Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
TATTLETALE
ADELINE
“What’s going on?” Ardruna stops and turns her head to nail me with her blue gaze. “Aline, are you coming?”
“On my way,” I breathe. I’m leafing through the pages of Olm’s book to see if there are more images or anything to explain that one—which, by the way, I can’t find again.
Like the other times I checked the book, the letters on the pages are blurred, only small random passages appearing clearly here and there, scattered throughout the book. “Coming.”
“Don’t,” Olm says. “You don’t want to leave me here.”
“Then give me some answers!”
Talton flies over me, one pass, then another. He lands on my shoulder. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“Are you reading?”
“No. This book is unreadable anyway.”
Talton flutters his wings, settling them more snugly against his sides. “Yeah, it’s a common problem with magical books, especially the very old ones.”
“Who is he calling old?” Olm grumbles.
“Aline!” Roane shouts. “Hurry up!”
“What’s with all the hurry?” Olm grouses. “Can’t we talk first? You saw the picture. Don’t you want to know what it means?”
“Yes! I do. Tell me.”
“Not like this, with all of them around.”
“They can’t hear you anyway,” I snap, “and… oh shit.”
Roane is striding our way, his face a thundercloud, dark hair flying. “What’s the hold-up?”
“She’s talking to the book,” Talton says, the tattletale.
“Stop that,” Roane commands, pointing a finger at me. “Give me that book.”
I bristle at the tone. “Relax, Mr. Almighty Guardian. I was bringing it to you.”
“No, you weren’t. It has to be quick, human.” He gestures at it. “Hand it over before it does something drastic.”
“Olm would never. He’d—”
Ardruna jumps on me, and I yelp, stumbling back. Not fast enough, though. She grabs the book from my hand in her jaws and lopes away.
“Hey!” I yell. “Give it back!”
“Good girl, Druna.” Roane’s eyes flash at me, assessing, forbidding. Narrowing when I run after the lioness. “Give it to me.”
The damn lioness obeys, trotting over to him and dropping the book right into his hands.
I swear under my breath as I race to catch up with them. “Wait!”
“Stay back,” Roane says, approaching the wall and pushing Olm’s book into a niche, between two other books.
Then he lifts his hand, the light intensifying.
“Book of Olm. I bind you to this wall, to this library, to this world. I bind your contents, your characters and your soul to the Book of Areon and its roots and branches. I bind your hands and feet, your body and mind, your heart and life, I—”
“Aline!” Olm shrieks. “Don’t let him do that to me. It will hurt!”
“No, Roane!” Finally reaching him, I grab his arm. “He says it will hurt.”
Roane’s jaw clenches. “He’s not a person. He’s not real.” Shaking me off, he lifts his hand higher. “I bind you forever, I chain you to this wall—”
“He’s real to me!” I shout.
“He’s just a character,” Roane hisses.
“Oh, I can see you are a real book lover.” I inject my voice with venom. “Give the book back to me!”
Roane sighs. “I can’t do that. You—”
The book starts to shake on the shelf. It shakes faster and faster until it frees itself and falls to the floor. I watch, uncomprehending, fear snaking up inside me like a tendril, winding around me, paralyzing me.
What in the hells…?
“Fuck,” Roane breathes, shoving me back. “Take cover!”
“What? But—”
“Take cover!” Talton squawks, flying about, black feathers showering us, “take cover!”
“Come.” Ardruna closes her teeth on the hem of my dress and drags me away, growling.
“But I can’t…” My mouth drops open at the sight greeting me. “Oh Gods!”
A gigantic serpent is slithering out of the book. It’s jade green with black zigzag patterns on its back, its triangular head big like a dog’s.
It doesn’t make sense. The book is too small for the creature exiting its pages. My head hurts at the impossibility of it. I stand there, frozen, watching as more and more of its enormous body appears.
Then Roane draws his scimitars free of their scabbards. “All of you, get the hell back!”
