The library found Ashina on the eighth day or maybe she found it hard to say when she'd been wandering the manor's endless hallways with no destination in mind, just desperate to escape the four walls of her room before they suffocated her completely.
The door stood ajar, revealing floor-to-ceiling shelves crammed with books. Sunlight poured through tall windows, illuminating dust motes that danced like tiny stars. The smell hit her immediately old paper, leather bindings, that particular mustiness of well-loved pages. Ashina stepped inside and felt something in her chest unclench for the first time in over a week.
She pulled a novel at random from the shelf some fantasy epic with a dragon on the cover and sank into a window seat worn smooth by years of use. The story swept her away from mate bonds and forced markings and the constant hum of Kendrick's presence at the edge of her awareness.
