A Kingdom of Blood and Betrayal (Stars and Shadows #2)(62)

“Where are we going?” I struggled to keep up with her long strides. “I thought Evren wanted us to go back to his room.”

Thalia's gaze bounced down the hallway before looking back at me. “Evren is careful with his words, but you and I are going to the library.”

“The library? I thought he wanted me to train.” I feared that I would have to use my magic when Gavril became a direct threat, and I wasn’t sure I was ready.

“He wants us to research the prophecy to find out whatever we can.” She wrapped her arm in mine and pulled me closer to her. “He wants to have every advantage possible when Gavril arrives at our door.”

“And that advantage lies in the library?”

“Evren knows that power lies in knowledge. Even if we aren’t able to find the answer we seek, we may find the answer we don’t know we need.”

We turned right and went down another long hallway until we reached an ornate set of double doors. Thalia pushed inside and grabbed a small lantern from the table. The library was dark and smelled of old parchment and wood.

It was much bigger than the library I had visited in the fae palace, and I ran my fingers along the spines of the books as we passed.

Thalia led us down the aisles of books, and I followed her step for step as I had no idea where I was going.

“Here.” She set the lantern on a small table that faced an old wooden bookshelf filled to the brim with leather-bound books. “This is where we’ll start.”

I pulled a book from the shelf, dark green leather supple against my fingers, and I sat down at the table and began flipping through it.

It spoke of old fae legends. Legends I had never heard before. There were depictions of former fae kings, and the sacrifices they had made for their people. But it also spoke of power and a thirst for it that had become insatiable. The fae and the vampyres once lived side by side without a single thought of being enemies, but that greed had changed everything.

I quickly flipped through the pages as I found nothing of any use, and then tucked the book back into the shelf. Thalia had three different books laid before her, and she was quickly scanning over them.

I grabbed another book from the shelf and climbed up on the table and set it in my lap. I turned it open, and it landed somewhere in the middle, my attention snagged on a picture of a young Starblessed.

The text spoke of the first Starblessed that was ever noted in our history, a young girl by the name of Alyce, and the humans had feared her for the curse that laid upon her skin. She had been cast out, cast into the woods where the fae and the vampyres lied, and they had referred to her as the Stardoomed. Doomed by the stars, doomed by fate.

The young girl had been taken in by an elderly woman of fae descent, and she raised the girl as if she was her own. The text told of how the girl had been stolen by a vampyre, his thirst rampant and uncontrollable. He had taken from the Stardoomed. Fed from her for only a moment, but the taste of her blood on his lips had almost made him mad with power.

It was the first time either vampyre or fae had seen the power a Starblessed’s blood could hold. That power could be used as a weapon. Starblessed were hunted from the human lands and beyond, and legends of how vampyres and fae snatched humans from the world spiraled into the stories that were told today.

I looked up from the book and stared at Thalia. She was still deep in her reading

“Were your parents Starblessed?”

Thalia’s gaze jumped up to meet mine, and she slowly shook her head. “I don't remember much of my parents, but I know that neither were blessed by the stars.”

“So what? We’re just chosen at random? There's no rhyme or reason as to why some of us are Starblessed and others aren't?”

Thalia closed the book in front of her and turned to face me fully. “I read once that stars chose who to bless because they could see your fate before you were even in your mother's womb.”

I scoffed. “And you believe that?”

Thalia shrugged and searched my gaze. “I don't know what I believe. All I know is that the blood that runs in our veins has been blessed or cursed, however you want to look at it, and the blood that runs in yours can be our salvation or our damning. Evren is your mate. I know you can feel that down to your bones, and it's hard not to believe in some sort of fate when destiny like him waits for you.”

My chest tightened, and she was right. I was destined for him and him for me. “And what of you? What is your destiny?”

“I don't know.” She looked back to the book that lay on the table in front of her. “I was taken from my parents at a young age, and I knew very little of my destiny other than I was to belong to Gavril. It hadn't occurred to me that it wasn't the truth until Evren took me from there.” She took a deep breath, and I tried not to think about the memories I worried were bombarding her. “Take a look around, Adara. If I am destined for anything, it is to live a life defending my friends, fighting for those that I love. I can't imagine that I wasn't destined for this.”

“And Sorin?”

Her back straightened and for a small moment, her face fell. “What of him?”

“Do you believe that he is your fate as well?”

“Sorin deserves a lifetime of blessings, and that isn't something I can give him. Everything I had to offer has already been taken from me, Adara.”