Page 177 of Heir of Broken Souls

History seems to repeat itself. The necklace at my sternum hums, vibrating and shining wildly as if enthralled at being reunited with the library. Knox and Axel venture farther in, their awe stark across their faces but their palms never leaving the hilt of their swords.

“I don’t understand how this is possible,” Axel murmurs.

Knox shakes his head, his brows furrowed. “Maybe if he had rebuilt it or created a replica but…” He stoops, inspecting a shelf of books. “The titles are the same. How can two places be identical and exist at the same time in different locations?”

“Magic,” I say.

“Powerful magic,” he adds.

“Ancient magic.”

His brow quirks. “Dark magic.”

My lips purse at that.

Elysia, perhaps similarly to me, feels a call within her and begins to follow a blind trail. One that I walked mere months before in the human lands.

My feet glide along the shining black-and-white checkered tiles that fill the endless halls. The white shelves, adorned with golden trim work, house thousands of books, and there’s even more on the second floor. My gaze snags on what it did last time—the archangels.

“Did the Fae used to worship the archangels?” I ask, inspecting the archangels depicted along the columns, their bodies painted gold.

“Yes and no,” Knox murmurs, seeing what I’m looking at. “Why do you ask?”

“There’s so much art of them everywhere. Statues, columns, paintings…”

“They were our greatest allies in the most infamous war of Aloriah, and we’re grateful for their help.”

Peering upwards, I take in the dome artwork, identical to the library in the compound. The seven archangels make an appearance again, whispering to one another, flying, and reaching out their hands to each other. The mural is filled with tones of pastel pink and purple hues, along with a dash of blue throughout.

My head snaps down to Elysia, who walks down an aisle of books, laser-focused. Axel and Knox appear to be deep in conversation now, so I follow Elysia, surprise alighting within me as she takes the same path that I did months ago.

Three hallways and corners later, she comes to a stop.

Stepping beside her, the breath within me escapes in a rush as shock renders me useless.

A symbol captures not only my attention but Elysia’s.

It sits in the middle of a black leather-bound book filled to the rim with aging papers, making my heartbeat rise. Like before, a memory sits beyond my reach, niggling at me to remember as I peer upon the symbol—an upside-down triangle, surrounded by a simple circle, with blood dripping at the edge onto a human skull.

“What is that?” Elysia spits.

“I’m not sure, I saw it last time. I didn’t have time to open it, though.”

“It’shorrid.” She turns wide eyes to me. “Do you not feel it?”

I shrug. “If anything, I feel drawn to it.”

Elysia takes a step away from me, calling out, “I think we found what we needed!”

My head shakes in confusion as Knox and Axel arrive beside us within the blink of an eye.

A boulder sits in my throat. “It’s just a book,” I argue.

“A horrible one at that. Gods, what is emanating from it?” Axel coughs as if it’s choking him.

I shift from foot to foot, trying to shake the uncomfortable feeling of their revulsion at the book. “Am I the only one who feels drawn to it?”

Knox turns to me with concern.