Page 80 of From Frost to Flame

“Right,” Silas muttered, distracted. A new dull pain radiated through his leg, and panic welled in his throat. “We’re ten floors down from the desert above and there must be at least another fifty floors below. Lex wouldn’t survive in his state.”

“His family jumped after him.” Castor stood next to him and patted his shoulder. “I doubt they crashed all the way to the bottom, and you would know if something happened to him.”

“Lex!” Silas called into the building. “Give me a sign you can hear me!”Please don’t be broken somewhere.

“You can’t go screaming into the building. What if there’s danger here?”

“But he’s hurt. I can feel it. What if his leg’s broken?”

“Even for mates, you’re behaving irrationally.” He crossed his arms and gave a disapproving look. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong.” It was true, his mind wasn’t clear since Lex was on the other side of the pit in the sand. “He’s hurt, and he’s mine so I...I want him back.”

“Silas?” Lex called. His voice echoed off stone columns. “Castor?”

Relieved, Silas ignored Castor and looked back over the edge. “Lex, where are you?”

All of Silas's muscles relaxed when Lex’s sweet face came into view twenty floors below him, waving his arms.

“How did you two land so high up?” Lex asked.

“Luck. Are you hurt?” he asked, scanning him as closely as he could with the distance. He could already see he wasn’t putting weight on his left ankle. “What happened to your leg?”

“I landed a little rough, but I’ll manage.”

“If it’s broken, go sit down. And step away from the ledge, it’s dangerous.” His eyes went to the thirty floors below Lex. The idea of him falling again made him sick. “I’ll carry you when I get there. I’ll jump down to you.

“Wait!” Lex said, holding out his hand. “You can’t.”

“What do you mean I can’t?”

Lex grabbed a pebble and tossed it at the center of the split. They fizzled against an invisible wall. “We tried to teleport to the other side, but there’s some type of invisible column that divides the trench. Julian tried to teleport past it but got fried. He’s fine, but my guess is it keeps the center clear of sand whenever it opens.”

Silas's heart pounded in his chest. He reached out and as he pressed through the air, there was a sizzling sound. The further he went, the more it burned, glowing bright white as if the air itself was igniting. “Okay, fine. This is fine. There has to be a way for me to get to you. There must be some way across.”

“Well, there’s this crystal bridge on our floor,” Lex said, pointing to the left.

Silas spotted the dilapidated bridge a good three hundred feet away. When he looked above and below his own ledge, Silas saw Lex was right, it was the only way across so it must bypass the strange column.

“It’s a bit of a walk, but we can all meet over there. If it doesn’t work, we can brainstorm something else.”

“I don’t want you wandering if you don’t have to. This place could be dangerous. Every other location had something lurking.”

“It’s the Library of Ametrine, it’s not dangerous,” Lex replied confidently. “Well, it shouldn’t be.”

“Library of what? You know what this is?” Silas asked, surprised.

“Another myth. Well, it was thought to be a myth,” he said dreamily. “It’s a library of all the greatest stories of the world. It and the librarians were said to have been burned in the war. The grief of the loss was immense. It still is for scholars. Seems that The Ravenous One collected it as a trophy. But it doesn’t have regrets and memories like the island. It’s just endless works of literary art, forever lost to time.”

Silas fell in love with Lex again at that moment. He loved that excitement he got talking about his passions. He had missed that most. “How about when this is over, I take you to all the great libraries? We can even come back here.”

“I’d absolutely love that. I already know what libraries we have to visit first. Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You’re just adorable.”

“Stop it,” Lex giggled, looking away.

“Will you two quit flirting!” Julian yelled. “I want to get out of here.”

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