Page 53 of City of Snakes
“How do two Source-wielders know that? That they are matched by the Origins?”
Ryn smirked, but a hint of sadness flashed in his expression. “You feel most powerful when together, depleted when apart. For some it feels as though something has snapped into alignment—like the last puzzle pieces of your souls have been found and placed within you.”
Now my heart ached. My friends Asterie and Fenris had recently uncovered their Source Match. They had a strong pull toward one another and a devotion that trumped any example of love I’d ever witnessed.
I’d seen Fen’s reaction when he’d thought he’d lost Asterie during the battle at Luz...
A large brown leather chaise sat along one wall; it was covered in plush suede pillows. Bronze ornate sconces hung from the walls, and the whole space felt warm and lived in. Only it was the coldest space I’d felt in Umber House.
Clearing my throat, I voiced that observation instead of lingering on that dreary topic. “It’s cooler in here.”
Thoughts of a younger Krait in love with his kingdom’s enemy still swarmed my mind.
“Right under this are the underground baths, and it helps keep this space a bit cooler during the summer,” Ryn answered. “Practically a cave...”
“Or a hole,” I joked as Ryn crossed the room and flopped down on the chaise with a flash of a smile and a nod.
I walked around the oval-shaped library, to a rolling ladder that stretched to the ceiling. There were ten or so shelves that I couldn’t reach by hand. I stepped up onto the ladder; a particular collection of texts had caught my eye.
“Like a moth to a flame...” Ryn mused as he kicked his feet up on the chaise. “Those would be what you’re looking for.”
I hummed triumphantly. “What are they?”
“It was said that Isolde, the First Reverist, wrote many tomes by communicating with scribes of her lineage through the years. Legend is that within some of them she hid clues about where her weapons against the Death Origin lie,” Ryn answered. “They’re hard to decipher though, as she didn’t want Caym to find her relics.”
I pulled out the far-left tome. “Darvanda can read these?”
“Yes. I can.” A deep, smooth voice startled me. “Some of them.”
I teetered on the ladder. Krait’s Shadows reached out and looped around my waist. They steadied me before recoiling as quickly as they’d come. I shivered at the cool sensation left in their wake.
“Thisis not where I expected you to be,” Krait noted while staring daggers at Ryn, who simply rose and crossed the room to us.
I stepped off the ladder and blurted, “We shouldn’t have intruded.”
Having already pissed him off once today, I turned to leave.
“You’re welcome in here,” Krait ground out. Despite his tone, the statement rang sincere. He still seemed pissed—though, that was the way he perpetually looked.
I caught Ryn smirking as I asked, “You don’t fear that I’ll use these texts against you?”
“That would require knowing how to read them,” Krait droned without amusement. “And these are not meant to teach you how to killme.”
“It seems that you are already a far better teacher than I am,” Ryn teased and squeezed Krait’s shoulder. “And as I recall,youagreed to train our Queen on how to use that wondrous mind of hers.”
“Ryn,” Krait warned, as though being alone with me would be the worst situation he could imagine. But the silver-haired Prince was up the stairs before either of us could fully object.
Krait plucked the blue text from my fingers and leaned against the bookshelf next to me. His jaw was tense as he leafed through it.
“I shouldn’t have questioned you earlier, not in front of your court,” I admitted. I’d overstepped. If he’d done the same to me in the presence of my nobles, I would have been livid.
“Mhm” was all he offered.
I huffed in frustration and said, “I still don’t agree with the ruling. But I handled that disagreement poorly.”
He avoided my apology. “This text would actually be a good starting place for our training—you should know where your power comes from.” I couldn’t even feign annoyance at his change in subject because what he’d said intrigued me. “It’s the full texts of Isolde—we call the collectionThe Book of Isolde. But it’s actually many prophecies that my family has distilled down to one true guide. Would you like me to read this one to you?”
His anger with my intrusion in the throne room had passed. If the tables were turned, I wasn’t sure that my temper would allow me to be socollaborative.
