to you, yet you couldn’t understand how.
We didn’t understand then. You speak differently in the mortal realm, don’t you?
I think that’s when my mother pieced together where you had come from. ”