Page 34 of A Realm of Shattered Lies

Kiran and his brother might not be getting along—I’m rather shocked Fin agreed with anything Kiran commanded of him, to be honest—but they seem to possess a common interest when it comes to me.

That was over two months ago. Kiran and Evander found Blaise in Mystral all right, but that was the last we heard from them before the snowstorm hit Mystral.

Now that the storm has passed, we hope Kiran and Evander will return any day now.

Any day now isn’t nearly soon enough.

“You said his name during the dream,” Fin says, his voice an anchor to reality from my dreary thoughts.

I frown at him in question.

“Oh, don’t look at me like you don’t know who I’m talking about. You said Az’s name.”

My chest clenches, the feel of Az’s possessive finger scraping across my face, as if it wasn’t a dream at all, but a memory I can’t quite quash.

“I’m suffering from nightmares. Why would my masochistic mind hold anything back from torturing me?” I ask. When Fin doesn’t answer, I gesture toward my head. “Sorry if all my enemies get mixed up in here.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, you can go on back to bed now. Consider it checked off the list: Seen to the little wounded bird, otherwise known as Asha.”

Fin gestures as if to strike a task off an invisible list midair. Then he stares at me. “Are you going back to bed?”

“If you get out of here, then maybe I can actually get some sleep.”

He cranes his neck to the side, crossing his arms. Waiting.

“Okay, fine. It’ll probably take me a while to fall back asleep.”

“Same.” Fin rises from the bed and extends his hand toward me. “Actually, you’ve pretty much ruined my hard-earned sleep for the night. I’ll never make it back to bed.”

I roll my eye, but stare pointedly at his hand.

He shrugs. “I figure if neither of us are going to be sleeping, we could at least be doing something productive. Besides, you owe me for waking me up. So I’m giving you a task.”

“You’re giving me a task.”

He grins. “I’m giving you a task, my queen.”

As it turns out, Fin’s task involves a trip to the Othian castle library, so it’s much less daunting than I previously expected.

We pad through the ornate hallways, the various portraits of Princess Olwen staring down at us as we traverse the sprawling castle.

“She just looks like she’d be a pill, doesn’t she?” Fin comments as we pass a portrait of Olwen Thornwall.

“I imagine she and I could be friends.”

Fin scoffs. “Just don’t tell Evander.”

When we arrive at the library, we’re careful to shut the door behind us, leaving our lanterns with the overnight librarian and exchanging them for a set approved by the King of Dwellen himself.

I don’t much like the King of Dwellen. He seems unnecessarily awful to Evander, and frequently condescending to most everyone around him, except for maybe Ellie, but the male is particular about the care his book collection receives, and that I can respect.

The specialized lanterns let off an unassuming glow that supposedly won’t cause damage to the pages of the older texts contained within the library. The Othian library, much like the one in Naenden, is bedecked with books boasting all imaginable colors. It also contains at least half a dozen sliding ladders and little alcoves on the second floor of shelves, so you could settle in and read from a nook above.

It’s a lovely idea, though I’m not tempted to scale them. I just like knowing the option is available to me if I so desire it.

Fin must have occupied an alcove earlier in the day, because he climbs up to one and descends with a pile of books, aware of my aversion to heights. He piles them on a desk beside a nearby window, one with Ellie’s initials engraved into the side, as I examine the titles and raise my brow.

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