[Lavinia's POV]
[Royal Library]
"Ghosts of the gods…" I breathed, turning in a slow circle. "I can't believe we had this big a library."
I stood smack in the center of it—surrounded by towers of shelves that stretched toward the heavens like they were trying to climb out of the building. Books whispered secrets from every direction. Dust floated through shafts of golden morning light like little forgotten spells.
It was a whole world of paper.
And somehow, I had never noticed.
Probably because I actively avoided it.
"It's because you never enter here," Osric said from behind me, arms crossed and his tone full of big-brother smugness. "Even when Lady Evelyn gave you reading assignments, you used to come running to me with a dramatic gasp and zero remorse instead of opening a book."
I turned and squinted at him. "Are you trying to sound like my papa right now?"
He blinked. Froze. Looked slightly horrified.
"What? No!"
