8. Asking #2
“Yes, but Thea wasn’t working alone. She didn’t steal him for a joyride. There’s a purpose. A history.” His gaze met hers, electric in its intensity. “And the last time this happened, our secrets were what doomed her."
Aaryn’s heart leapt to her throat, and she tried to swallow past it. She crossed her arms, tucking her shaking fingers away. The last time? “Tell me.”
Jarrick shifted closer, moving slowly enough she could’ve stopped him if she wanted. He slipped one of his hands beneath hers and pulled it free. “The information we need is in the Royal Library. Come with me.”
He led, and she had little choice but to follow. Her hand was gripped in his, not tightly, but gently. The guards hardly blinked as they exited the prince’s office.
“We’ve got some business to attend to. I’ll return shortly. Resume,” he said, and waved a hand.
The guards didn’t even so little as chuckle at their departure, hastened with their hands clasped together. Why, if Aaryn had witnessed the prince dashing through the castle with a lady holding his hand, she would assume they were up to…
The thought made her cheeks heat, and she was tempted to pull her hand away, lest rumors begin to circulate, but she didn't want to offend the prince when he had gone so far out of his way to help her.
Her mother would be so pleased.
The Royal Library was quite protected. Not even Aaryn had been inside. It was locked, and she’d never cared what was behind the door. She supposed what had always been in there were things she had no business knowing.
Only when they approached the large double doors did he release her hand. Jarrick produced a key, and as he slotted it into the door, he glanced over at her.
“Promise not to tell anyone I let you in here?” he asked.
It almost felt like an accusation, but she swallowed the misplaced guilt. The prince had no way of knowing of her conversations with Rose, and even if he did, she'd broken no rules.
And still— “I vow it,” she told him.
He studied her, his green eyes unwavering. He must have accepted her vow, because he nodded once and pulled the door open.
She breathed a little easier when she slipped inside the large double doors with Jarrick, out of sight.
It was dark and moody, the floors covered with rugs and cozy looking chairs pushed into every nook and cranny. Floor-to-ceiling shelves lined the walls, tomes and leather spines filling each one.
“Sweet skies,” Aaryn breathed. “It’s beautiful.”
The library at the university was one of her favorite places to visit, since it was public and easier to access than the distant monastery or hospital, and came with less judgment than the collection in the cathedral.
After learning she was Tethered and moving into the castle, she’d been able to absorb all the texts she wanted, and it had opened entirely new worlds to her.
And here were all these worlds yet unexplored.
“What are all these books about?”
“The history of the castle, and Rishika itself. Mostly very secretive information,” he said, a little sheepishly. “So I could get in real trouble if anyone found out I let you in here.”
She nodded and tucked her hands behind her back. “I won’t touch anything unless you allow it,” she promised.
His smile turned to a grin, and he let out a soft chuckle before leading her to a desk in the middle of the room. “Sit here. I’ll gather what we need.”
“A prince waiting on me. Who would’ve thought,” she… teased. By now maybe the novelty should have worn off, but it would never cease to amaze her that she—Aaryn of Evergale, of all people—would have ended up here, in a castle, becoming friends with a prince.
“Maybe I’m more giving than you think.” He returned the jest with a wink, and Aaryn’s cheeks turned bright pink.
Thankfully he turned away to look through the shelves, ending up at a newer standing shelf added to the corner.
When he returned to the desk once more, he placed a small book in front of her.
“This… this is the account of a Tethered who was recovered after a battle.”
She accepted the booklet as offered, expecting something like a diary. What she found was more equated to a report, a coroner’s entry.
“She… died?” Aaryn asked, heart aching for a person she’d never met.
Prince Jarrick was as serious as she’d ever seen him. “She died during the battle.”
Aaryn swallowed, ignoring the tightness in her stomach, and read.
“Former Tethered Astrid was recovered… Cause of death: battle-related injuries.”
“Skip to the notes,” Jarrick told her.
Aaryn let her eyes drift down, and read, “It is worthy of note that the scar on the left palm, worn by every Tethered, had been slashed through. We hypothesize this is an act to sever the connection between—the wearer and their dragon.”
Her palm ached in recognition as her mind reeled.
She clasped her hand into a fist as if to protect the marking.
The pain of accepting the scar was nothing compared to what she received in return: the station of a Tethered, physical proof of her tether to Starspark.
She couldn’t imagine the agony of that connection being severed.
“That’s so… cruel,” Aaryn breathed. How much of this did Rose know?
“Astrid disappeared with her dragon. One day she was just… gone. It was several years before we found her again, on the opposite side of the battlefield. They’d…
done something to her.” Jarrick shook his head as if to remove the images from his memory.
“Like she’d been replaced with a completely different person. ”
“Was her dragon there too? On the battlefield.”
Jarrick’s gaze was unseeing. “I heard the roar of her dragon even within the bunker. I was seven. According to the witnesses, the dragon fled in a rage."
Aaryn sighed shakily, this new knowledge settling about as well as spoiled fruit.
He blinked, as if coming back to himself, and cleared his throat.
“We don’t know their aim. They take the dragons; they sometimes take the Tethered. But we don’t know why or where. All we know is how the Tethered find their way back to us: dead, on a battlefield, with evidence of their tether forcibly removed from them.”
Aaryn’s hands shook as she placed the ledger back on the desk.
"Forgive my forwardness when I say Astrid—her outcome—is part of the reason I wish to keep you safe. I don't want this to happen to you."
She could think of nothing worse than her tether being ripped from her. The idea that she’d never feel Starspark again? Even with this distance between them, she knew he was out there. Just the idea that it could be taken away…
“Aaryn.” Jarrick’s hand curled gently around her wrist. “Ease up,” he said, and she glanced down to find her own nails had left crescent-shaped pools of blood on her palm. His gaze leapt to hers. “Great Hoard, breathe, Aaryn!”
Only then did she realize her breaths had become labored, manual. The air wasn’t reaching her lungs, and no matter how much she gasped, it didn’t matter, she couldn’t—
“Aaryn,” Jarrick said, his voice hard, capturing her attention. He cupped her face, drew her eyes up to him, and moved his lips. “Breathe. In—out.”
Aaryn lifted her hands and placed them over his, following his directions. It was an eternity later when she felt her breath under her own control again.
“Okay?” Jarrick asked, and Aaryn nodded, dropping her hands. When he pulled away she saw a splash of red on the back of his hand, and she reached for him.
“Wait! I think I got… something on you,” she said, cheeks flaming as she realized she was holding his hand. Her skin was damp with sweat where he had held her.
“It’s alright,” he said, and drew a kerchief from his pocket, dabbing the blood away. “Nothing I haven’t seen before. Are you feeling alright?”
She nodded, brushed her long hair back from her face, and drew in a blessed breath.
“I’m sorry—”
“Apologies not needed,” he said. “In fact, I think it would insult me at this point.”
“Oh,” Aaryn said meekly, embarrassed. “Well, I wouldn’t want that.”
“Good,” he said, and his eyes sparkled a little as he smiled softly at her.
She wished she cared like her mother wanted her to.
Instead… "How many Tethered has this happened to?" Aaryn asked. Rose had said—
"Astrid was the second Tethered to go missing. She's the only one who was returned. Her death was… well, it will be nineteen years ago this year, actually." The prince's gaze was distant and she felt the pain in him. He really seemed to care for the Tethered, and his concern warmed her.
"Who was the first?" Aaryn asked softly.
The prince leaned back against the desk. "A woman we've never been able to find. No one knows what happened to her. Or her dragon."
"What's her name?"
He ducked his head, jaw tightening. "Vaelen. Her name was Vaelen."