Crown of Iron (Book 1 of the Crown Trilogy)

Thirty-Five

Wood scrapes along the floor, disrupting the silent room. I plant my finger on the yellowing page before me and glance up under my lashes. Leif flips the chair across the table from me around, straddles it, and rests his arms on the back.

"I recall someone saying she swore she wouldn't step foot in the palace library once she finished her studies with Borin," he says. The candles on either side of the table flicker with a faint orange glow, brightening his lopsided grin.

I close the tattered tome I've spent hours reading, rest my elbow on top, and prop my chin in my palm. I had vowed never to return to the library again, and I had every intention of keeping that promise. This was where I spent almost all my childhood days, deep in studies with Borin. He sent me off on assignments through the maze of floor to ceiling bookshelves, searching for the answers to his impossible questions. When I grew tired of his scavenger hunts for information, I'd find a book about mystical creatures and lands far away and hide in corners and under tables, losing myself in other worlds.

Today I've forgone my favorite fictional stories for reality.

I tap my fingers on the golden embossed cover of the history book recounting Micah's and Esmeray's days leading up to the separation of the Pliris kingdom. "And I would have kept that promise if pieces of all those long-winded lessons weren't conveniently left out."

"Do my ears deceive me or did the great Raelle Mansi just admit she doesn't know everything?"

"I know you're annoying." I toss one of the many balls of paper with my discarded theories about what Esmeray wants at his head.

"Speaking of annoying people," Leif tosses the paper back at me, "Borin came into the billiards looking especially irritated last night. Him and Micah spent a few minutes in a whispered exchange. You wouldn't know anything about that would you?"

I brush my blue feather quill over my lips and look up at the second-story walkway circling around the study area. In addition to there never being a dull moment when Leif is around, he is the one person I can be honest with. He knows the deepest, darkest places inside me, and still he is my faithful friend. We have never kept secrets from each other, until Basecamp that is.

"Borin and I had it out about Kyron after my family left. He has it in his head that something is going on between us."

Leif leans in and drops his voice, saying, "Is there something going on between you and Kyron?"

"No—yes...it's really complicated."

He laughs and shakes his head. "I know firsthand that anything involving you is complicated."

"Yeah well, kissing Kyron last night didn't help matters."

"I knew it!" He slaps the top of the table, and the ancient archivist in the corner glares at us over his thick-rimmed glasses. Dropping his voice, Leif continues, "Your little cozy ride in the carriage and the way you two kept flirting at dinner, it was bound to happen."

I blow out a long, slow breath. "I don't know if it was the best idea."

"You regret kissing him?"

My mind wanders back to the Omnis and the touch of Kyron's lips on mine. That single, soft kiss breathed new life into me. Everything was brighter and smelled sweeter. The brush of his thumb over my knuckles as we walked back to the garden was like tiny zaps of electricity in my veins. And when he wished me goodnight, his voice was a warm rumble vibrating in my chest until I fell asleep.

"No, I don't regret kissing him," I say. "It was amazing, more than amazing. It's the first time I've felt an intense spark kissing someone. Not knowing that feeling made it easy to do the things I have to do. I was blissfully ignorant, but now I don't think I can live without feeling that for the rest of my life."