Chapter 273: A Book…?

As for Trish, I decided to simply carry her, using one of the Hydra’s minds to maintain a hand of darkness that lifted her at the same pace I was climbing.

While I could’ve done the same for Kevin and Vivianne, they needed the training. Besides, this killed two birds with one stone; it helped Vivianne physically, and it also gave them a chance to build chemistry and teamwork.

It would be great if the two of them could fight with the same efficiency Evelina and I had, or well… for now, Trish and I.

“Y’know, Cael, I see Vivianne is wearing Kevin’s coat, but why didn’t you offer me yours when my clothes are just as ruined?”

Trish teased as she sat on the large, dark hand slowly levitating upward, her knees drawn to her chest.

“Well…”

“You have a pervy excuse again, don’t you?”

“I won’t refute that.”

“Seriously, Cael…?”

Vivianne overheard the conversation from the second dark string I had conjured, with Kevin slumped over her shoulder like a piece of wood. Not exactly the best form, but it would do.

If they messed up, I’d just rescue them.

“If you get yourself a lover, kid, you’ll understand my motives.”

Vivianne merely rolled her eyes playfully at my comment.

“I’m not a kid, Cael.”

“Age-wise, no. But experience-wise? You’re still a kid to me.”

I climbed in silence for a moment, my hands finding purchase on the shadow tendrils I’d woven into the stone. The opening above grew closer with each pull, the false starlight spilling down in thin, cold beams that did nothing to warm the air.

Behind me and below me, Vivianne grunted with effort.

“You could make this easier,” she called up.

“I could,” I agreed.

“You’re not going to.”

“Nope.”

Kevin made a sound that might have been a laugh or a choke. Hard to tell with his face pressed against Vivianne’s shoulder like that.

“Master,” he said, his voice muffled, “I genuinely hate you right now.”

“Hate me as much as you want, Kevin.”

And here I thought he was all about worshipping the very feet I walked on, guess even he has his limits. And turns out that limit is making her get close to women.

Trish’s dark hand drifted alongside me, close enough that I could see her smile in the dim light. She’d drawn her knees up even tighter, her ruined shirt slipping off one shoulder, her brown hair spilling across her face.

“You’re enjoying this,” she observed.

“Maybe a little.”

“You’re always like this when you’re teaching. All stern and ’you’ll thank me later’ and ’pain builds character.’”

“Does it not?”

She laughed, soft and warm, and for a moment she sounded so much like the woman I’d known before all of this that my chest ached.

“It doesn’t,” she said. “But you keep trying anyway.”

The opening was close now. I could see the edge clearly, a lip of carved stone maybe a foot thick, and beyond it, more darkness. Not the empty darkness of the shaft we were climbing, but something denser. Something that seemed to breathe.

“Almost there,” I said.

“Thank the gods,” Kevin muttered.

Vivianne shifted his weight on her shoulder, her jaw tight with effort. Sweat had beaded on her forehead despite the cool air, and her borrowed coat had slipped to reveal the torn shirt beneath.

She caught me looking and glared.

“Eyes forward, Cael.”

“Wasn’t looking at anything interesting.”

“That just sounds like you’re insulting my body…”

“I have all the eye-candy I need beside me, I don’t need yours, Vivianne.”

“Seriously, Cael?” Trish raised a brow at my comment.

I hauled myself over the lip of the opening and rolled onto a floor that felt like cold, smooth marble. The shadows I’d used for climbing dissolved behind me, and I heard Vivianne yelp as she nearly lost her grip.

“Little warning next time!”

“Where’s the fun in that?”

I stood and turned to help her up, catching her forearm and pulling her and Kevin both over the edge in one motion. They tumbled onto the marble together, Kevin landing half on top of Vivianne, both of them too exhausted to bother with indignity.

Trish’s dark hand rose through the opening last, depositing her gently on her feet before dissolving into wisps of shadow. She stepped over Kevin’s sprawled legs and came to stand beside me, her amber eyes scanning our new surroundings.

“We’re still in the library,” she said.

“How can you tell?”

“The smell.”

I inhaled.

Paper. Dust. Something old and faintly sweet, like dried flowers pressed between pages for too long. It was the same smell that had permeated the entrance hall, before we’d stepped through the twin doors into the forest.

“She’s right,” I said. “We’re back.”

“Back where?” Vivianne pushed herself up onto her elbows, Kevin rolling off her with a grunt. “I don’t recognize any of this.”

She wasn’t wrong.

The chamber we’d climbed into was vast, far larger than the entrance hall had been. Bookshelves stretched from floor to ceiling, spiraling up into a dome that glittered with what looked like real stars. Reading nooks dotted the walls, each one furnished with chairs and tables and lamps that burned with soft, steady light.

How many damn books has this archmage collected? I knew this place was huge, but now that I’m doing the math, the sheer number of them is downright daunting. For all I know, there’s probably a book here on apocalyptic magic if I look hard enough.

Too bad I didn’t have time.

I sighed and looked at the center of it all: a pedestal.

Not like the one with the bell between the twin doors. This one was larger, more ornate, carved from a single piece of obsidian that seemed to drink the light around it. Resting on top was a book.

Just a book.

Leather-bound, brass-corned, with a symbol on the cover that I didn’t recognize.

“That’s new,” Trish said quietly.

“The archmage’s reward?” Kevin suggested, finally climbing to his feet.

“Feels like a trap,” Vivianne countered.

“Can’t it be both?”

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