“Come, girl.” Ardruna tugs on my skirts. “Move away.”
“Olm!” I yell. “No, don’t do this! Olm!”
“Roane will banish the serpent back into the book with the ring.” Ardruna nudges me backward. “It’s the librarian’s ring. It has the power to bind books. Or perhaps it channels it, I don’t know.”
“Does it always work?”
“No, not always. Come—”
“I’m not going anywhere without Olm. He’s frightened, like you told me earlier. He doesn’t want to be bound.”
“Girl, that’s not his decision to make.”
“Isn’t it?” I’m shaking so hard my teeth are rattling in my mouth. “If my life was at stake, wouldn’t you leave the decision up to me?”
“Not if you had the power to kill!”
“Killing is a choice,” I grind out. “Having the power to do so isn’t reason enough to condemn anyone. The serpent won’t kill us. Besides, Olm is my friend. He’ll listen to me.”
“Or he’ll eat you for supper! Move back.”
“Roane will hurt him!” I yell.
“Gods, child…” Ardruna sighs. “Really?”
Roane swings his curved swords at the serpent time and again, spinning inhumanly fast, ducking under the massive head and slicing with his blades. Light flashes from his hands, and the book skitters on the floor, pages fluttering.
“Olm! Stop this!” I struggle to move toward them, but Ardruna is once more tugging on my dress. “Let me go!”
My dress hem tears with a screech, releasing me from the lioness’s teeth, and I jerk away, starting toward Roane…
… just as the serpent slams into him, throwing him to the floor.
“No!” My breath catches. “Roane…” He’s lying there so still and my heart is in my throat. Then fury fills me. “Olm!” I snap. “What in the hells are you doing?”
The serpent’s head turns toward me and it rises higher. Its scales rattle on the floor, clicking and clacking as its mouth opens wide and its forked tongue flickers out. Its long fangs drip venom.
“It’s about to strike!” Talton shouts, flying around in circles over my head. “Run!”
“Olm wouldn’t hurt me,” I say but my voice trembles. “Olm! You wouldn’t hurt me, right?”
Roane rolls away and then he’s on his feet between the serpent and me, his swords back in his hands. The snarl on his face is more animal than fae or human.
The serpent lunges at him and he barely avoids getting skewered on those long fangs, rolling away again.
“Olm, stop it!” I suck in a deep breath. “I won’t leave you here! I won’t, all right? Just… stop!”
The serpent hisses, going still. It wavers, its form flickering, becoming transparent enough for me to see the wall of niches behind it.
Then it gets sucked back into the book with a sound like a slurp. The book gives a great shiver, pages rustling, and then falls still.
Silence spreads.
Roane growls, getting back on his feet and whirling on me, scimitars pointing down. “What have you done, making him more promises?”
I bend over to grab the book from the floor and lift my chin. “You’re the one who couldn’t drive the serpent back into the book.”
“Is that what you think? I was working on it, or do you think it’s easy, binding a book? If you had let me finish the incantation—”
“I wouldn’t know. You’re the master of this place, aren’t you?” I’m still shaking, glad to see he’s okay, glad Olm didn’t kill anyone. I’m in disbelief that he almost did. “Mr. Warrior Librarian of the Areon, ordering me about, glaring all the time.”
After a long moment of silence, he sheathes his scimitars and rubs a hand over his face. “Aline… It’s not like that.”
I shake my head. Fine, I’m annoyed with him, and I hate his displeasure with me. All that glaring is getting to me. I wish he’d… look at me differently.
Oh Gods, what’s wrong with me? No, no. This is the last thing I need, to want more from this man.
“Give me the book,” he says, more softly.
“No.”
“You have to leave the book here. It’s the law of the library.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I say. “I’m not putting Olm on that shelf.”
“How are you so convinced you are the one who got the serpent back into the book?” he asks. “What did he tell you? And you… Aline, what did you do?”
“Like you said, I made a promise.”