I am still on a break from catacombs and cemeteries, according to Kai. It’s actually wearing on me to sit around the damn office, even if it’s only for half of the day.

  I have been doing everything I can for the past two days to settle into the Onyx Court. I don’t think that I ever will.

  I am always on edge here. Creaks and groans of the castle keep me up at night. Night terrors make me extra restless. In the daytime, the sun never seems to fully saturate the windows of the Onyx Court.

  There has to be something else that I can do. I cannot just sit here and analyze everything while the one tethered to me might kill me.

  I have been watching the town wake up from the display of windows, but you can only watch so many lights come on after the sun is up.

  “Why do you think that we’ll break the curse? I’ve seen no proof that we will.”

  “You’re a realist. I like it.”

  I answer Kai with a glare. What’s your answer?

  “You seem bored. Give me ten more minutes, and I’ll make it up to you.”

  “How?”

  “I promise.”

  ? ? ?

  “So where are we going now?” I ask as he leads me out of the place.

  “I thought that you said no more questions.”

  “I actually didn’t.”

  “Maybe a place with color,” he muses.

  Uhm what?

  He brings us to two large doors, almost as big as the entry doors to the castle. I bite my tongue as I struggle not to ask.

  “Dying,” he teases, from our earlier conversation.”

  “Only a little,” I say, my tone defensive.

  “How much?” He stopped even though he was about to open the door.

  “Not enough to not see what’s behind these doors.”

  It’s darker in front of them. There’s no window, and I see no light underneath the dark stained doors that reach the ceiling.

  He waits, “Really? Because I can tell that you have a particularly Interesting question.”

  “What? No, you can’t. You said that you can’t read my mind!”

  But suddenly I’m unsure if he was truthful. Why would he be? I want to take the words back because he could hear them, but they were never words.

  “I can’t read your mind. But if you want to ask this badly, then it must be interesting. Let’s hear it.”

  “Is this your idea of a game? Open the door.”

  I cross my arms. I can never guess with this man. One second, he looks like he’ll kill me. Now he has surprises?

  The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

  He chuckles, then opens it. When he meant somewhere with color, I thought that he meant somewhere not in the castle.

  All of the colors of the books illuminate the dark, polished wood that they sit over. They dominate every square inch.

  Books align every nook and cranny in shelves that reach the ceiling. There are ladders taller than the apartment my family lives in.

  The room is a hexagonal shape that seems to breathe, it’s breath exhauling and drawing the eye upward. The only interruptions of the bookshelves are the three rows of windows, some near the top, others in the middle, and a row at eye level.

  Despite the dark mood, this is the room that I have seen the most light in.

  I am pleasantly surprised to find reading nooks everywhere, most notably right underneath the eye-level windows, creating nice bays. They have dark leather that matches the rest of the court.

  Does everything match here? My eyes land on a wooden ladder and follow its vicarious path all the way up. In the middle of the library, there’s a grander chandelier than even the dining room. It has the same black with crystal accents that catch and reflect the light here.

  I follow it with my eyes to the center of the library. I pass all of the bookshelves in between to discover a desk in the middle of it all. I step onto the ledge and run my hands down the smooth and cool dark stain.

  There are lamps and writing tools here. I could do my college work for days in this library. Weeks, if I could literally consume the words out of the books.

  “Do you like it?”

  I wipe the surprise off my face. Kai has watched me all along, silently following me as I explored.

  “Well.., It’s certainly colorful.”

  “What were you meaning to ask me?”

  I forgot as soon as he opened the doors. My brain struggles to conjure up the memory.

  “Uhm, why did everyone speak Latin in the war?” I’m still staring at the books before I turn to him, “I thought people stopped speaking it centuries ago.”

  “Cur non loquuntur si ita adsuetie sunt?” He looks at me, “Why not speak it if that’s what they’re used to?” He translates.

  “I didn’t expect you to speak it.”

  “I don’t speak it as well as my parents did. English came naturally to me, so I learned it instead, and didn’t get much of an accent.”

  “Huh.”

  “It is technically a dead language for humans. But parents taught their children, and so it remains here.”

  “Strange,” is all I can think to say.

  I’m drawn to the bright covers of a few volumes. I allow myself to walk over and carefully remove them from the self.

  “Care for the classics?” Kai mummers.

  “Back home, I do.”

  I open the cover to discover a language I don’t recognize. I stare for a moment, then close it. I put it back onto the shelf.

  “That one’s one of my favorites,” he admits, “It has some of the folklore that humans came up with for us too.”

  “I’d read it if I could,” I promise him.

  He takes it off the shelf, then reopens it.

  “You really don’t know a single symbol?” I expect him to be concerned. Curious. Maybe offended, but instead there’s a hint of mischief in his eye.

  “No?”

  “Come on,” he rolls his eyes.

  He walks me to the nearest bay window and gestures for me to sit down. I slide towards the window, and he moves into the space with me.

  “Wait, who is it by? I want to know who writes the books here,” I stop him before he can turn the page.

  Our hands brush, and his body goes still the same second mine does. I snap out of it, but when I look at him, he’s in awe.

  “You felt it too… Don’t you?”

  I’m too embarrassed to ask, so he does it again. This time, pressing his arm against mine.

  I jump away, not because of the touch but because of the heat that floods my body.

  He laughs, a joyous sound, “One more time, don’t be startled.”

  He presses his arm to mine, and this time the heat comes slower. Is it kind of nice, I suppose?

  In fact, it’s better than nice. I feel my body react to the flood of heat. But it’s perfect. I hadn’t even known that I’d been cold.

  “You know what that means, right?”

  “What?” My eyes snap to his.

  “The same way that you can feel my power, I can feel yours.”

  “Power?” Doesn’t seem like a word that goes anywhere near me, “You think I have it?” I guess.

  He nods, “I know you have it.”

  He tells me the name of the author as thoughts race in my mind. But they’re fleeting. Because all that I can focus on is the heat from him. Something about lost nights of sleep, or bad dreams.