He remained draped over me, his weight a grounding heat against the thin mattress. His chest rose and fell, the light from his skin fading back into the ink of his tattoos until the room returned to shadow.
When he opened them, there was no confusion there.
“You knew,” I whispered. “You knew this would seal it.”
His eyes bore into mine, dark and unblinking. “I suspected.”
I pushed against his shoulders, but it was like trying to move the foundation of the Archives. “You did not tell me. You gambled with my life.”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, but he did not pull away. He did not even look guilty.
“I would gamble the heavens,” he replied quietly.
The arrogance of it should have made me scream, but before I could find the words, he was already shifting, his body leaving mine with a suddenness that made the air feel freezing.
“We must leave,” he said. “They will have felt that.”
I gathered the hem of the thin nightgown, my legs trembling as I stood. The fabric was a poor shield against the sudden chill of the room, and as I moved toward the doorway, Talon’s gaze dropped to the bare skin of my thighs.
His coat was around my shoulders before I realized he had removed it, the heavy fabric swallowing my frame and carrying the lingering heat of him.
He moved into the hallway, navigating the labyrinthine corridors as though he had walked them a thousand times before. I followed in his shadow, hoping we would be able to sneak out without alerting Keeper Sora.
Just as we turned a corner, a flickering light appeared. Keeper Sora stood in the corridor, her face drained of color.
“What have you done?” she whispered. Her gaze darted from my disheveled state to Talon. “Kaelia, tell me he forced you. Tell me you did not choose this.”
I clutched the lapels of Talon’s coat, my silence giving her the only answer she needed.
Sora’s expression shifted, the shock smoothing over into a clinical resolve.
“Kaelia,” she sighed, moving to the wall beside the large oak doors. “You should not have done that.”
“Keeper,” I asked wearily, taking a step forward. Talon’s hand shot out, wrapping around my arm and halting my steps. “What are you doing?”
“I am sorry, Kaelia.”
As soon as the words left her mouth, she slammed her palm against a concealed brass plate.
A piercing alarm shattered the quiet, a sound so sharp, I slapped my palms against my ears. The noise was quickly drowned by a deep groaning of machinery.
At the windows, the light of the moon was cut into ribbons as heavy iron grates descended, sealing the narrow archways with an echoing thud. I turned toward the doors, watching as the massive oak slabs were reinforced by bars of cold metal sliding into place.
She was locking us in.
21
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Stay behind me,” Talon growled.
He stepped forward, and the ink on his throat flared a vibrant blue. From his tattoos, the spirits erupted—not as ribbons of light this time, but as suffocating plumes of smoke.
They surged past Keeper Sora like a tide, reaching for the glowing alarms in the rafters. I watched, breathless, as the shadows formed a band around the first bulbous housing, tightening until the brass shattered.
As they worked, Talon sent a fresh wave of smoke toward Keeper Sora. She tried to cry out, her hand reaching for the alarm plate, but the spirits were faster. They wound around her throat and mouth, blocking her breath.
Her eyes fluttered and her knees buckled. She slumped against the stone, her head lolling in a deep slumber just as the spirits crushed the final alarm bulb.