Chapter 520
ARIA
I went to Kael’s office.
* Finisheds
This had become a thing – not a formal arrangement, not something either of us had decided, but the early mornings in the office had developed their own rhythm during the break. The book. The conversation about whatever had happened the day before. The specific kind of quiet that existed before the walkie-talkies and the council meetings and all of it.
The door was open.
I heard voices before I got there, which meant I wasn’t the first, which was Monday doing its Monday thing.
All of them were already there.
Kael, at his desk. Nina and Jordan in the chairs across from it. Elite in the corner. Ivory on the small couch that had appeared in Kael’s office at some point during the break and whose origins I hadn’t yet tracked down but suspected involved Margo’s organizational instincts applied to the recovery period.
And Killian.
–
He was against the far wall with the specific quality of someone who’d been given leeway — my protection, the arrangement that had been established during the chaos of the full moon incident, when it had become clear that throwing him back out was both diplomatically inadvisable and practically unworkable. He’d been assigned a room in the guest quarters of the secondary wing, two guards outside it, monitoring by Ivory three times a day.
He stood against the wall like someone who knew the leeway was conditional and was not going to do anything to test the conditions.
Kael’s desk had documents on it.
It also had something underneath the documents that Kael was clearly aware of and was trying not to draw attention to, which was drawing my attention to it in the specific way that things people try not to draw attention to always do.
Books.
Not Ivory’s books. Or not the ones that Ivory already had. New books – still in the supplier’s packaging. the specific sealed wrap that meant they’d come through the delivery system rather than being browsed and selected locally.
I looked at the packaging.
I looked at the supplier mark on the corner.
I looked at Kael.
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Chapter 520
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He was looking at something on the desk that was not the books
Ivory was looking at the books.
“What,” Ivory said, “are those.”
“Documents,” Kael said.
“Those are not documents,” Ivory said.
“They’re-”
“Kael,” she said.
He shifted the documents slightly Not covering the packaging – the documents were already covering
the packaging. Just shifting
doing it anyway.
“Those are.” Ivory said
the series that I hav
“I don’t know wh
“Books nine before Kae
“I can
uality of a man who knew the covering wasn’t working and was
the couch with the energy of someone who’d made a decision, “in ecause I was short on funds this month.”
She was already at the desk. Her hand came down on the packaging howing-what-she-was-talking-about. “These are books nine and ten.”
ing the packaging to look at the one beneath it, “are from the Crimson Wolves ead yet because it only just came out and I was going to order it this week.”
pointing at me.
orway.
said.
o bought them,” Kael said.
the grounds,” I said. “I haven’t bought anything this morning.”
fore,” Kael said. “She bought them before. From the supplier. As a gift.”
I said.
as a gift,” Kael said. “A though
our Luna.”
el, Ivory said, and her
ument where she w
en they were rele
ds this month
ninjured h
meone who’d moved past the stage of the
ks were released three weeks ago. I know
not buy them because I was short on nd those- she pointed at the stack with
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Chapter 528
#Finished
“Lots of people have those books,” Kael said.
“With your name written on the first page,” Ivory said.
A pause.
“I write my name in books,” Kael said. “To mark them.”
“You don’t write your name in books,” Ivory said. “I’ve seen your library. You have never once written your name in a book.”
“I’ve recently started,” Kael said.
“Starting with books that were released three weeks ago,” Ivory saiff: “While I’ve been in the clinic. While you were on a break y
“I had many thing
“You read the
“Those are
scribblin
“The
a
g else to do.”
Everest series,” Ivory said. “And you wrote extensive notes in the margins.”
as,” Kael said. Ivory grabbed a book and flipped it to a random page that had aloud
seven of book nine,” Ivory said, “says, and I’m quoting directly: ‘Everest is making ow was RIGHT THERE.””
before she’d apparently decided to let it, a short bright sound that she immediately at the side of the room with her notebook not making notes, just holding it, because her something to look at when looking at other things was becoming difficult.
–
ng at him with the expression she wore when she was deciding how much to enjoy ore addressing it.
them,” she said, to Kael. “Behind my back. After I specifically brought up the book club idea-”
club idea was rejected,” Kael said.
rejected by people who then, apparently,” Ivory said, “went and bought the books anyway. For elves. Secretly. While telling me there would be no book club.”
not a book club,” Kael said. “It’s-”
What is it,” Ivory said.
Personal reading,” Kae
“Personal reading
Yes.” Kael sai
of book
she said.
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Chapter 520
I didn’t buy them behind your-” he started.
“How long has this been happening,” Ivory said.
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A passionate storyteller who brings emotions to life through her words. When she’s not writing, she finds peace nurturing her garden.