Page 1 of Unraveled (A Kingdom of Beasts and Ruins #1)

There are three rules I must follow if I want to survive the Wild Hunt:

One, don’t wander the streets after nightfall, especially during the blood moon.

Two, don’t leave the house without Mother’s protective amulet.

Three, never look a fae in the eye.

That is... if I ever find a fae wandering our little city. I scoff at the thought, shaking my head at the memory of my father’s voice.

After all, it’s been a decade since the fae disappeared from our world, leaving behind the beasts of the Hunt.

The wood groans under my shifting feet as I balance on the narrow shelf. Exhaling a shaky breath, I stretch toward the bookshelf on the other side of the aisle.

Almost there. Sweat beads on my temple, and my fingers tremble as I trace the worn leather binding of the forbidden grimoire. The book’s magic sparks at my fingertips, wrapping around my wrist as it shifts toward me on the wood surface.

My heart jolts at the movement, and even though I’ve been coming here for a week to study its pages in my spare time, its power never ceases to surprise me.

I wrap my hand around the spine and pull the book out. Losing my balance could mean death, or a couple broken bones. But I’m tired of living in fear.

Gaining the ability to defend Irene from the beasts that took our father is worth it—even if it means breaking a few rules.

The room spins as I shift my gaze to the ground. I’m at least fifteen feet up, climbing bookcases I shouldn’t even be looking at let alone borrowing books from.

I press my lips together in an effort to stay silent and adjust my grip on the shelf to bring the heavy, magical grimoire to my chest. Breathing raggedly, I wait for my heart to stop trying to escape my body.

Perhaps Irene is right, and I have a death wish. But the threat of the blood moon every three months can make a sane person mad.

My amulet vibrates as it does when another librarian approaches. Which means I have little time to get my myself somewhere inconspicuous.

I climb with practiced ease, bringing the book with me as I descend shelf by shelf, until my bare feet hit the frigid floor.

The stone of my amulet is glowing now, illuminating the narrow corridor and the two shelves looming over me. I swallow the bitter taste of fear and rush toward my discarded boots as I tuck my necklace back under the thick layers of my cloak.

Whatever magic is inside my mother’s amulet, it’s never led me astray.

I shove a foot into my soft leather boot, and it’s a welcome reprieve from the cold. As fast as I can, I run, holding the grimoire with one hand and my remaining boot with the other.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to return it to the towering bookcases filled with the rest of the old tomes, before any of the elder librarians notice it’s missing.

I glance at the now-familiar embossed leather that binds the grimoire. Every time I borrow this one, it’s harder to give it back. The spells within its pages are too alluring, not from this world. But it’s more than that. The book begs me to not let it go.

With no windows or lamps of any sort around me, muscle memory guides me across the circular room. I lock the iron gates with the help of a spell I learned months ago, using magic I’m not supposed to wield.

Oh well, it’s not like anyone’s watching me.

Sighing, I walk down the slim steps leading to the main floor.

Usually, I wouldn’t dare to read this out in the hall.

Right now, though, all but the assigned guardian—have left for the night.

I place my book on the polished reading table and tug on my other boot.

The sunrays of the late afternoon spill across the floor, casting lengthy shapes of gold and pink.

I have an hour at most before I have to run home.

Magic has a particular old parchment smell. The power held in these pages also smells of leather and something woodsy I can’t place. My heart soars as the book’s glowing yellow energy snakes to my fingers, around my wrist, and into my arms.

The passages are written in a language I shouldn’t understand, but somehow, and against all odds... I do. The first time I gazed upon this grimoire, I was confused. How had the strange symbol-like letters become something I could read? Like the book was whispering the words right into my mind.

I can’t tell anyone about this. It’s forbidden for me to so much as be in that part of the library, never mind study the grimoires. I know people would think I’m crazy. No one would believe me if I told them the books talk to me.

Time slows, then speeds up. I blink at the darkness surrounding me. I blink again and notice the red glow seeping from the largest window. The air thickens, a crawling sensation slithering over my skin as I close the grimoire.

“No, no, no...” I move between bookcases standing tall like columns and reach for the windowsill.

