Page 80 of The Shadowbound King

That left me with Rane, who proved a surprisingly accommodating companion. He knew all the secret ins and outs of the castle, and he seemed content to trail me as I explored. After a few stilted exchanges, he began chiming in with little facts and curiosities about the Embervale’s history. The castle was as old as Ishulum, its rooms overflowing with paintings, statues, and furniture.

The cage vanished, though not the watchful eyes. Ginhad flitted in and out, delivering gowns and irreverent gossip. Andrin and Rane took turns shadowing me, their presence as constant as the leaves drifting past the windows. At night, we dined in the Great Hall, where I sat on the dais in a chair of my own and tried to ignore the heat pooling low in my body as the Embervale’s residents entertained themselves in increasingly lurid ways.

But the heat remained when I slept on the couch with Andrin and Rane in the bed beside me. The men didn’t touch each other. And, just as Andrin promised, they didn’t touch me.

On the third morning, I found myself alone with Rane after Ginhad delivered breakfast wearing a cravat, a pair of scandalously tight knee breeches, and several whip marks.Grimacing, he’d set the tray of food down, turned a sickly shade of pastel green, and fled the chamber.

“You didn’t eat your toast,” Rane said suddenly.

I looked up from a book about a war between the Spring and Summer Courts. “I’m full.”

He studied the toast. “You ate around the edges.”

We stared at each other. “It was a little darker than I like,” I said after a minute.

Rane settled back in his chair. “You’re really picky about toast.”

“I’m not picky.”

“Sure.” He gestured toward my book. “That’s the third one you’ve read about the Spring Court.”

I stiffened. Was he cataloging my reading habits now?

“It’s an odd place,” he said. “Very devoted to the gods. And overrun with Scarrok.”

“Scarrok?”

He nodded. “Water monsters. Nasty creatures. We have some illustrations in the library. I can show you if you want.” He huffed, then muttered, “Because I do know where the library is.”

Books were rare treasures in Eftar. The library at Purecliff held fewer than fifty. They were expensive to make, requiring hours of time and labor. But the elves had all the time in the world. The Embervale’s library was probably a place of wonder.

“Yes,” I said. “I’d love to see it.”

As he’d done for my other explorations, Rane led me to the library, opened the doors, and gave me free rein to wander the stacks. As I’d expected, the library was vast, with two levels of soaring bookshelves and ladders attached to little wheels that let me happily roll my way from one section to another. Hours passed as I thumbed through books written centuries before I was born. When hunger stirred, I wandered around the end of a tall bookcase to find a sandwich and a glass of water waitingon a table. And when I lumbered toward the entrance with a wobbling stack of books, Rane sprang from a chair near the doors and took them from me.

“We’ll bring a bag next time,” he said, stuffing a couple of books down the front of his jacket.

The next morning, I woke to find him fully dressed and seated near the balcony. The bed was empty, its blankets perfectly arranged. I was probably never going to get used to how quietly the elves moved when they wanted to. And now I knew they sometimes allowed me to hear them.

“Clothes are there,” Rane said, nodding toward a gown draped across the foot of the couch.

“Where’s Andrin?” I asked, clutching the blanket to my chest as I sat up.

“Council meeting.”

“Aren’t you part of the Council?”

He eyed me like he was trying to decide how to respond.

I sighed. “I know you and Andrin don’t want to leave me alone. You say you trust me, but you’re making that difficult to believe.”

Rane shook his head. “It’s not that. You’re elfkin. You’ve been running the shadows your whole life. But things are different here. The Edelfen is too close for comfort. If you stumbled into the wrong shadow, you could get pulled into the forest’s center.” He swallowed. “It’s hard to appreciate the danger until you see it.”

I thought of the time I’d spent in the Edelfen. That had been bad enough. He made it sound magnitudes worse. “What’s it like in the center?”

His eyes darkened, and for a moment, I thought he’d brush me off as he might have when we first met. Then he stood and extended a hand. “I’ll show you.”

My heart sped up.

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