We followed Lilith down a hall behind us. It dead ended into a room with sleek black bookshelves lining each wall and going all the way to the ceiling. There was a ladder on rungs that could move to follow the shelves and plenty of different gothic style sofas in the center of the room. The books on the shelves were all old, thick books lined with leather and bound with string. A large chandler hung in the center of the room.
"What's with you guys and having books from three centuries ago?" I laughed, gazing around at all of them.
"We like to know our histories," Lilith answered. "To you it's just religion. To us, it's our past. What our fathers have done, who they hurt, who they helped. It's apart of us." She walked to the back of the large room. "Now it's your history too." I shivered again as a draft came across where I was standing.
Holden wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "You're cold again?" he asked. I nodded. Normally, I'd be searching each book, curious about what answers each one contained, but I clung to Holden's warmth. The angel blood coursing through him made his body temperature higher. He was normally sweating from his heat but over the last few days, he could use me to cool off the same as I used him to warm up. We were inseparable under normal circumstances, and now it was a whole other level.
"It's apart of being the enchantress," Lilith called from across the room as she searched the shelves. "The first one was burned alive by the mortals for what she could do. The second heard the story and cast a spell on herself so no enchantress would ever meet the same fate. It's where the whole 'witches don't burn' theory came from. The side effect from it is that your body craves heat. You're basically cold blooded now."
"Like a reptile?" I scoffed.
"Yup. Probably feet better if you go sit on a rock in the sun," she laughed. I laughed a little at her comment, but slid my hands under Holden's shirt. She must have spied the book she wanted because she dragged the ladder over to the correct spot and climbed up. "Holden, catch," she said, holding the book out. He pulled away from me. I whimpered at the cold as he met her across the room and she dropped it into his hands. "Can she read Latin yet?" Lilith asked as she climbed back down.
"Kind of. It looks like English to me," I replied. They met at a regal couch only big enough for two with a coffee table in front of them. Holden motioned for me to join them. I took advantage of the small space and planted myself in his lap. I soaked in his warmth.
"That's how it is for all of us. Can you speak it?"
"I haven't tried. I understood it when Holden spoke it." She opened the large book and searched the pages.
"You said you made someone disappear. Was it the whole person?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah? Was I going to make half of him disappear?"
"You could. What happened when he disappeared?" she asked. I leaned into Holden. He leaned over and whispered to her. Her eyes widened and then settled on me. They leaned away from each other. "I would've done worse," she shrugged, looking back to the book. "What was the first thing you did that was weird?"
"Making Ben disappear," I replied.
"How long ago?"
I looked at Holden. "Uh, three weeks ago? Yeah."
"That lines up with when she died," Lilith said. She kept flipping through pages and finally settled on one. There was a picture of a woman in a white dress. She stood on a pyre, her arms bound to a large plank of wood behind her. Her face was contorted in a scream as flames engulfed her. I almost reached for the page but I pulled myself from the trance.
"When who died?" I asked.
"The last enchantress," Lilith answered.
"There's only ever one, Ronnie," Holden whispered.
YOU ARE READING
Guardian
Fantasy"Thank you," I said, reaching out for my books. "You're welcome, Ronnie," he replied. He searched for something in my eyes. "You have no clue who I am, do you?" "Holden," I stated. He shook his head. "Knowing a name doesn't mean much if you don't kn...