As one of the few people in the city with an affinity for weaving small traces of magic, I’m in tune with the phases of the moon, and it’s never caught me off guard.

I push an errant strand of hair behind my ear, and the warmth of my breath fogs the glass as I press my cheek to the window. The moon hangs in the air, glowing in shades of pale pink. It mocks me. Even though the fae are gone, the ancient power of the unseelie is approaching the veil.

I should’ve been out of here at least two hours ago. I jump back and turn when a shrill voice startles me.

“Mia, what are you doing here?” A petite woman with a curvy figure dashes from the farthest staircase across the massive room toward me.

Harper wears librarian regalia much like I do.

A red cloak that reaches the floor contrasting against the simple white dress underneath.

The dim light catches on the librarian’s emblem stitched with gold thread on the front of the cloak.

A shield between two olive branches, and in the center, a stack of books with a glowing star floating above.

With Knowledge, Power

The words are embroidered inside scrolls at the bottom of the crest. It’s the motto we librarians live by as we study ancient writings seeking the reason for this blood moon phenomenon.

“I lost track of time.” Dust motes float in the air, tickling my nose, and I choke back a cough. Reaching over the wooden bench, I slide the forbidden grimoire from the table and shield it from view under my cloak.

Harper clicks her tongue and glances at the sky behind me. “You know, curfew starts at sunset during the full moon. Especially the blood moon. You don’t want to be caught outside if?—?”

“If a fae breaks through the veil to prowl the streets of Penumbra?” I say, repeating the words I’ve heard a dozen times before. “I know.”

The legends we were told as bedtime stories say the blood moon exists because the god Cronus, who loved a fae named Amelia, cast a spell. The fae once lived among the gods, but the fae were so wicked, they were kicked out of the deities’ realm and into ours.

Every three months, the spell Cronus cast on the moon thins the veil dividing the realms enough for the gods and spirits to roam the land of mortals.

So he can find his fae lover among the riders of the Wild Hunt.

“The fae might not come here anymore, Mia, but even though they’re gone, they left behind their hungry monsters.

” Harper grunts, her disdain for the unseelie—and the fae’s beasts—clear in her tone.

Her blue eyes settle on me, and the strain in her jaw eases.

“I’m the guardian of the library tonight, and only I can stay. You know that. It’s on the schedule.”

I lower my face to hide the flush on my skin and tighten my grip around my stolen book. I’m not ready to let it go, not yet. But that doesn’t matter because a warning spell will alert the head librarian if someone—me—were to take a grimoire out of the building. I have to leave it behind.

“I live close by,” I say, walking to the lockers where we keep our belongings. “I should be home in no time.”

Placing the book inside my locker, I ignore the fingerlike traces of the grimoire’s magic. It holds on to me. Beckoning me to not let it go. I sigh, lock the padlock, and whisper a spell that will guard it from everyone but me.

The flicker of a gas lamp hanging from the wall reminds me how late it is.

“Actually—?” Harper’s breath stutters out as she meets me in the middle of the room, her eyes search my face. “It might be best if you stay the night. No one has to know.”

“Alana will know.” I straighten the cloak over my shoulders, the soft fabric gliding over my tan skin. “ Only one librarian may stay in the building when the cursed moon presses upon us ,” I parrot, something that’s been drilled into my mind ever since I ascended to guard the grimoires.

The elders believe the magic of the librarians can call the beasts toward the books. One person’s power is too small to detect, but multiple clustered together in one place, well, we’d be a magnet for them.

Harper clenches her jaw, shaking her head. Her silver hair flows out from under the hood of her cloak. “Can’t you feel it, Mia? I’m practically vibrating with anxiety. Something is happening tonight, and the veil is too weak to hold it back. Stay .”

I reach for Harper’s hand. It’s cold and damp in my grasp. “I’ll get you in trouble if I do...”

We stare at each other in silence, understanding passing between us.

Harper should’ve found me before nightfall. It’s the guard’s duty to ensure all librarians are out of the building before sunset. Guilt makes my stomach churn. Perhaps she checked but couldn’t find me because I was in the forbidden area.

