Ezekiel came back with four more books as I sat slumped on the couch in the library, forcing my eyes to stay open. The moment he dropped the books beside me, the couch dipped slightly, and the scent of old paper and wood polish settled around me.
I spent the next hour staring at the first page of the first book he handed me.
Reading was way harder than I thought. I had always hated reading, especially in school. I could never sit still long enough to process a paragraph, and whenever teachers assigned long passages, my mind floated far away. I really preferred writing, I could spend hours writing I didn't know what I found reading hard.
Now, I was experiencing that same torture that I felt when I needed to prepare for an exam all over again. It felt like every sentence was dragging my eyelids down.
I wanted to stop. I really, really wanted to stop.
But I also wanted to know more about Palgrim. If my father was taken to Palgrim I needed to know if he was okay or not and to know I needed to understand and know more about this place.
But after nearly an hour, the only thing I had learned was that Palgrim was located somewhere in the northern region… and that I couldn't spell out the name of single place in Palgrim correctly. I wonder what the words meant because 5ey were strangely unique.
I rubbed my eyes and tried to focus again.
"Would you go to bed now, Miss Elena?" Ezekiel asked politely from his stool. His legs swung slightly, not touching the ground.
My vision blurred again. I yawned, loudly enough to echo.
"I'll stay for a while," I managed to say, even though it sounded like a lie.
"The floor must be cold. I'll get you a pair of slippers," he said, and before I could protest, he was already darting out through the double doors of the library.
I stared at the door, blinking slowly.
slippers… right… sure… whatever.
I returned my attention to the book. The lines swam for a moment, then steadied. I adjusted my position, sat upright, pinched the bridge of my nose, and inhaled deeply.
Focus. Just five more minutes.
But my body didn't care.
My eyes grew heavier, and my head bobbed forward. I forced it up again. It fell. I shook my head violently.
"Every place in Palgrim…" I read aloud. Maybe hearing my own voice would make it less boring.
"…is connected to…"
My head dropped backward this time. My whole body leaned with it, and for a brief terrifying moment, I wasn't falling asleep… I was falling.
My eyes snapped open as the world tilted. My balance slipped completely.
Before my body could crash onto the floor, something stopped me sharply by the back of my hoodie.
Not my hair.
Not my arm.
My hoodie.
Someone had hooked their fingers into the fabric and yanked me up.
I gasped and instinctively grabbed the couch as I steadied myself. Then I turned around.
And of course…
it was him.
Alexander stood behind the couch, fingers pinched on the back of my pajamas hoodie as if holding a stray cat by the scruff. His expression was blank for a second then shifted into that familiar smirk that made me want to roll my eyes straight out of my skull.
"It seems I've become your prince charming," he murmured. "Always falling into my arms."
He let go of my hoodie with an exaggerated flick, as if releasing something he didn't want to touch in the first place.
Annoyance burned immediately through my exhaustion.
"I didn't ask you to touch me," I snapped, pulling my hoodie forward and smoothing the fabric down.
"Definitely not." He stepped around the couch and leaned against one of the shelves. "If you were any more helpless, I'd need hazard pay."
I glared at him. "If you're not here to read or to mind your own business then what are you doing?"
He ignored my question and reached for the open book on my lap.
I yanked it back immediately.
He lifted a brow. "Relax. I wasn't going to eat it."
"I'm not in the mood for you," I muttered.
"Are you ever?" he asked lazily.
"No," I answered instantly.
He chuckled under his breath, entirely unbothered. He wasn't trying to be sweet or charming he was mocking me, exactly like always. And for some reason, that annoyed me even more than usual tonight.
Maybe because I was tired. Or maybe because having someone suddenly catch me mid-fall was humiliating enough without him acting like he rescued a toddler.
I hugged the book to my chest and tried to go back to reading. But his presence felt heavy, like an annoying cloud hovering too close.
After a moment, I realized something.
Alexander's clothes.
He was still wearing the same black jacket, same jeans, same dark boots he had worn earlier that morning. Even the blood on his clothes of earlier had now dried on his shirt.
He hadn't changed.
Not even once.
"Did you just get back?" I blurted before I could stop myself.
Alexander tilted his head. "Why? Do I look like your personal schedule?"
"You haven't changed your clothes." I said, ignoring his attitude. "It's the same clothes."
He didn't respond.
I glanced at the wall clock.
2:14 a.m.
The library was silent except for the faint humming of the overhead lights. Outside the tall windows, the sky was dark, and the grounds were barely visible under the dim garden lights.
"What were you still doing out at this hour?" I pressed.
His smirk faded slightly. Not completely, just enough to shift something in his expression. His eyes flicked toward the front doors, then back to me.
"What I do isn't your concern," he said quietly.
"It is when you appear suddenly behind me like some kind of—"
"Hero?" he offered.
"Annoying psychopath," I corrected.
He clicked his tongue and looked away. For once, he didn't have a comeback ready.
Something about that unsettled me. Alexander always had something to say. Always. The fact that he didn't now meant one of two things:
Either he was hiding something…
or I he just wanted to ignore me.
I watched him more carefully.
His hair was slightly messy, like he had run his hands through it multiple times. His jacket zipper wasn't fully closed. And there was a faint smell… something cold, like he'd been outside in the wind for hours.
I decided to press.
"Alexander…" I said slowly. "Where were you?"
He didn't answer. Instead, he walked past me, heading toward the old reading desk near the back of the room.
"Ezekiel's out getting slippers," I said, trying to break the silence.
"I know," he replied without looking at me.
That startled me.
"You saw him?"
"I passed him in the hallway."
"Oh." My fingers tightened around the book. "Did you just get home?"
He paused, and then looked at me.
"Go to bed, Elena," he said instead. "You look like you're one blink away from dying."
"I asked you a question."
He paused again and then a wide smirk appeared on his face and he said. "Are you getting interested in me, Elena?"
I rolled my eyes at his remark and said, "Oh please."
I stood up from the couch, I could feel my face turn red out of embarrassment. I quickly turned away when I saw him walking towards me.
I could feel him standing inches away from me then I felt his breath behind my ear, "Don't you dare fall for me." He whispered.
I could feel my stomach twist and blood rush up from my neck to my cheeks not out of embarrassment this time but out of something I couldn't comprehend.
Suddenly...
The library felt colder. Or maybe my skin was reacting to the strange tension suddenly rising between us. Until now, everything between Alexander and me had been childish teasing and petty irritation.
But right now…
it felt different.
Like he was hiding something much bigger than an insult.
A faint sound echoed from the hallway. A soft metallic click. Then another.
Alexander stiffened instantly.
He straightened, shoulders tense, eyes narrowing.
Not at me… at the door.
"What was that?" I whispered but I got no response.
I turned around and saw Alexander was gone.
I turned around again and saw he wasn't here at all.
Where had he gone? He was here a second ago or was this a prank.
I could feel my heart begin to beat faster than normal.
The library hum faded.
Even my breathing felt too loud.
A second later, the entire ceiling light flickered once…
twice …
three times …
Then the room went completely pitch-black.
The darkness swallowed everything in an instant.
I heard my own heartbeat.
A sound from the hallway.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Like footsteps.
My fingers tightened around the book I held. I couldn't see anything.
"Alexander?" I whispered.
But he didn't answer.
"Alexander." I called at him again but no reponse.
Then I felt a presence behind me, a towering presence.