Branches of Life

Starling opened and then almost immediately closed another door, groaning as she found another bedroom. After discovering the training room, we found an art room. Or at least, we assumed that's what it was used for. There were a couple of easels sitting before the curtained window and a bunch of low and wide tables. That was the extent of everything in the room. The following rooms were, you guessed it, bedrooms.

"What's the point of being surrounded by beds and bathrooms when they're too old and gross to use?"

"I know what you mean. I'd kill for a shower." My braid felt crunchy to the touch, and I cringed at the knowledge that I'd been walking around with kraken blood in it for hours. I mean, I strongly suspected it, having wiped it off my face earlier. But I'd stubbornly refused to check, thinking what I didn't know couldn't hurt me. Especially when I knew there wasn't anything I could do to clean it. Not unless I wanted to take a dip in the river.

"And yet, even with all the dried kraken and werewolf blood, my brother hasn't been able to keep his eyes off you for longer than a couple of minutes." A small smile lifted the corner of Starling's lips as we traveled down the hall.

My lips curled into a smile. Obviously, I knew Koa had been watching me, his attention felt like a physical caress the entire hike through the forest. A completely different and welcome experience compared to the unseen eyes watching us. I already knew this, but having his sister confirm it was a validation I didn't know I needed until now. Maybe it was due to her lack of condemnation.

"I heard he was less than friendly when I passed out last night."

At this point we barely even looked in the rooms, only opening the door enough to see the bed. I would've given up checking the rooms altogether, but I didn't want to risk passing up more rooms like the training room.

"That he was. He made it very clear who you belong to." She gave a small laugh at my baffled expression. "Sorry, I don't make the rules. He practically claimed you in front of everyone. And he's never done that before. Hell, I've never met any of the girls he's slept with." Starling gave a sideways look, and it took everything in me to keep my face neutral. "It's different with you, I saw it in his face back in the training room. His interest in you was clear as day."

My eyebrows pulled together as I forced away the unwelcome thoughts of him being with other women—a hypocritical thought since I've been with other men—and sorted through my memory of our first encounter. For the life of me, I couldn't find the interest she was talking about. Unless she was talking about the blatant surprise on his face when I landed a blow. Or when he looked me up and down, in a way that suggested he thought I'd chicken out of a fight with him. Both of which didn't scream interest to me.

She laughed lightly, having read the blatant confusion written across my face. "I know it didn't seem obvious to you, but to me it did. I knew the moment the fight started. He took it easy on you. He's never done that before, not even with me."

I'd already begun suspecting that, not only because he ended the fight early. While we were fighting the werewolves earlier, I'd caught glimpses of him fighting. With the way he easily dispatched them, without pulling extra energy from his dragon, there was no way I should've been able to walk away from our fight without more bruises and cracked bones than I did.

"I think you'll be good for him."

I paused, my hand resting on a doorknob as I met her probing stare.

"Don't get me wrong, you'll drive him to near insanity." Starling chuckled and reached for her neck, only to pause when she remembered her necklace was no longer there. "I've never seen my brother as close to losing control, as he was when you threatened to jump out of the car."

My body heated at the reminder of how his body felt pressed against the back of mine. How it felt to have his warm breath tickling my cheek and ear. I shook my head trying to rid myself of those thoughts. It was bad enough I lost my mind when he was around, I didn't need the same happening when he wasn't. Taking a deep breath, I did my cursory check of the room before continuing.

"To be fair, he's also driving me crazy. I can't stand being kept in the dark." I gave her a pointed look.

"Hmm, really? I hadn't noticed."

Letting out a small laugh, I nudged her shoulder with mine. I struggled with the urge to ask more questions. I wanted, no needed to know more about him, but going behind his back and asking his sister felt like an invasion of privacy.

"How long have you been siblings?" I asked instead, glancing over to gauge her reaction.

The easygoing smile remained on her face. "His parents took me in when I was six."

"Were your parents also dragon summoners?" I asked as we reached the end of the hallway, a set of double doors awaiting us. With intricate knotted designs carved into the dark wood and golden doorknobs with some sort of design engraved in them.

Starling paused with her hand on the doorknob, glancing back at me. "No, they were lynx, as was Koa's mom before she mated his dad. Our moms were friends growing up."

Before I could even respond, she pushed the doors open and my words died in my throat as I took in the room before me. Calling it a room was an understatement. It was a library, and not a small one either. No, this one was ginormous. Rows upon rows of bookshelves stretched as far as the eye could see. There was even one of those ladders with the wheels resting against a shelf.

Like everything else in the hotel, the beauty was muted with age and neglect. Dust and cobwebs coated every available surface. Unlike the other rooms and hallways, the library was already lit up with several crystal chandlers hanging from the high ceiling.

As we wandered further into the room, I wiped my hand across the spine of the books on the nearest shelf. Motherfucker. It was more of those weird-ass symbols. I flipped through a book only to confirm every page was covered in the same writings. After showing Starling the pages, I shoved it back on the shelf, not bothering to be gentle as I did so. What was the point of discovering a library if we couldn't read any of the fucking books?

Even though I figured the rest of the books would follow the same pattern, I still checked at least one book from each shelf we passed. There was no stopping my groan as I resisted the urge to throw the book currently in my hand at the nearest shelf.

After a couple dozen shelves, the writing changed to one of the other scripts that were on the vases. Wasn't this hideaway supposed to be for Mythics? Where were the blood mage's sigils or the sorcerer's runes?

It wasn't like this was some ancient iteration of our language. The carvings on the pillars at the Convergence point were thousands upon thousands of years old, as were the ones in the temple of Solaris. I would've thought they were from some other realm, but I couldn't get over the nagging feeling that I'd seen them before.

"We could always take one book from each language back with us. We could get lucky and one of the scholars might be able to translate it." Starling flipped through a book, written in yet another language. "I feel like I've seen these symbols before. Someone back home has to be able to understand this."

"Watch them translate it, only to find out it's not some history book or anything helpful, but some smutty book." I snorted as I pictured that very scenario, while I waved away the dust flying near my face.

"Is it bad that I'd prefer reading that?" Starling chuckled as she climbed up a ladder to pull one of the books off the top shelf. "Just for research purposes, of course."

"Find out if they were kinkier back then or a bunch of prudes?" I asked propping my shoulder against a shelf.

"Exactly. And we'd have the added bonus of it not being influenced by—" Starling's words cut off when we heard faint footsteps and muffled voices. Every muscle in my body locked up as I strained my ears.

Even though logically I knew no one else was here, I couldn't stop my racing heart or the rush of adrenaline.

What if Wyatt had been wrong and it wasn't one of our friends?