Page 24 of A Dawn Of Blood

For a moment, she doesn’t say anything. “Hm,” she hums. “I guess I shouldn’t, but I do accept the challenge,” she says with a sly smile.

And with that, she turns on her heel and walks out of the classroom, leaving me shaken up and deflated. I guess I won’t be able to just breeze through this defense training like I thought I would.

Chapter 17

Idon’t stay disheartened for long. Once I’m done with training, I grab a quick breakfast and head straight for the Library. The closer I get, the more excited I am. I’m feeling less distracted by what happened with Dryden and going straight to obsessing over what the fae told me back in the lab.

She’s in Nasgard.The words ring in my ears as I make my way from the ground floor classrooms up the gallery steps to Level One.

I just know it — if only I manage to figure out what that was all about, we’ll finally make some actual progress when it comes to defeating Baldur.

And since I don’t exactly have a list of current residents of Nasgard, the first logical step is to learn everything I can about the infamous prison itself.

But once I arrive at my destination, the sight before me makes me stop midstep, my jaw dropping open.

The Library looks as if it was demolished just yesterday. I step inside and look around for a bit, my frown only growing deeper when I see the remains of the bookshelves, only one left intact, with a couple of dozen of absolutely useless books.

I walk outside and head straight for the Main Hall to ask for an explanation. “What happened to the Library?” I ask when I come across Jaeger in the Entrance Hall.

She frowns. “What do you mean?”

I blink at her. “It’s in ruins, and there are barely any books left.”

“Oh.” She scratches her head. “Well, Baldur doesn’t exactly like it when people have free access to information. Before he left this place, he burned all the books and cursed the Library itself. No matter what we do, we can’t repair anything in there. The same happens to Libraries everywhere he goes.”

For a moment, I just stare at her in shock. Then, just as she moves to walk past me, I remember to ask. “Is there a way to find information on Nasgard?”

“Nasgard? Actually, we do have some books on that particular topic.”

Yes. “Where are they?”

“Nuala keeps them in her quarters.”

Goddamn it. “I see. Thank you so much. I’ll see you later.”

I head straight for her office, but not without hesitation. She’s still mad at me about yesterday and I haven’t had a chance to apologize. Now it’ll seem like I’m only apologizing because I need a favor.

But this is more important than my image or her feelings towards me. We have the meeting tomorrow and my intention is to have a plan to present by then.

So I press my lips tight and force myself to knock on her door. “Evening, Emberlord,” I greet as soon as she calls me in.

“I’m busy,” she says when she sees it’s me. She doesn’t stop her work.

Great. “Alright. Then I’ll talk to you later, but now, can I just get the books on Nasgard? Jaeger told me they were with you.”

She looks at me for a second then shakes her head. “No.” And she keeps working.

“Why?” I ask, although I think I know.

“The books you’re looking for, people have literally died for us to get them. I don’t just hand them out to anyone who asks for them.”

“I don’t believe it could be said I’m justanyone. Besides, if people havediedfor them, doesn’t it make more sense for someone to get some use out of us having them?”

“That someone won’t be you,” she says coldly.

“I see. Well, I thought I’d do this tomorrow, since you’re so busy today, but I actually wanted to apologize for yesterday.”

“Whatever for? You only made a fool out of me and put us all in mortal danger.”

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