“Would you like to walk through the gardens of the palace?” Genevieve finally asks, interrupting my thoughts, eyes bright. “They are beautiful at sunset and will be as empty as the library.” I can’t keep the soft and warm smile that breaks out across my face. Something about Genevieve brings out a gentleness in me that I’m not sure I’ve ever shown anyone, wasn’t even sure I possessed.

“Yes, I’d like that,” I answer softly before following her out of the library and through the halls of the castle.

“Did you always want to be a librarian?” I ask a half hour later as we stroll through the manicured garden built in the center of the Velmaran castle. The garden’s nice at this time of night, with perfectly trimmed hedges and trees lining a sandy path. Only a few flowering bushes add any color to the space. It’s nothing compared to the lush gardens and verdant landscape of Thayaria.

“Oh, no, not at all. I’m part of the Kalmeera noble family.” I raise my brows, recognizing the name as the most powerful and wealthy family name in Velmara. “My mother was the sister of Silas Kalmeera. She married my father, another distant Kalmeera cousin, when she was only forty years old. She died giving birth to me at forty-two, bringing great shame to my family. My father married another Kalmeera cousin and left me to be raised by my uncle Silas and his wife. Silas’ daughter, Silene, is one of the ambassadors who went to Thayaria, actually. She’s much younger than me.” She delivers the information straight forward, with that same bright and cheery energy she always has, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to tell a practical stranger about her family history. I recall the brief meeting with her cousin as I left Thayaria, and I can’t believe I didn’t put the connection together before. They look remarkably similar. “Anyway, I was raised to be a wife and a mother, as all noble females are. But since my mother died in childbirth, there was a fear I would inherit her weak constitution. Silas struggled to betroth me. So he gave me to the archives instead.” She says the last part as if it’s the best thing to have ever happened to her, and I can’t help but agree with the sentiment.

“And do you like your life as a librarian?”

“I do, very much,” she says with a soft smile, eyes distant as if, even now, she’s thinking about the books she wants to read. “I much prefer it to being a wife to some male I despise.” I snort in laughter, and she gives me a conspiratorial grin.