Page 144 of What Lies Within Blood & Heirs

She must’ve looked like a fool gaping, but there was no hope of forming a sound. All this time, she’d never known.

A chair scraping wood beside her had her blinking. Garrik sat down with a smirk and said, “Inkbreaker.”

“Indeed, sire.” There was nothing but pride on his face then. Every freckle on Eldacar’s cheeks moved as the sweetest smile manifested, and he settled his glasses back on his nose. “The glass case in my library, those burned pages, that is my home. I broke through the ink to Elysian after exploring so many stories, always carrying my home with me so I could return. But I fell into Galdheir’s library and was captured by Ravens who had seen me climb from a book.”

Speechless. She was utterlyspeechless.

“Garrik convinced Magnelis to let me become a text keeper after. He took a lashing for me before the High King thought it would be of his pleasure to use me to train him after he stole the powers of others. My magic is one of the few he allowed, minimally, of course. I used to be able to do so much more. But now.” His focus fell on the table. “Now I can only touch a book and all of its contents fill my mind within a matter of seconds.” And said so quietly she almost couldn’t hear him, “I can no longer break through.”

Tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t imagine how Eldacar felt. Of once having such impossibly incredible powers and now… Only able to know the contents of a book once touched? He had to be quite powerful beforehand ifthiswas all he could do.

“Garrik was able to rescue me from that horrible place. If I made it a day without being burned by a flying candle or having a bone wrapped, it was a miracle from the stars. And if I couldn’t find the answers in texts Magnelis required, he’d punish me.” Eldacar’s throat bobbled as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Bile burned her throat at the realization; Eldacar had shuffled away in fear the day she had asked him about his curiosity toward Soulstryker when it had been nothing more than a damaged blade. When he hadn’t known where he’d seen something similar…

Alora’s eyebrows lowered in anguish.Magnelis. Magnelis had taken this beautiful, kind soul and abused him to this shell of anxious ruin.

With a curse on her breath, she damned the High King and turned to Eldacar, whose lips quivered.

“Garrik brought me new books to calm my mind while I healed. He still does, often when he comes home from finding our new Dragons. I wasn’t as strong as he was… I started to losemy wits when Garrik found a way. He was being sent east and would be leaving for months.” Eldacar dropped his hands in his palms.

Garrik continued for him, “I told Magnelis I needed Eldacar to prepare for Marked Ones that I was able to locate. Because Magnelis had acquired two more text readers, he was permitted leave.”

Alora fought back tears as her eyes drifted, scanning the shelves. A deep pit formed in her gut. “This was after you woke up?” she asked Garrik.

His eyes lowered to the table, dull and distant. “Before the dungeons.”

Eldacar’s throat worked. He wiped the tears streaming down his face on his sleeve.

“Can you return home now?”

A look as devastating as the way Telldaira had burned to the ground crossed Eldacar’s face. And Alora knew. He didn’t need to say it. But she knew …

“Magnelis destroyed my book. I have never found another edition. I will never return home.”

There was stilltime before the text keepers returned.

Smokeshadows had whorled around Garrik and Eldacar sometime ago and dawned them to camp with a healthy stack of books in Eldacar’s hands. Apparently, Garrik would convince the text keepers and alter the records as to them never existing in Kadamar’s library. After all, her High Prince would never endanger someone over a lost book.

She was safe there. Feeling Garrik’s shield, making her wholly invisible. Alora pulled a fairytale from the bookshelf and flipped to the first page when a chill breezed along her skin.

Alora suppressed her shudder but not the feline grin.

Garrik’s deep voice brushed her ear. “Come with me.”

The shudder fully manifested then. She threw a glance over her shoulder, almost meeting his lips. “Must you be so close?” Though she couldn’t entirely say she hated it. It almost blindsided her. Something … a feeling … much more than she expected as the mighty bastard pressed near and whispered again.

“I could bemuchcloser, clever girl.” Garrik dusted his hands along her sides. Her waist.

All the parts of her that ever desired to pull away from him, that never felt like she would ever enjoy this type of attention … of touch. After months, in his arms and on his lips and touching his incredible skin… They were all gone. And she could nearly feel the armor melting off and exposing her entirely.

She warred off the traitorous groan building, his body tensing as she relaxed into him slightly, and stared into his darkened eyes. Hoping he would push closer, silently half-begging him to pull her into the stacks and run his hands over her bare skin. Her gaze flickered to his lips … so close when his thumb stroked her hip bone. So, so close.

Another breath. Another heartbeat more and perhaps she would’ve brushed hers along his, but Garrik’s voice rumbled deep and warm like he was part volcano and said, “I promise. You will enjoy this.”

She could think of a few things she’denjoyat that moment. But it certainly wasn’t him releasing his tender hold on her hips or his lips retreating as he stepped away.

It wasn’t long after that he offered his hand and those incredible wings of night unfurled. Garrik flexed his back asshadows spread wide across the bookshelves, and he stepped near the opening in the railing.

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