Page 72 of The Stars are Dying

“Hmm.” He slipped his attention to the fae. “You can go, Elena.”

As he dismissed her, my gaze remained locked on the prince, taking in his outdoor attire. My blood chilled despite the warmth that had returned to me.

Had he been Elena’s escort a moment ago?

“What had you wandering all the way down here?” Drystan asked, snapping back my attention.

I swallowed despite my dry throat, taking a step away from the proximity that felt both dangerous and alluring. “I missed out on the tour yesterday,” I said as my first attempt to save the situation. “I was looking for a library and got lost, it seems.” I counted my breaths, trying to catch every change in his expression that might indicate he’d heard my lie.

His brow simply lifted a fraction in amusement. “Come. I’ll show you.” He twisted slightly, facing the outside exit again.

I gaped like a fool at the simple yet unexpected offer. Alone time with the prince wasn’t something I desired, but it was like he was testing me. I jerked when something touched my shoulders but relaxed as Davina helped me into a cloak.

How did she know I was here?

It was the least of my worries as I realized there was no getting out of this. She gave me an apprehensive smile with a squeeze of my arm, and I could hardly return it.

Strolling side by side with Drystan outside, I was glad he didn’t let the silence linger.

“I have high hopes for you to win the Libertatem.”

“Why do you stake your belief so surely?”

“I read your profile. I can’t be certain what it was that made me so drawn to you without ever having seen you.”

Is he toying with me, testing if I’ll fall for his flattery?I shook my head at the thought.Why would he care about my feelings?

“Then meeting you…”—he gave me a sideways look that made my pulse skip a beat—“was most surprising.”

“What about me makes you say that?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“You have…a particular aura about you.”

The mention of myaurawas not what I expected. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

His lips curled wider, pulling back to reveal two pointed teeth. He was a vampire. He had to be. My fear of his kind raced through my blood. While he could pull off a charming demeanor, something about the way he tracked me felt predatory.

I cast a glance behind him, not sure if I was more unnerved or relieved by his missing shadow.

He was a blood vampire.

Drystan didn’t seem as thirsty and volatile as the soul vampires I’d come across, and the hum under my skin was curious, if cautious.

We reached the doors of the massive outbuilding, which spanned so high I risked dizziness as I trailed its length. The dark wood was ornately carved as if a garden grew from it. Stunning.

A whole building for books?My exhilaration climbed at how many I was about to witness at once.

Drystan reached out a palm. I watched in complete fascination, my lips parting on a shallow gasp at what I saw. A shimmering veil. My skin pricked with an energy that built the closer his hand got to it. When his palm lay flat, the veil gave off a surge of power that made me clamp my fists. Then it slowly dispersed and the doors groaned against the stone, opened by invisible hands.

“What is that?”

“A ward.”

It made sense such a place would be guarded by magick even on royal grounds. I walked into an expanse like nothing I could have ever conjured in my mind, let alone visited before.

The vast library was so much larger than I thought possible from the outside. I stood in a trove of wonder and endless possibility. No steel or iron or craft could come close to the weapons surrounding me. It was only when I stood around more books than I could consume in a lifetime that immortality became desirable. Though I had lived many lives because of books and learned more than a sheltered girl ever could in five years, my gaze skimmed everything still to be discovered with a thrill.

I gravitated toward the wide circular balcony. Heights were not a fear of mine, and it wasn’t the long distance that made my stomach coil; it was the large center cut-out on the ground fivefloors down.

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