Page 40 of Ruined Kingdom

The words wouldn’t come out.

Kaine grabbed the boulder I was hiding behind and pushed it away from me, leaving nothing between us. Then he knelt on one knee and bowed his head as if he was relieved. His body began to crack and stretch back to his human form, but this time, I had to look away.

It was more gruesome and painful than it ever had been before.

I could tell he had to force the transformation as if the Beast was fighting back.

We were running out of time faster than I thought.

“Sophia…” He reached out for me before collapsing with his face, landing in a puddle of still water in the middle of the cave.

I had to use all of my strength to lift his face out of the water and roll him over onto his back. “It’s all right. We’re going to fix this… I won’t let him take you.”

11

SOPHIA

My head became heavy, my eyes dry and weary from reading endlessly.

I slapped the book closed in frustration. “There’s nothing here. I need another one.”

The book levitated out of my hand and went back onto a shelf.

Another book was pulled from another shelf and floated into my waiting hand as if on a magic breeze.

My foot nervously tapped against the floor as impatience took over.

We were running out of time, and there were still so many unanswered questions!

I still had no idea how to undo Kaine’s curse. The rosebud Helene had given me was next to useless unless she had intended to give me anxiety. And then there was the bit that I might have magical powers that Tieni couldn’t tell me anything about!

I dropped my head to the table with a loud thud.

The sting almost made me forget the urgency of everything for a moment.

What am I going to do? I can feel Kaine slipping through my fingers…

There was a knock at the door, and I shot up so that whoever was there couldn’t see me wallowing in my self-pity.

The door creaked open to reveal it was Tieni.

She offered me a small smile before noting the heaviness in my eyes and looking down. “I see you’ve been up all night reading. Have you found out anything?”

“Have I found a way to save the love of my life and stop an evil monster from destroying the world, you mean? No, but I did discover that you can get a paper cut on top of another paper cut.” My voice was monotone as I raised my hand and showed her my poorly wrapped fingers.

She smiled and shook her head. “Perhaps you’re looking in the wrong place. Listen, Kaine is going to Sheenra Lo today to elicit help from the others. There’s a library there where you might be able to find what you’re looking for.”

I jumped up from my seat. “That’s the most promising news I’ve heard all day! When is he going?”

“In a few hours.” Tieni checked the time before looking back at me. “But we’ll need to get you changed first.”

I looked down at my nightgown and robe, having forgotten that I hadn’t bothered with looking presentable in a few days. I didn’t see the point since Kaine had been bedridden for the last few days. “Right, of course.”

After Tieni helped me bathe and get dressed, we joined Kaine downstairs.

He appeared to be waiting for me.

It would have taken less time, but Tieni had to address the scrape on my leg from the cave monster.

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