The Human Among Wolves (Aurora) novel Chapter 127

Chapter 127

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“Or,” she said lightly, almost playfully, as if she were offering me a cup of tea instead of an ultimatum, “I could burn both of these

books right now and tell you myself what I think is written inside.”

For a moment, I just stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Burn them? The words didn’t register at first, not really. Then, when they did, I felt a rush of panic so sharp it made my chest ache.

“Burn them?” I repeated, my voice breaking slightly. “After everything I went through to get them?”

Her eyes gleamed in the firelight, red and unreadable.

“Books are only tools, sweetheart,” she said with a shrug, her tone far too calm. “Sometimes what they hold can be spoken aloud instead. If you’re brave enough to hear it.”

I tightened my grip on the edge of the chair, trying to steady my hands. “How would you even know what’s written in it?” I managed to say, though my voice was trembling. “It’s about me–and you don’t even know me.”

Seraphina tilted her head slightly, her gray hair sliding over her shoulder as she regarded me with something like pity.

“Oh, honey,” she murmured, her voice low and unsettlingly tender.” know more about you than you do yourself.”

I looked at Kael. He was standing close by, not backing away, watching me. For a second I worried he’d say no–that he’d pull me out of there, or demand we leave. Instead, he gave the smallest of nods. I trusted him. Stupidly, probably, but I trusted him.

I turned back to Seraphina. Her smile was slow and knowing, the kind that made the back of my neck prickle. “Fine,” I said, the word coming out thinner than I’d planned. “Do it.”

She clapped once, a soft, dry sound that seemed to echo off the rafters. “Good,” she said, and there was a curious gentleness in her voice that didn’t match the hard lines of her face. “But it won’t be free either.”

“What… what do you want?” I asked, my throat tight.

She tilted her head, the firelight sketching shadows into the scar on her cheek. “I don’t know yet.” Her answer was casual, almost careless. “Someday I will come to you and ask a favor. You will do it if you refuse, you die. That is the price.”

The sentence landed like a stone dropped in still water. My heart stumbled. I should have laughed, protested, demanded better terms. Instead, I found myself nodding, the motion almost automatic “Deal,” I whispered.

With that single, awful syllable, Seraphina rose as if to perform something sacred. She reached out–and without another word dropped both books into the flames.

As the books turned to ash, something cold slid under my ribs. A small, panicked voice in the back of my head shouted that I’d just destroyed the only proof of what I was, the only map I had to whatever lay hidden in those blank pages. Maybe I’d just handed the answers back to the person who wanted them most.

Seraphina didn’t look at me as the books burned. She watched the flames like a woman reading someone else’s thoughts. Finally she

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12:08 Thu, Jan 29 GBB.

Chapter 127

sat back down, folding her hands in her lap as if the ritual were alrearly complete.

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“You will know,” she said after a while, as if answering the question hadn’t formed. “I will tell you what is written. But remember-

the favor. It will come.”

I swallowed. The heat from the fire warmed my face and did nothing to warm the cold tightening my chest. Ash drifted up and hung

in the air between us like small gray snowflakes, and I couldn’t tell whether the tightness inside me was fear, relief, or the stupid,

stubborn hope that maybe–just maybe–this would set something right.

As the last curls of smoke climbed the chimney, a thought snuck in and refused to leave: had I just made the biggest mistake of my

life?

Comments

A Amanda Wyllie

1 Comments >

this is really dragging and honestly the main character is becoming kind of annoying and the author seems to have decided to write 3 different plots because they couldn’t decide which to go ahead with

3 days ago

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