Page 5

Chapter five

Brandon

M y heart hammered inside my chest as I saw Princess Roisin reach for a book on the magical shelf. I ran toward her, my hands reaching out to stop her from taking a book and making the others disappear. I might not have been here long, but I’d learned of the bookshelf during my studies. Learned the Fellowship let no one take a book from the shelf, otherwise we’d lose even more knowledge.

“Wait!” My hands clasped her shoulders, but it was too late. Her fingers closed around the spine of the book, and she jolted under my touch as though I’d zapped her with enough electricity to make her gasp.

The force threw us forward, and the air shimmered around us with even more magic that kept pulling us forward.

“What the hell!”

Roisin staggered forward toward the bookshelf, taking me with her since I was still holding her in an iron-tight grip. I couldn’t let her go even if I wanted to, but I didn’t. It was my duty to protect the Fae, even though there was an extra protective urge coming from me when I thought about Roisin.

“Let go,” Roisin said, deepening her usually sweet voice and making me realize she wasn’t all sugar and sweetness like I first thought.

The pulling sensation intensified and tugged Roisin off her feet, and me with her, into the bookcase. I braced for the solid collision, but the timber frame of the bookcase disappeared. We fell through the glittering white of magical air for what seemed like hours but must have been seconds.

Roisin landed on the ground, her arm stretched above her head, stopping the book from hitting the snow-covered ground. I slammed into her back and quickly rolled away from crushing the Fae princess.

“Sorry,” I said, offering her my hand as I stood.

She pushed to her feet as though she hadn’t just landed on a snow-covered field and had a solid man slam into her dainty back. I supposed the Fae were stronger than humans, and I needed to remember that whenever I thought about Roisin. Which was way too much. She’d been warm beneath my body, and I’d longed to lie there and have her curves press into my body for longer.

I cleared my throat and shoved away the thoughts of her perfect body pressed against me.

“Where are we?”

Roisin shrugged and then hugged the book to her chest. “I assumed it was a clue, but I didn’t consider this would happen. ”

I frowned. “What was a clue?”

“The book.” She lifted it from her tight embrace and showed me the cover.

There was nothing spectacular about the book. It had tiny gold swirls in the corners and a single title on the cover that didn’t even say a word I recognized.

“Okay, Princess.” I shivered and wrapped my arms around my chest. “I have no clue what you’re talking about, so lay it out in plain English.”

Her pretty pink lips tipped up into a smile. I smiled back at her, for how could I not? She was so pretty, it hurt my eyes to look at her.

“I had a suspicion the magical bookshelf was more than an exchange for books. More than someone controlling what the Fellowship read, but I didn’t expect it to be a doorway.” She pointed to the title of the book and the delicate lines inside the words that looked like designs, but as she traced her finger over them, other letters stood out. How hadn’t I noticed the hidden word? “See, it says door,” she said. “I should have thought about it better. My family might be right about me not being smart.”

“Okay.” I held up my hand. “One thing at a time here.” I resisted the urge to clatter my teeth together in the freezing cold. “Most importantly, I’ve met your family, and I doubt they consider you dumb.”

She laughed. “No, they’d never call me dumb, but they always treat me like I’m young and understand nothing at all.”

“That’s different. ”

“How so?” She hugged the book to her chest again.

I rubbed my hands up and down my biceps, glad I was wearing a coat, but it wasn’t a thick enough coat to withstand the cold from the snow.

“I’m the youngest member of the Fellowship, so I understand how elders treat young people, even though I’m next in line to be their leader.”

Roisin huffed. “I’m fifty years old.”

“You beat me. I’m twenty-five,” I said. “That’s like a quarter of life in terms of a human life span. What about fifty for Fae?”

She scowled. “Fifty is insignificant compared to how long we live. Although we almost lost our immortality, so if that had happened, then it would have been half my life.”

“I’m glad Ciara fixed the spring. I can’t imagine you already living half your life.”

Her scowl dropped, and pink lit her cheeks. She was even prettier when she blushed. Which she seemed to do when she was around me. This was the longest conversation we’d had, and I didn’t want it to stop.

A cold shudder ran up my back. “Where are we?”

“I’m not sure.” She lifted the book and opened it. “I can’t read any of it.”

“Why not?”

“There are no words in here.” She turned the open book around and showed me the blank pages.

“Well, shit, what do we do now? It’s not like there’s a bookshelf to put the book back on. ”

I glanced around. Snowy fields stretched for miles upon miles. A snow-covered tree stood here and there, but nothing that would offer protection from the elements. In the distance, the sides of dark rocks jutted through the snowy fields. I squinted as sunlight glinted off the snow, giving the false hope it’d warm me, but I’d freeze to death soon if we didn’t find a warm place.

“No.” Roisin frowned, but then her gaze fell on the sunbeams streaming through the cold air. “This place would be so lovely to paint.”

“How about if we find a warm place, you paint it, then?”

Her gaze turned from the beauty of the sight, then her frown returned as she noticed me shivering.

“You’re cold.”

“Yeah.” I cupped my hands and blew warm air into them.

The tip of my nose was already turning to ice. I wasn’t a vain person, but I didn’t want to lose my nose or my fingers and toes to frostbite.

“We should leave… but how?”

Power flared into her hands. “I can’t travel through the Veil.”

“No magic?”

“I have power, but with the lock still in place, it’s difficult to access here.”

“Never mind. I can’t travel through your Veil, anyway.”

“If I was like my brothers, I would command my power and make you a fire.” Her chin dipped as she stared at the ground, the glowing in her palms fading into nothing. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s not your fault.”

She lifted the book. “I took a book without permission, and you were trying to stop me, so aye, this is my fault.”

“When you put it like that….”

Her gaze snapped to mine, and I laughed.

“You find this funny?”

“It’s better to laugh and get on with things than cry over our mistakes.”

“Aye,” she said, straightening her shoulders. “We should find you shelter.”

“Agreed. Which way?”

“They all look the same. I guess we take our chances?”

“Let’s go.” I started walking and already my feet were like blocks of ice to walk on.

Perhaps I would lose toes after all. The expanse of snow stretched before us in a never-ending field of icy nothingness. If we didn’t find shelter, I’d lose my life.