Page 160 of His Darkest Desire

Vex set aside another book, revealing the last in the stack. A tome bound in weathered black leather, its yellowed pages damaged along the edges. He lifted it carefully, hand trembling, and brushed his thumb across the cover.

Kinsley spoke again from the reading nook. “I’ve felt a lot like Alythrii for as long as I can remember.”

He squeezed the tome. That force inside him squeezed his heart. The pressure only intensified when he heard his own words from that same night.

“Of the places you’ve journeyed, which is dearest to your heart?”

“No,” Vex said, shaking his head. “Extraplanar studies. A small section, but—”

“Mmm… Here,” Kinsley said.

Eyes downcast, Vex strode to the shelves beside the reading nook. If he were to turn his head aside just a little, he would smell her again, would see her again.

It isn’t her.

“Definitely here,” she finished.

Vex placed the realmswalker’s journal on the shelf. “I’ve not the time to tarry in memories.”

She will never again see her favorite place.

And this place would never again feel like home.

“But there is nowhere else. Not for me. She may yet find somewhere.”

She had to find a place, lest all this… No. This could not be for naught. She would heal. She would live.

Kinsley’s voice again drifted from memory to haunt him, this time in his head—in his heart.

I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my life.

Air refused to flow through his throat, and his pulse throbbed at his temples.

“Magus?” Shade called from the library’s entrance.

Heat roiled beneath Vex’s skin. He’d not sensed the wisps’ return.

Had you but followed her call…

“These ones bring tidings, magus,” said Echo excitedly.

All three wisps flew toward Vex, their ghostfire bright and spirited.

“She is safe?” Vex asked through the dryness in his throat.

“She is,” Shade replied, turning their head as they surveyed the library. “The crossing left her body unharmed.”

The implication was clear.

Vex’s next words came with abrasive heat and stinging grit. “Then I need hear no more.” He moved toward the table, only for the wisps to dart into his path, stopping him.

“Magus…” There was warning in Flare’s tone, fiercer than anything they’d displayed in all the time Vex had known them.

“Leave me.”

“These ones shall not,” Echo declared, swelling to nearly match Flare’s intensity.

“I’ve matters to attend. I shan’t repeat myself.”

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