Page 111 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

Then, they had called herblessed.

The day they discovered she was a Seer, everything had changed.

The Kingdom of Ice, like the Kingdom of Darkness, was devout, its people deeply tied to the gods they revered. Seers were rare. Sacred. Untouchable. They were the messengers of divine whispers, the few who could glimpse the threads of fate woven into the world.

Wren, however, found no solace in their reverence.

Being placed upon a pedestal was just another kind of cage.

She shook the thought from her mind as she found what she had been searching for—a hidden latch, nearly lost against the ancient stonework of the library’s roof. With a firm tug, it creaked open, revealing a square cut into the darkness. A ladder descended into the void below.

A welcome escape from the suffocating heat.

With swift, practiced movements, she slipped down the rungs, landing upon a wooden platform suspended high above the second floor. Thick metal cables held it aloft, stretching liketaut spider’s silk through the cavernous space.

A second ladder led downward. Wren climbed with ease, slipping into the dimly lit expanse of the second floor. She pressed herself into the shadows, ears straining for any sign of Kage’s arrival.

But instead of footsteps, she found something else.

Somethingwatching.

‘Oh, hello.’ A crow of smoke perched upon the edge of a towering bookshelf, its obsidian eyes glinting in the low light. It was Kage’s shadow creature.

The bird tilted its head, considering her, then swooped down, landing at her feet.

Before she could react, it pecked her sharply on the leg.

Wren yelped, flailing her hands at the ghostly thing. ‘Stop it!’ she whispered fiercely. The crow only flapped its wings, hopping down the dim corridor, pausing to glance back at her expectantly. When she hesitated—distracted by the rows of tomes or the silence that stretched around her—it pecked her again.

‘Yer bird is a bully,’ she hissed when she finally found Kage in one of the aisles, scanning the shelves with disinterest.

The crow perched smugly upon his shoulder.

Kage barely spared her a glance. ‘I doubt that.’

‘Itbitme.’

One dark brow arched in silent amusement. ‘Surely not hard enough.’

‘Hey, that’s not nice.’ Wren scowled. ‘Yer as mean as each other.’

Kage ignored her entirely, methodically pulling tomes from the shelves, flipping through them with quiet precision. ‘These,’ he muttered, shoving a stack of books into her arms. Wren nearly staggered under the weight.

‘Ya nevasaid ya needed so many,’ she grumbled. ‘I can’t carry them all!’

Kage exhaled in irritation, reaching to take a few back—but then, he froze.

His head tilted slightly.Listening.

Wren felt it too—the faint shift in the air, the near-imperceptible creak of the floor beneath another weight.

She met his eyes.

‘Someone’s coming,’ she murmured.

Kage didn’t hesitate. ‘Run.’

Wren did not need to be told twice.

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