The Luna Queen's Rebirth (Ellie and Dominic) novel Chapter 508

Chapter 508

I stood there for a moment with my heart slamming, but refused to let the fear overtake me. Not again. So I pressed my hands against the wall and shut my eyes.

“You said you’d guide me,” I said into the blackness. “So guide me.”

I went down blindly, one step at a time, feeling for each edge with my toes, both hands on the stone. The calmness I felt remained despite my brief moment of panic. I couldn’t explain it, and I stopped trying to. The stairs wound on for what felt like an hour, until my boot came down expecting another step and jarred against a flat floor instead, stomach lurching.

The bottom. I’d reached the bottom.

I felt my way forward, and my hands met wood.

It was a huge piece of it, set flush into the wall, the grain smooth and old under my fingers. I found the edges. I pushed. It didn’t budge. I set my shoulder against it and shoved. Finally, with a groan, it fell inward and so did I.

The air that rolled over me as I collapsed onto a carpet was dry and cool, and it smelled like paper.

Paper, and leather, and dust. I would have known that smell anywhere, in any life. My throat ached.

I felt along the wall until my fingers found exactly what I was hoping for. A bracket with a torch seated in it, the head wrapped and heavy. And hanging from a hook beside it, a flint striker on a chain.

The torch caught on the third strike. It shouldn’t have, after all these centuries, but at this point, I’d stopped questioning whatever strange magic was in this place.

Light bloomed, and I turned around as gasped.

The room was small, but it was packed. Shelves ran floor to ceiling on every wall, crammed tight with books and scrolled. Stone chests lined the far side, and through the gap where one lid sat askew, I caught opal catching the light. Artifacts.

I lit torches as I walked the rows, illuminating thousands of books. Histories. Ledgers. Star charts. Maps of a coastline I didn’t recognize and mountains I did. There was an entire section on herbal remedies and potions that I wanted desperately to open, but I left them alone.

Centuries had passed, and not one spine had crumbled. I wasn’t about to change that with sweat and grime from a pool.

I turned, searching for a way out. There was a wrought iron gate at the back of the room, the only thing in the space that seemed like an exit. I walked over and peered through the bars. A small alcove. Empty.

Well… nearly.

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