Page 46 of His Darkest Desire
“I’ve a few volumes and scrolls of poetry, as well, though some of the poems are fragmented.” He slowly lowered his hand. “There were once many more books in my collection that might’ve satisfied your criteria, but that library is long since lost.”
“What do you mean lost?”
Vex clasped his hands behind his back and walked along the shelves, leaving Kinsley to follow him. There was a wistful light in his eyes as he perused the books and scrolls.
“Long ago there stood a tower on this very spot, taller than the tree that is the heart of this building. My tower. From its pinnacle, I could gaze across my lands in their totality. I could watch the moonlight dance upon the loch, observe the gathering storm clouds race along the glen. The uppermost levels served as my library, which contained more books than could be counted.
“It was my sanctuary. My…home.” He lifted his hand, palm up. Wisps of green light swirled around it, growing in brightness and density, until he flicked his wrist.
The green energy burst outward in a wave to encompass the room. But instead of simply casting its eerie glow upon the walls, it pushed them.
Kinsley’s eyes widened, and her breath hitched as she came to a halt.
Vertigo made her legs unsteady as the walls slid away on all sides and the ceiling rose higher and higher. Nothing touched by that green wave was left unchanged.
The magic faded as quickly as it had spread. Kinsley blinked as though it could set everything right again, as though the room would revert to its prior state, but everything remained…different. She was standing in the center of a huge chamber that could’ve held the entirety of her favorite bookstore in Portland with room to spare.
Bookshelves twice as tall as Kinsley lined the walls, divided by decorative wood and stone columns. Several sections jutted out from the walls, not quite as tall but just as densely packed with books and scrolls, carving the chamber up into spaces that didn’t feel quite so large and daunting. A big table stood just in front of her, laden with writing tools, books, scrolls, and parchments, just like Vex’s desk in his bedroom.
Beyond the table, a wide set of stairs led up to a mezzanine level that wrapped around the chamber above the tall bookcases. It too was stuffed with shelves upon shelves of books.
She tipped her head back, looking higher still. Spiral staircases and walkways with elegant railings connected the first mezzanine floor to two more, stretching high enough that she was briefly stricken with another bout of vertigo. And far, far overhead was the arched ceiling, spanned by ribbed vaulting adorned with intricate patterns and carvings.
Curved panes of glass on the ceiling allowed moonlight to stream into the chamber, filling it with welcoming, silvery light. That light caught upon the spherical stones held on sconces between the bookcases, which glowed milky white and blue.
Moonstones. They were bigger and more beautiful than any she’d ever seen, but she was sure they were moonstones.
Kinsley touched the teardrop moonstone piercing at her navel.
It’s not a sign, Kinsley. Just a coincidence.
“My library of old,” Vex said, calling Kinsley’s attention to him.
He stood at the top of the stairs on the first mezzanine level with arms spread, though he’d not been there a moment ago. Shade hovered over his shoulder.
“This…” Kinsley settled her fingers on the table. It was solid wood. “How?”
“Magic”—he closed one fist—“and memory.” He closed the other. “Your imagination does the rest.”
Kinsley walked around the table, trailing her fingertips over the items upon it. “But it all feels so real.”
Vex lowered his arms to his sides and descended the steps with Shade in tow. “Hands touch. Fingers feel. But it is the mind that perceives all sensation.” He stopped in front of Kinsley, dropped his gaze to the table, and brushed his hand along its edge. “This table was real. I spent many nights sitting at it beneath the light of moon and stars, studying, searching… But it has long since crumbled to dust.”
With those words, the table disintegrated beneath their fingertips. Kinsley snatched her hand back as what remained of the table—the dust he’d mentioned—drifted away on an unfelt breeze and faded to nothingness.
“What happened to this place?” she asked.
He fixed his eyes upon her. His voice was low as he spoke, laced with bitterness and anger that intensified with every word. “My tower was razed. Torn down around me, stone by stone. Everything I had built, everything I had sought to protect…destroyed.”
The library exploded around Kinsley. Books flew from the shelves, stone columns crumbled, glass shattered, and bricks rained from the collapsing walls, all in deafening silence. She jumped with a gasp, squeezing her eyes shut and covering the back of her head as she collided with Vex.
He wrapped his arms around her and drew her into the hard, warm shelter of his body, and she buried her face against his chest.
But nothing struck her.
Vex rested his cheek atop her hair. When he spoke, it was in a raw whisper. “This illusion, this memory, shan’t harm you, Kinsley. It is but a phantom from my past.”
Kinsley hesitantly lowered her hands to his chest and opened her eyes. They were back in the cottage library, with its soft lighting and lush vines, looking exactly as it had moments before.