Page 9 of A Dusk Of Stars

It’s simply irresistible.

Slowly and on shaky knees, I start making my way between the bookshelves, until I see it again.

My eyebrows shoot up. It's a black cat that's just disappeared behind yet another bookshelf.

Without a moment of hesitation, I follow it, until I reach the last bookshelf to the right.

I peer behind and see a plain wooden door. No cat to be seen anywhere, but now the door is drawing me to it, irresistibly.

There’s a part of me that screams stop, but I don’t. I’m already holding out my hand and grabbing the doorknob.

The door opens with a soft creak. I peer inside, the sight before me immediately taking my breath away. I start walking — very slowly — down the polished stone tiles. It’s a relatively small, brightly but softly lit circular room with shelves carved into the ornate stone all around me. At the center, there’s a solitary stone pillar, looking as if it’s been placed there for perusing the books.

The cat doesn't seem to be here. But the energy emanating from the books — leather bound tomes, delicate rolls of parchment, even some modern-looking paperbacks… It's outstanding.

Holy shit, I curse when I finally realize where I am.

The Lexarcanum. The place where books choose people instead of the other way around.

Fuck. I definitely am not supposed to behere. As soon as I start turning back to the door, I feel the energy draw my eyes in the opposite direction.

I freeze, my jaw dropping when I look up a little.

There’s a book — a very old-looking tome — struggling to wriggle itself out of one of the top shelves.

My mouth still open, I watch it glide through the air and land on the stone pillar.

For a second, I just look at it. Then, looking around as if to share my shock with someone although there’s no one here with me, I walk up to the book.

I stare at it, frowning.

There’s no title, just a symbol on the bottom center of the cover — a cross with a stylized wheel on top that for some reason looks so familiar.

Before I even realize what I’m doing, I lift my hand and I touch the book.

The moment I do, the world around me falls silent. A shock of pain sets my very nerve endings on fire and I see everything around me explode in light, before it turns pitch black.

Then there it is, hitting me like a wave.

The knock.

***

There’s a sea of grass around me, and I’m making my way through it as if through water, pushing but never getting anywhere. There’s the tower shooting up into the sky somewhere on the gloomy, sticky horizon, and I’m so close, but every time I think I’m about to reach it, it retreats into the distance.

There’s this dread nestled in my throat, seeping into my bones. I’m runningfromsomething, and I can’t look behind. Whatever I do, I can’t look behind.

I keep running, or trying to, and all of a sudden, I find myself inside the tower, its stone walls at the same time seeming to shoot up into the air and crumble all around me.

Not crumble. Get swallowed by vines.

Fear floods my body with ice-cold fire. I look down to see my feet getting swallowed. I try to force my legs to obey, to start running again, but now my eyelids are getting so heavy, I can barely keep my eyes open.

It’s only getting closer, I can feel it breathing from the darkness that’s spreading from everywhere around me, before everything turns black.

***

I’m kneeling on the cold stone floor of the Lexarcanum, gasping for air and trying to blink the images and shove the feelings away.

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