Page 42 of Unraveled (A Kingdom of Beasts and Ruins #1)

The streets blur under us with the speed we glide over the city, carrying grimoires through the air tethered by gold chains of Ash’s magic.

I tighten my hold around his neck, dipping my face closer to find shelter from the frigid air numbing my skin, and as I breathe in the scent of his skin, I let myself relax in his embrace.

Hoping my amulet will listen and allow me to use a fraction of my magic to warm my skin, I probe at it, but it stays quiet.

It’s one of the few enchantments we could learn as librarians, useful to maintain the library’s temperature and keep it from getting too cold during the winter months.

I feel the spell in the back of my throat, begging to be used to warm my icy limbs.

The stone in the hairpin answers dimly, as if tired, but doesn’t release the pressure in my stomach.

It just remains like it’s been since we left the strixes’ house. A ball of smoldering coals I can’t quite light.

“You’re cold,” Ash says right as his hand tightens against my back and delicious warmth spreads through the layers of my dress.

“I-I’m fine.” The words fight past chattering teeth as I call on my amulet again, but meet silence.

Ash gaze cuts to me, hard, unyielding, yet I can’t seem to stop looking at the sweat dripping down his temple or the straining muscles of his neck.

“It’s just, my amulet isn’t answering. But please don’t use your energy on me. You have to use enough to carry all these grimoires.”

And me.

This is not the first time we’ve flown together over long distances, and I imagine someone like me is not light to carry.

“I’d rather avoid having to use more complex magic to keep you from fading away when you get ill from the cold, especially once we make it to the forest.”

I perk up at his words, and adrenaline replaces the numbness rushing through me. “What do you mean the forest? I thought we were going back to the manor?”

“We aren’t going back. I’m a beacon to any strix in this city. I don’t intend to lead them to Nera.”

Of course, we couldn’t go back to the manor after what we just did, but I never thought we would fly across the land, just the two of us. “How will Finley and Nera know we’ve left?”

“Visiting Hedrum was always a risk. It’s why I didn’t want to come, even when Nera begged to.

Finley and I came prepared to escape if needed, though we hoped for the best.” Ash clenches his jaw as he turns his head to study the hundreds of books that circle us.

“I never expected to find these there. I wouldn’t have, if it weren’t for you. ”

My stomach flutters at his words. I feel light and giddy. But even though I’m blushing, I scrunch my nose as I stare at him, unblinking. “Why do you care so much about these books?”

I understand the need to recoup things that are clearly powerful, but why would he choose to take all these grimoires with us instead of disappearing into the night and the safety of the manor?

In that room, I wasn’t thinking straight.

I was excited to have found the whispering texts.

Horrified to discover what the strix are, and how their emblem looks so similar to the librarians’.

I was only thinking about buying us time. But right now, I can’t believe Ash would leave Nera behind in a city filled with his enemies to carry all these books across the kingdom.

“I know you went to Penumbra searching for them, but surely you don’t believe we’ll find the way to break the curse in one of these.” I gesture to the flapping pages around us, some hovering just three feet away from my face. “It’ll be a cosmic coincidence if we do.”

“It has nothing to do with the curse, Mia. There’s magic that connects them to me lying dormant in each page.

” He shifts his arm down my back to get a better hold of me around the layers of my dress.

“The books are linked to me through my ancestors. Through many generations of kings and queens who’ve used blood spells to bind those pages to us in order to safeguard our secrets.

To keep our history and power protected. ”

“You and Nera are connected to each book?”

“Nera is not, unless I die. The binding spell is done when we take the crown and kept alive by the continuous gifting of power by each new ruler. The fae are long-lived, so the connection thrives. We lend a morsel of magic, and in return, the ancient power of my bloodline helps protect the castle.”

Whatever warmth I had regained drains as I stare at him. “Is that why they were stolen in the first place? To weaken you at a higher level?”

It has to be why they always felt alive. The night we met, Ash felt familiar. Of course, I had been studying his magic for months. That had to be the reason.

He nods and turns away from me. “I initially guessed they had been collecting them to steal powerful enchantments and knowledge. But I fear something much worse.”

“What?” I ask, as we fly over the outskirts of the city, closing in on the dark forest’s misty ground.

“What if they could craft a connection with Naheli?” he says. “I don’t know if the hybrids are aware of this, but they can’t have access to her. They are already using my ancestor’s magic to craft the veil you love so much.”

I clench my hands around his shoulders, looking away as shame bursts through me, foul and repulsive. “Did the scientists use fae magic to craft the veil?”

“They did. It’s an ancient blood spell meant to protect the royal kin from being abducted and used in battle.

It creates a powerful shield that repels certain fae types.

But in order to keep it going, you need one of their—or, in the case of the veil, our —kind’s blood.

An old ancestor designed it to keep the seelie away from our children. ”

We cross the edge of the city, and the air is charged with electricity. Almost immediately, clouds cover the previously clear sky. A storm brews in the distance. “Is that why you could break through the veil when most lunargyres can’t?”

“Yes. I’m the only fae they can’t keep away—well, me and anyone from my bloodline.

