Page 49 of A Court of Wings and Shadows

Eleven

Zander turned to us, his expression unreadable beneath the weight of what we’d all just witnessed.

“Come with me,” he said simply, and without another word, he turned and led us across the Ascension Grounds.

We followed him in silence, our boots crunching over gravel and stone as we reentered the barracks. But instead of stopping in the main room where our bunks and gear were kept, Zander moved through it, toward the narrow hallway beyond. We rarely used it, just a small corridor that led to a few storage rooms and back exits.

He stopped at the first door on the right and pushed it open.

Inside was a modest space, but compared to the barracks, it felt almost… lavish.A bed in the corner. A sturdy table and four chairs. A window, small but real, overlooking the southern edge of the grounds.

“I’ve assigned you this private room,” Zander said, stepping aside so we could see. “It has a table and chairs, you can use it as a meeting room.”

“Or a private bedroom,” Tae said with a grin, his eyes locking on the lone bed.

Zander’s mouth twitched, but he nodded. “It’s a squad leader’s room. In the interim, that is me. So until an official leader is assigned, you can all use it as needed.”

Cordelle immediately ducked out and returned a moment later with several books in hand, because of course he did.

“We should start researching poisons and spells,” he said, flipping the book open as he dropped into a seat beside Zander. “The king’s madness… it’s not natural. It can’t be.”

Zander nodded and sat beside him, already scanning the open pages.

Jax and Ferrula, unsurprisingly, made a beeline for the bed and dropped onto it without hesitation, Ferrula stretching like she’d claimed it permanently.

It was obvious they wouldn’t be digging through any books.

“Maybe,” I said slowly, glancing between them, “we should have Jax, Ferrula, and Teren go speak with Meri. She may have some ideas. I’m sure the healers are treating the king. Maybe she’s seen something.”

Jax sat up immediately. “Fine by me. I hate reading.”

Ferrula bounced off the bed with a grin. “You’re speaking my language.”

Teren chuckled and joined them at the door. “I love meeting new people.”

Tae laughed. “Especially the female ones.”

Teren winked. Then the three of them disappeared down the hall in seconds, leaving the rest of us in the quiet room.

Cordelle passed me, Riven, Tae, and Naia each a book before he flipped to another page. “Some of these are on fae bloodlines, but with this many of us, we can look for our lost bloodlines.”

“Ours?” I asked him.

He nodded. “The commoners all have noble roots. Maybe you are not the only one who has originated from a bloodline thought lost.”

“That makes sense.” I turned the next page in my book, and scanned the contents.

The book was heavy in my hands, the leather cover cracked and softened by age. Cordelle had stacked several tomes on the table before he and Zander became fully engrossed in theories about magical corruption and psychotropic poisons. I picked one at random and found myself thumbing through pages yellowed with time and ink that bled slightly at the edges.

The Legacy of the Unifier.

The script was more elegant than most texts I’d read, written in the flowing, deliberate hand of a royal historian, no doubt. But despite its ornate phrasing, the story was unmistakable.

The first King of Warriath and his dragon.

The Unifier.

The first king hadn’t been born into power. He was chosen, by the dragons, and by the fractured human kingdoms desperate for peace. The book detailed his heritage from a fae mother and human father. His struggles to bond with the dragon leader. A great golden beast that was later referred to as the Unifier. His rider, the first king was a war tactician and a leader who commanded the loyalty of nobles and dragons alike. It spoke of how he’d crossed the Great Divide to meet with the Fae Elders, how he knelt before them not as a conqueror, but as a supplicant. To broker a deal for more fae mothers or fathers.