This is my doing, and I won’t drag her down with me.

Harper swallows and dips her gaze to the floor. “I messed this up, however, I insist. If a beast makes it past the veil tonight, I won’t be able to forgive myself if it takes you.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m three blocks from home.” With that, I drop Harper’s hand and head toward the grand staircase that leads to the bottom level.

The heels of my boots click over the polished marble floors, echoing in the quiet. The pressure of what’s coming grows, and the surrounding bookcases only increase my sense of being trapped.

“The veil is cracking. I don’t know what they are doing to keep the shield up, but whatever it is, it’s strange—and weak. Isn’t your sister one of them? Has she said anything about it?” Harper’s voice is harsher than before.

My steps slow to a stop, and I turn toward the smaller woman behind me, raising a brow. It isn’t a secret Irene’s one of the scientists in charge of maintaining the veil that protects the city.

But it never ceases to amaze me that once every three months, without fail, the town grows weary of the people keeping us safe. It’s been a year since a beast made it through, but just the same, the tension growing in the streets is palpable.

“Much like us, she isn’t allowed to speak of what goes on there,” I say, and continue on to the main doors. I’ve wasted enough time and need to keep moving. “We all do the best we can, and it’s worth remembering, no one is perfect at their duties.”

Harper’s cheeks bloom bright red, noticeable even in the darkness. “I didn’t mean to malign your sister’s good work...”

Even if my relationship with Irene is far from ideal, she and the grimoires inside this library are all I have left of the life I had before everything happened.

“I better go now, or I might not make it...”

A murmur goes over and around me, hushed words in another language. Goose bumps lift from my skin as I slowly turn back toward the double doors.

It moves past me, a cyclone of magic carrying the faint scent of frankincense and rain on an early winter day. The wind pushes the red hood covering my dark hair back, and a loose stack of parchment by the tables flies off in disarray.

Panic paralyzes me as adrenaline rushes through my veins like molten fire.

The beasts have come. I push the doors open as the veil cracks right above the library’s metal roof.

A fissure extending like a spiderweb over the shield, invisible to everyone in town that wasn’t trained to see how magic affects their surroundings.

“They’re here.” Harper’s skin grows gray with every passing second as something comes down from the sky.

A man?

A fae? Impossible.

He doesn’t look like a beast from this distance. His back is wide and tapers to a narrow waist. A humanlike being that sends a shiver skittering down my spine.

He moves over the city as if searching, and behind him, the moon shines a brighter shade of red. Like the shield dulled it before, and now, I can see its true color.

A halo of gold magic outlines his figure, and his powerful wings keep him in one place for longer than a mindless beast—if that’s what he is—should linger. His attention snaps toward the library, as if called by my staring.

I let out a trembling breath and steady myself against the doorframe.

The cool stone under my palm matches the ice in my veins. Time stills as his whole body tilts, and when he dips closer to the street, the angles of his face catch the light.

It’s a beast—except not like any I’ve seen before.

I’ve caught the eye of a predator, and my mind and body know it. I can’t run home, and going back into the library could spur him to attack, fed by the thrill of the chase.

He’s going to take me.

Harper’s fingers dig into my arm as she pulls me back to the library. “We can’t be out here. The wards aren’t as strong on the street.”

The first alarm bell goes off, then another, then hundreds follow suit. All at once, they ring and warn the citizens a beast has broken through the veil. The winged creature flinches at the sound and turns away from us.

Time stills as he studies his surroundings with renewed interest.

He dives from the sky into the city, gliding over the empty streets. And this close, I can make out the feathers covering every inch of his body and part of his face. I pull my arm from Harper’s grasp and follow his retreating shape.

He blends with the darkness, and anxiety smothers me when I notice where he’s headed. The scientist quarters. A building as tall as the library itself, with an enormous glass dome, from which a ray of light shoots into the air.

The veil is the only thing protecting us most days from the dangers awaiting in the forest.

He isn’t hunting for prey.

This beast is not mindless like the rest. He has come for the scientists or for the machine. My sister is in danger.