Page 81 of The Blade in the Ashes
With every step closer to the remains of the library, my stomach churned with equal parts rage and devastation. This had been one of the largest libraries in the kingdom. Scholars traveled from across the world to see it. All that remained now were bodies and charred pages that drifted through the air.
“Here.” Nikolai walked towards me, stepping uncomfortably close and running his fingers down each side of my neck. He grasped hold of my scarf and tugged it up over my nose and mouth. “Don’t breathe it in.”
I watched with a detached sense of attachment as he pulled up his own scarf in a matching fashion.
This didn’t feel real.
Nothing felt real anymore.
Nikolai cleared his throat. “I need you to search through the rubble with me. See if we can find anything useful.”
His eyes were mostly green now, a vibrant emerald as he stared at me.
He was positively filthy. Blood still streaked his clothes from our earlier fight with the undead monsters, and now a layer of soot was falling over us both, darkening his red hair. Without thinking, I reached up, pulling out a dried leaf that had tangled itself in the ends of his hair.
He watched as I pulled away my hand, still standing so close to me that I could hear his breathing.
“Let’s be quick,” I told him, forcing my thoughts to clear. “I don’t want to be here if they come back.”
We marched forward together, splitting at the last second with a nod of understanding. Glancing up, I checked that the support beams were still in place before I stepped into the wreckage, suppressing the tears that burned in the backs of my eyes.
I wasn’t sure if it was a reaction to the smoke or the general devastation in my soul.
So much knowledge lost.
And for what? Why burn the Mortal and Descendant records and histories?
Spotting a tiny piece of parchment that still looked somewhat intact buried under the rubble, I bent to lift the charred remains of what might have been a chair only to rip my hands back with a sudden hiss of pain and a muttered expletive against the fiery burn that climbed up my fingertips.
“Iris!”
I jolted, Nikolai’s panicked voice sent spikes of icy fear piercing through me. Just that breathless cry of my name had me moving without thought, brandishing weapons as I went.
What if the soldiers had come back?
What if they’d hurt him?
I rounded the corner of the library, feet surprisingly steady under me even as blood rushed in my ears. Ash continued to fall from the sky around me like a grey rain that covered the earth.
“Over here!”
My heart skipped when I found Nikolai and scanned him over for injuries. I only managed a breath of air to relieve the tightness in my chest when I realized he appeared unharmed. With a heaving grunt, he carried out a gasping librarian from the wreckage, helping to lay him on the ground.
The man’s charred skin was black and peeling in places, red and inflamed in others. Nikolai sent a cocoon of water wrapping around the most severe of the burns offering momentary relief.
He didn’t bother trying to treat them.
Nikolai knew as well as I did to recognize when death was demanding a soul.
“Malakai.” Recognition flashed across Nikolai’s features. “What happened here?”
Malakai’s breathing came rushed, the sound something of a tortured wheeze. “Not just here. Everywhere. Hyraxian forces have been burning libraries all across the country.”
Hazel eyes lifted from Malakai to meet mine, mirroring the concern I was feeling.
“They were looking for something?” I asked.
Malakai erupted into a fit of coughing so violent that we could only hold him as it passed.
