26. Chapter 26 #2
When he’d first taken me, I’d expected a cell or a cage or something dark and uncomfortable.
Being thrown into a lavish home with comforts and luxuries I’d never even dreamt of had driven me off course.
I’d struggled to marry the feelings I’d had instantly when I saw him first outside the tavern and then in the meadow.
He was attractive. There was no other way to see him physically.
But to carry that initial feeling alongside the brutality of ripping someone from their freedom and carrying them across the Four Corners, literally, was mind-bending.
If he had just locked me in a cell and been done with it, if we hadn’t met Councillor Carron that night, maybe I’d hate him now. Maybe I could have buried that spark of lust that threatened to ignite every time he came too close. Every time, the hints of his scent lingered in the air.
I shook my head and brought myself to the present, as I slammed another book in front of me closed, earning a wide-eyed look from Audrie.
I gathered the tome and headed for the stacks without a word.
There were only so many books I could read on rocks and precious gems. Diamonds and rubies, flint and salt mines. They all seemed to look the same now.
Maybe I’d manage to stay awake if I read something new for a few hours.
Shifting from faebane to searching for my family was a needed change every now and then.
But my searches were hollow, disappointing dead ends.
I didn’t know what was worse: finding nothing to present to Kaed on faebane or finding nothing for my onward journey once I left here.
I had considered asking Audrie for her input, but I didn’t even know where to begin.
“I have nothing to go on. Can you please help find the answers I’ve been searching for my entire life?
Oh, and all I have is this necklace. Thanks.
” She was a friend, but she couldn’t read the stars to divine my past.
The quiet of the cubicles and stacks of resting books was peaceful in a way, and I closed my eyes. Just briefly. Just to shut out the work, the research, the thoughts of knowing I had somewhere I might have come from.
But no sooner had I closed my eyes than I jolted to attention as I felt someone beside me. My eyes snapped to the pale tunic beside me, freshly pressed and ugly.
I struggled to focus at first, but then I saw his coppery hair that shifted in the soft light. Huxley.
“Light reading?” His question was casual, but there was a cord of tension in his voice.
What was he doing here?
Feeling a little uneasy with him looking down on me, I stood.
“I don’t believe we’ve been formally introduced,” he said, extending a hand.
I didn’t take it. “Your mother is Celeste?” I said instead, and sidestepped him with a book in hand.
He followed me as I made my way towards the area where Audrie and Gavrin were waiting.
“Is that the most interesting fact about me?” He stepped in front of me. “That my mother is Councillor Morningstar?” The same as the Councillor Morgana Morningstar who’d spoken to me at Kaed’s hearing?
“No. Apologies.” I felt uncomfortable in his presence but I contributed to that feeling too with my own awkwardness. “Imogen.” I extended a hand. He took it gently and turned it over.
A wet kiss landed on the back of my hand. I resisted the itch to snap my hand back and wipe it.
“A pleasure.” He looked up from my hand. “Seems you spend a lot of time in this gods-forsaken place?”
“It’s a library?” Didn’t he read? What did he do with this time?
Rutting and gambling seemed more his style of entertainment, according to Kaed. It was unfair to judge without knowing him, but something slithered over my skin around him.
“It’s quite dull, is it not? There are plenty of nicer places I could show you. Ones where you might have some more fun.” His words were like rotten fruit, sweetness tempered with something foul lurking beneath the skin.
I smiled, but it didn’t last on my face. “Maybe another time,” I said, stepping around him.
He made my skin crawl for reasons I couldn’t explain, and I quickly darted from the library stalls and wound down the walkway back to my alcove.
I didn’t care if he thought I was rude. I wasn’t staying to be salivated over.
Pulling a book on coastal regions and family sigils, I found my way back to the cubicle to wile away the sunshine hours of the day and hopefully drown out the thought of Huxley’s lips on my hand.
I tugged at the rounded diamond shape around my neck. The pendant now felt like a weight that might drag me down if I didn’t find its source.
I skimmed the history entries until Denora came up to the nook to find us.
Gavrin was back, looking far too pleased to be released from his duties.
If I were honest, I was glad of her arrival too.
Anything to get out of here. Huxley hadn’t followed me, but his presence lingered in my thoughts. And on my hand.
“Next time, you’re taking this shift,” Gavrin huffed. “And I get to play with swords all morning.” He scowled and left the library without another word.
Audrie looked up from her book to find that Denora stood before her, and not Gavrin as she’d been expecting.
How did she get so lost in her world of words with research like this, I wondered.
I could understand when there was a passion behind it.
I had gotten lost in my books back home with every legend and story I could get my hands on.
But Audrie found reading about rock formations as enthralling as the trees of Crown Oaks, it seemed.
“Care to join us?” Denora smiled down at Audrie as I packed my things.
Maybe it was the sword that hung at Denora’s hip, or maybe it was the teasing smile she wore. But Audrie blushed and, with a flustered flurry, offered some excuse about having to feed Turnip.
She was gone before I could persuade her to stay.
Denora smiled and shook her head. “Is she always like that?”
“Mostly.” I sighed and grabbed the books as we left for the training grounds.