The library was drowned in night, soft amber lamps glowed along the lower shelves, their light dim and warm, licking across old leather spines, polished blackwood, glass cases and the long study table waiting at the center of the room like it had been built for wisdom and then tragically repurposed by desire.
Beyond the tall windows, Hell's Paradise Island glittered far below in scattered gold, silver and violet, but up here the city felt distant, irrelevant, dismissed.
The library held a different kind of silence.
Dravenna stood near the end of the table with her back almost against the shelves. Phei stood before her and close enough to cut off escape.
He had only taken the space she gave him and then made it feel like she had offered more than she intended. His hands rested on either side of her, one against the shelf beside her waist, the other against the edge of the table behind him, his body angled just enough that every breath between them became a decision.
