A Perfect World

Chapter 23

LYSANDRA POV

Lysandra loved the freedom that shapeshifting brought her. Although, if she was being completely honest, she would much rather be something big... with fangs. Something that was fast and ferocious and gloriously threatening. Presently, she was hanging out in a stolen web in the library rafters, observing Evangeline below. 

Galan had quickly accepted Aedion's story about taking Evangeline—the daughter of a loyal, recently deceased palace cook—to her father, who lived in Doranelle. Galan had asked his relative, Amaelia, to give the girl a tour. They hadn't even made it to the Royal Gardens when Evangeline decided that she was never leaving the Royal Library. 

Personally, Lysandra didn't see the appeal. It was dusty, and crawling with everything from lice to mice, but Evangeline was absolutely enthralled. She currently sat directly below where Lysandra was stationed, head buried in a thick Faetale volume. It was an admittedly beautiful piece of work, bound in ornate leather, complete with gilded edges and delicate pen and watercolor illustrations inside. Lysandra's heart swelled seeing Evangeline so at peace. It had certainly been a while since she was this safe. 

Except she wasn't safe. None of them were. And Lysandra would do well to remember that. They hadn't been in the Ashryver stronghold for very long—a little over a day—but Lysandra had still expected to discover at least some kind of suspicious activity. The only thing that was suspicious was how nice everyone was being but perhaps even that was a stretch. The previous night she had perched herself high up in the kitchen in the form of a fruitfly, listening to all the gossip. The Princess Amaelia was supposedly to be wed to some prince from the Southern Continent but that was as interesting as the conversation ever got. 

After dinner, she even took it upon herself to sneak around a bit. Aedion had drawn out a basic map of the castle for her, which she memorized. She started with the servants quarters, again using the gossip-monger tactic, but nothing noteworthy was divulged. Tonight they'd both start visiting the rooms of the royals. 

Lysandra began debating whether she could get a few hours of shut eye in before that happened. Evangeline seemed to be doing fine below—she appeared to have no intention of putting down her storybook anytime soon. Lysandra did a quick scan of the surroundings to put herself at ease before her brief nap. From her vantage point, she could see the entire library. All seemed well. A few librarians were scattered across the floor, some dusting, others re-shelving volumes. One nervous-looking one was busy tried to squash a line of ants. She made a mental note to never shift into one of those, least of all here. The line of ants stretched on for several feet, disappearing into a tiny crack in the wall. Her beady eyes fixed upon that crack. She squinted at it, simply out of curiosity—but suddenly found herself frozen. 

Her eight legs were paralyzed. Out of panic, she shifted again. She didn't even know what form she had taken but suddenly she was falling. Luckily, wings fanned out behind her and her animal instincts kicked in. She felt herself lift and float down slowly a top one of the high bookshelves. She crawled between a pair of encyclopedias before feeling for her magic again. She shifted—this time into a roach. She crawled down the shelf, getting as close to the crack as possible. The maze of bookshelves should have been difficult to navigate, but they weren't. Whatever was behind that crack, sent her senses into total chaos. The closer she got to it, the sicker she felt. Finally, she was within a few metres of it, with a clear, unobstructed view. There was no mistaking the sickly sweet and coppery scent that emanated from behind those walls. It was subtle enough that a human probably wouldn't notice it, but with her insectile sense of smell it was unmistakable... blood and rotting carrion. 

ROWAN POV

Training Aelin yesterday hadn't been that bad. Although, they hadn't actually done any training. She had shown him her water magic and given him a pretty good sense of her capabilities where that was concerned, but she was scared of her fire. Utterly terrified.