Page 38 of Bound (Gladiators of the Gryn #3)

CHRISSIE

Flanked by three huge gladiators, I make my way across Tatatunga using a network of overground passages and courtyards. We see no one on our travels, which is presumably why we’ve taken this particular route. Having Rych close to me is a reassurance after the news the assassin is after me and with the additional shock of finding out Fenek might be involved.

Why would my boss want me dead after all the fuss he made about my status as his singing pet?

We reach a courtyard which is so full of vegetation I can’t image we can even enter it. Maxym pushes on a single stone slab on the wall, and there is a soft grinding under our feet as the blue-green bushes flop to one side and a large opening is dragged through the ground, revealing a set of steps.

“In here?” Rych asks.

Klynn stalks ahead of us with a swagger born of knowing how fucking dangerous he is and descends into the dark. Maxym shrugs and follows. Rych curls his hand around mine and gives it a squeeze before ushering me forward, and I too, walk into the dark.

I can feel the heat of Rych behind me as the slab closes over us and for a second or two the place is pitch dark. I try not to panic, knowing the place is stuffed with gladiators and I probably couldn’t be more protected, but having been let down by my boss and duped by Red, trust, other than in Rych, is in short supply.

Fortunately a light winks on and I find we’re in a passage. Two gladiators in front of me and one behind. They fill the passage.

“Ahead and to the left,” Rych says.

We troop forward, following his instruction, and as Klynn and Maxym push open a heavy door ahead, I find we’re in a huge vaulted room, not what I was expecting at all.

Further, the walls are lined with what looks to be bookshelves. Bookshelves filled with books.

I stare about me, drinking in the place which seems incongruously familiar.

“What is this place?” Rych growls. “It doesn’t look like a safe house.”

“I think it’s the lost library of Tatatunga,” I say in awe. All three gladiators stare at me. “As a sick human I had a lot of time on my hands, I watched a lot of vids.” I offer.

There are three levels, each one linked by spiral staircases, all lined with shelving and books. We’re stood in the center, where freestanding shelves radiate outwards to the walls. The floor is soft underfoot with a myriad of colored rugs, and there are several large polished tables surrounded by chairs.

“What’s a library?” Klynn asks, his feathers vibrating and two swords at the ready.

Maxym and Rych have wide eyes as they look around, and I make my way over to the shelving, trailing my fingers over the spines.

They are books, some of them older than others. Some of the bindings change color as I touch them. Books, but not as I know them. Except the air smells like old paper and leather and the silence within this place is one heavy with knowledge.

“It’s a place where you can learn,” I respond to Klynn’s question.

He huffs. “Unless it helps me kill quicker, I’m not interested.”

“If the library is lost, it has to be safe, doesn’t it?” Rych says to Maxym.

“I trust the resistance,” Maxym says. “They helped Sylas, and even if they’ve not been successful in gaining more freedoms for the repressed of Tataunga, they have at least stopped blowing things up.”

All three gladiators shake out their wings.

“More’s the pity,” Klynn growls. “I like a good explosion.”

“A fact of which we are well aware,” Maxym responds with a growl of his own. “Vrexer.” He thumps Klynn on the back of his head with a wing.

Klynn responds with a bloodcurdling snarl which is deadened by the books lining the walls. It’s enough to surprise him into lowering his swords.

Rych draws me to him, dragging his eyes from the shelves to me. He places his thumb under my chin, and his finger holds me in place.

“Do you like it here?”

“Yes, I’ve read about the lost library. I had time on my hands between singing for Fenek.” I look up at the books again. “I didn’t think it could be real.”

“Tatatunga is an ancient city. It wasn’t always such a den of iniquity and a palace to violence,” he says, eyes studying mine. “If I leave you, will you be safe?”

“Given this place is ‘lost,’ I doubt anyone is going to still be looking for it,” I respond. “And if the resistance didn’t think it was safe, they wouldn’t have sent us here.”

Rych brushes his lips over mine and sends a shiver of desire through my body.

“When I return, I will mate you here,” he says, nostrils flaring and his voice a pit of gravel. “Then I will nest for you.”

“It’s the least I expect. And you will come back to me, or I’ll come looking for you,” I growl back.

Rych smiles, a slow, delicious lifting of his lips, exposing just the tips of his fangs. A genuine smile, one he has for me alone.

“Such a wicked little mate, ordering her male around. You seem to seek punishment with every word.”

“Providing it’s you punishing me, I will always order you around.” I absolutely know I will pay for teasing him later, and it’s the only thing keeping me going.

“Rych?” Maxym sidles up behind us, not wanting to get close, his dark wings clamped tight to his body as he attempts to make himself non-threatening.

Quite a feat for such a tank of a Gryn.

“We need to go,” he adds. “There’s a small dining hall in the back which is stocked with food.” He addresses me. “We won’t be long.”

In the center of the library, Klynn moves sinuously, practicing his sword thrusts.

I know this is it. This is the point I have to let go of Rych and trust in him. I don’t want to let go of the one good thing I’ve found in this galaxy.

“I will mate you and nest for you,” Rych murmurs in my ear. “You belong to me, eregri . I will always come for you.”