The shield is made with waves of energy that mimic my magic.

The grimoires call the beasts there, but the veil keeps them away as it prevents them from scenting humans in the city.

Quite the invention they created to stop me from breaking the curse. ”

I’m going to be sick all over him if we continue with this conversation. What I saw in that machine room will forever haunt me. I went ahead with Skylar’s demands, even though deep down I knew it was wrong.

For Irene, I would do almost anything, but I couldn’t forsake Ash anymore.

My heart squeezes at the thought, and we fly above the treetops in silence, until rain begins to mist down on us.

“Fuck.” Raindrops catch on Ash’s long lashes. “We’ll need to find somewhere to stay for the night or risk ruining the books.”

Thunder cracks, and the storm catches up with us. Reaching for the pin in my hair, I probe at it again with my mind and urge it to wake up as my fingers tingle. I know how to help this time. I’ve been protecting grimoires for five years, using spells to shield them from moisture, heat, and cold.

I was trained to be a puppet, but I’ll use what little the librarians taught me to help the fae. But the pin doesn’t answer other than to keep my power from truly bursting out.

We dive deep into the forest and under the thick canopy.

The grimoires follow us, some crashing into thick branches, while others expertly avoid them.

Their voices grow stronger in the quiet of the woods at night.

Forest debris cracks under my feet when Ash sets me on the ground.

I left my traveling cloak back in the strix nest, and I’m cold, wet, and completely unprepared to face the night.

Ash unclasps his hands from around my waist and takes a step back. The cold water rolls over the shiny feathers of his wings as he shrugs off his coat and hands it to me.

“Put this on, Monster, or your shaking bones will call every dark creature hiding in the shadows.”

I reach for the coat but pause as my fingers graze the wet fabric. “This is just as cold and wet as my dress.”

“Demanding little thing, aren’t you?” He raises a brow and smirks, this time with dimples. “Didn’t the librarians teach you how to use simple spells to dry yourself and keep warm? I’ve seen you master fire and wind. Surely that would be easy for you.”

His magic blooms around us, and the books fall from the air with murmurs of displeasure, but the coat dries in front of my eyes. Ash steps forward again and drops it over my shoulders. Warmth seeps into my frigid limbs.

“I know how to dry myself,” I say, sounding a bit more defensive than I intend to. But I want—I can do much more... if I’m able to wield my magic properly.

“What’s stopping you?”

“The amulet is doing too good a job at canceling my power.”

Ash tilts his head as he studies me quietly. Without a word, he walks in a random direction. Does he even know where we are?

“Come, there are things here you won’t be able to fight off if you can’t use your magic.” He glances back over his shoulder, and that stupid smirk reappears on his face. “Though perhaps that’s the incentive you need to break out of the hold a cheap trinket has on you.”

“Cheap?” I gasp, but follow him through the forest. “This amulet cost more than I make in a month!”

“I think you were horribly underpaid. Though if you are unable to cast a simple spell to keep yourself from dying of hypothermia, then perhaps it’s expected.”

The heat that comes from my bubbling temper overtakes me rapidly, and my power rushes through my body as I step over a fallen branch. I shrug off his coat, and my amulet vibrates against my head. My whole body hums with pressure. “You’re the biggest prick I’ve ever met in my life?—?”

I’ve tried to maintain a level of civility with this fae. Surely, I can’t actually have feelings for him, because right now, every cell in my body wants to shove his coat up his?—

“Well, look at that. It seems anger overrides whatever your faulty amulet is doing.”

I stop. It isn’t the cool air hitting my bare shoulders that calms me down, but that I’m glowing all over.

My fingers, my arms. Like a candle is burning beneath my skin.

My dress is no longer wet, and everything around us is silent.

I can’t even hear the rain anymore over the rush of blood in my ears.

“Mia,” he calls, and I blink my confusion when I meet his eyes. I expect to find the same cruelty he was spouting before, but his face is gentle and understanding. “I believe you can break through the spell and unlock your powers when you experience raw emotions.”

“How do you know?”

“Because back in Eponde, the day you almost exploded, you were scared. That’s when you lost control.

Wasn’t it? You saw a shadow creature and your magic broke free.

It would make sense it might when you’re angry as well.

Or sad.” He beckons me forward with a wave of his hand, his brow wrinkling as he takes his coat from where it’s scrunched in my grip.

“It’s possible your parents had the necklace crafted especially for you.

A way to counteract the swing of intense emotions.

The particular spell that’s binding your power could be of your own doing, as much as theirs, but your first goal should be to try to access and control your magic when you aren’t in control of your emotions. ”

I take in a deep breath that smells like wet soil, moss, and rain. Thunder rolls over us, shaking the ground beneath my feet. “Would you help me?”

“To lose control of your emotions?” His voice comes out throaty. “Or are you asking me to help you learn to control your power?”

“Both?”

“Put the coat back on, and I’ll think about it.

” He shakes the water off his hair and continues moving through the forest like he’s been here before.

Perhaps he has. “Let’s find somewhere to rest before twilight.

We have to meet Finley and Nera in the mountain’s crossroad, near Fairhope, in two days. ”