Page 59 of Dragon Unleashed
I step away before I’ve realized it, and Paige tightens her grip on my hand, pulling me back. “Don’t leave me,” she says.
I grimace. If she’d asked me not to hurt it, I would have refused. But asking me to protect her, to make her feel safe? I can’t refuse that.
My shoulders sag as I realize I’ve been defeated. “Where else can we go?” I ask her.
She bites her lip, drawing my attention to her perfect mouth. “There’s a basement,” she says at last. “Warded against any creatures other than those sworn to the Athenaeum.” At my expression, she adds, “I can get you in.”
“Paige, wait,” I say when she starts to move.
“Is something wrong?”
“No, I just... would you come with me to Astronia?” The words are rushed and clumsy. I grimace, kicking myself for the awkward delivery. I haven’t felt this uncertain around a woman in, well, ever.
“Come with you?” she repeats, uncertainty reflected in her depthless eyes. “Why?”
“To see my world for yourself,” I say lamely. “You enjoyed the description so much, and I know you’d love it even more if you saw it for yourself. This time of year, the trees are beginning to bud and bloom. The rivers are fast and flowing. And the forest animals are just beginning to emerge with their young. We could hike, or I could fly you to the perfect viewpoint to take it all in.”
“It sounds perfect,” she says, and my heart lifts with hope. “But also kind of impossible.” Just as fast, hope crumbles.
“Impossible?” I repeat, disappointment igniting my temper. “Even with everything in this damned library trying to kill you?”
“Not everything,” she argues.
“Right. Just a shadow creature stalking you in the shower. And unknown monsters constantly attempting to escape the confines of their literary cell. Not to mention whatever’s climbing through that hidden passageway.”
“Hey, you were an unknown monster until very recently,” she points out.
I scowl. “And the rest?”
“None of it happened until you came along,” she says, and I blink, taken aback. “Sorry,” she says. “That’s not what I meant.”
I don’t answer.
“Look, maybe I could swing a vacation once my internship ends,” she says, “but after that... I’ve sworn an oath to this place.”
Her words only serve to pain me even more. “What kind of oath?”
“The kind that binds me to the Athenaeum for life,” she says softly. “A promise to protect it for as long as I shall live.”
Her expression is soft as she says the words, and I wonder if she’s figured out my true motive for asking. But her oath is the same one I’ve sworn to my own kingdom. A promise to protect it, to rule as king, for as long as I live.
And so, I keep my secret. Because the only thing that comes close to the pain of losing Paige is hurting her. I won’t do either if I can help it.
I, however, am not so lucky as to be spared suffering. The future I want with Paige is more than impossible; it’s futile. And the pain of knowing it is worse than any death or confinement, in this world or the next.
Chapter16
Paige
With the gnomes distracted by the pile of Sour Patch I left near the stairs and the shadow creature likely looting my apartment, I stroll through the shelves of the reference section.
So far, our search has turned up nothing.
No way of opening a book and sending him home. Likely because opening the books is strictly forbidden. Given that’s literally rule number one, of course there wouldn’t be a how-to recipe for breaking it. Not without a keeper to open a portal instead. And instructions for how to wield keeper magic aren’t something recorded in any book. The library’s language of magic is a mystery to anyone but the keepers themselves.
So, with that, we’re literally back at square one.
Perfect.
