Page 4 of Of Realms and Chaos

I quirked a brow at him, waiting for some sort of explanation, but Bellamy just laughed once more, opening the doors and revealing what was inside.

I gasped, nearly falling to my knees in tears of joy.

“This, Princess, is the royal library.”

Chapter Two

Bellamy

There were very few things in life that I knew with absolute certainty.

One, the sun would rise again. I knew this because it did every day. With each nightmare that plagued me in the evenings, the sun was there, dawn coming to chase away the beasts in my head. I woke up, and the sun did too.

Two, I would die one day. It was not until a year ago that I realized how soon death would knock on my door. But that was inevitable, right? We all died. The difference was that not all of us lived.

Which brought me to the third thing that I knew without a shadow of a doubt. Asher was my life. She was the gift given to an undeserving, wicked being. She was my Eternity.

Looking at her never felt real, as if she were a mirage that would disappear upon closer inspection.

I could still recall the first time I ever laid my eyes on her. Not the time Pino had shown me visions of the wonderful and short future we would have, but the real experience of seeing her.

It had been days after I brought Pino to Eoforhild. I had panicked upon hearing his many prophecies. The past, present, and future that needed to merge to create the only possible outcome that would see the world survive. It was…overwhelming, to say the least. But when I finally left my chambers in Haven after painting so much of what I had seen in Reader River, I portaled to Betovere—to The Capital. I had to wait nearly four hours before she finally emerged.

It was a gloriously sunny day, and she wore the most hideous gold gown. It sucked into her waist so tightly that I swore it was impossible she was breathing. The layers and flare of the skirt had to have been suffocating as well, especially in the heat of early spring. But as she walked by herself through the green grass, the sun beating down on her tan skin and glowing in her gray eyes, I could not imagine a more beautiful female. A more beautiful anything.

That day was the first of my true life. The first day I took a breath and wanted more. She revived me after an existence stuck in purgatory. No star would ever burn as bright, no water would ever be as deep, no fire would ever feel as warm, no darkness would ever be as all-consuming as my love for her.

After two centuries of never feeling as if I belonged, I had finally found my home.

Now, as I watched her browse through the shelves upon shelves of books within the palace library, I could not fathom how life could possibly be this right. Especially when war loomed, threatening to burn the world to dust.

Yet there she stood, the picture of serenity amidst the mahogany shelves built from floor to ceiling. They lined the walls and housed the thousands of books the royal family had collected over time. A family that I was not technically part of.

But Asher, she could be my family, just as my Trusted were. Those idiots, with all their nagging and foul mouths and ferocious souls, they were what I had cherished the most all these years. Adding Asher to the dynamic had felt natural.

Not having her with me had been the most painful torture, one that had led me to paint and repaint my chambers until I had to move into new ones. To hide away from such a dark space.

Now I was left wondering what would happen when I told her all that Pino had prophesied, all that he had shown me of the past. Those truths would change everything, and I was not eager to watch this joy crumble.

“When I was young, the scholars had to lock me in here and force me to study,” I said to her. She turned, her face lit up with a smile that threatened to steal my breath away.

Gods she was beautiful.

“Oh really? Sounds about right,” she retorted, her stormy-gray eyes scrunched in amusement. “You are a bit dimwitted.”

“I chose to hone other skills,” I responded, my tongue sliding across my lips as I slowly took her in from head to toe.

I heard her swallow, the tempo of her heart loud in my ears as it sped. Her face did not show any sign of nerves or lust. No, Asher was used to playing a part, to hiding all she felt.

“However, I did find that books were excellent hiding places.” My words piqued her interest, her brows raising.

I waved my hand, motioning for her to follow. Many days had been spent locked in this room—so many that I knew it like the back of my hand. It was not long before I was at the shelf I needed, pulling out a book with a faded green spine and a title no longer legible.

The ceiling stretched nearly four stories high, the wooden shelves built to reach the very top. Ladders and stairs were not nearly as useful as magic to the many scholars who maintained the royal library. But the magic that had been infused within me did not manifest like that of other Moons. I could not wield the shadows like Noe, only able to merge it with my flames or portal with it. So I had settled on easily accessible shelves those many years ago.

Asher was impatiently waiting, her ever curious mind paving the way for a rare moment of eagerness. She did not smile enough. I would have to work on that, to show her what happiness could be like if she allowed herself to feel it.

Books smelled horrid. They were boring and dusty, and I so loathed being confined to these four walls in my youth.

---