Page 94 of Fated or Knot

Her pen scribbled its way right off the page as she jumped. She was an adult nixie now, but a lot about her hadn’t changed, only sized up. She still had big blue eyes that sparkled with stars, made huge behind a thick pair of glasses. Fine-boned and petite, she matched her full brother, Kauz, with light purple skin and white hair that she’d thrown atop her head in a messy bun. When she spotted Marius, her face lit up.

“Hey! It’s about time you came to visit,” she exclaimed in Serian.

She got up and jumped at him. He caught her for a big hug and swung her around so her fins swirled around before he set her down next to me. “I’ve been meaning to. I read everything you gave me for the trip, plus a terrible book I bought from an Ilysnor bookstore,” he said.

“Tell me the title, and we’ll ban it from the library,” she offered.

“Definitely.” He cleared his throat, switching back to speaking Theli. “Eletha, this is Lark?—”

“Oh my stars,” the nixie squealed, switching too. “TheLark?”

“Hi,” I giggled. “Thank you for the faelight. I’m eager to use it once I find something to read.”

She wiggled her shoulders in a little dance. “I knew you’d be a reader! Marius needs a mate who can keep up with how many books he chews through.”

“I’m going to try,” I said, glancing at him curiously. He’d averted his gaze, maybe embarrassed. “Do you have a section of books written in Theli?”

“Do we ever. Fourth floor,” she said. Then she adjusted her glasses higher on the bridge of her nose. “Hmm, if we can get you there right now. I only heard a little bit about what happened. You’ll have to tell me what put you in that cast.”

“It’s a lot,” I warned.

“The best stories are!”

“I’ll carry you, Lark,” Marius offered.

Stars, I’d barely made it a day before running into a situation where I needed to be carried. “It’s fine, we can come back later,” I sighed.

“But.” He raised his brows and gave me a meaningful look. “Books you can read, though.”

I folded easily with that argument and the sight of him being a little less serious. He took the stairs carefully, given that I was holding my crutches and they were likely to clip someone or the wall on our spiraling ascent. Eletha skipped ahead. She must have amazing calf strength.

Each floor had fewer books and more nooks to read them in, the space narrowing closer to the top of the tower. On the second floor, every seat was occupied, though by the fourth, there were several seats open. Marius put me on my feet and held my waist as I maneuvered the crutches back into place. I wouldn’t admit it out loud, but it’d been nice to take some pressure off the forming bruises under my arms.

“So,” Eletha said brightly. “What do you like to read?”

We chattered about books, and she pulled several titles off the shelves to recommend. We only had a few titles that we’dread in common, considering they’d had to have been translated from one language to the other.

Still, it was very easy to talk to her. I hadn’t had much omega company but found her soft voice and scent soothing. She was something of an author herself, mid-revision of book she’d been working on for quite some time. She promised to tell me all about it later.

Marius stood a safe distance away, holding a column of books that grew taller every time she recommended one. Eventually, he said, “I think she has plenty to read now.”

“Okay, maybe,” she said, turning to look at him and laughing when she saw how many books he was balancing. “Lark, why don’t you browse a bit and see if there’s anything else you want to check out. Our Theli language titles aren’t all that popular, so no one’s going to miss them if you take a bunch.”

I grinned. I could definitely make some books disappear, especially if no one minded if they went into my new study. She’d stacked up so many recommendations that I probably wouldn’t get through them all in five years, but I still wandered the room to see what else was here.

Marius sat on a couch toward the center of the room with his sister, the two of them chatting quietly in Serian. I toured the room and ended up spotting and pulling a book I’d loved back home. As I wandered over to place it on one of the two stacks he had split my acquisitions into, Eletha was saying, “You just have to pick a theme. That’s the best way to start.”

“This is real life, not a story. I can’t fuck this up too,” he answered.

Though I burned with curiosity, I went back to the bookshelves. I was starting to feel bad for eavesdropping, though I was sure I’d catch some secrets if I kept doing it before one of the princes caught on.

I picked out two more books I recognized, catching Eletha holding his hand between two of hers and saying, “Itwillwork out.”

Her nails were cut short and rounded, which reminded me that I wanted to do the same with mine. Partially so I didn’t poke holes in any pages, but mostly because I wasn’t used to having needle-sharp nixie nails nor the webbing that still rippled up and down my hands with little control.

Marius looked doubtful. I’d seen that expression way too much when his brothers were talking about how fast their mother’s approval of me would come. Whether it was pessimism or worry at work was anyone’s guess.

“Wait, Lark, don’t sit down,” she said once I started to settle into a chair nearby. “Marius is going to take you to the library nest for a bit.”

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