Secrets in the Library
1441 Words
Chapter Four: Secrets in the Library
Elara's POV
I found Mira in the hallway outside my room, arranging fresh linens. When I asked her about the library, her expression shifted to something between worry and curiosity.
"The King told you about it?" she asked.
"He said I'd find answers there. About who I am."
Mira set down the linens and studied me carefully. "That library has been locked for decades. If he's giving you access, then you really are special." She gestured for me to follow. "Come on. I'll take you there."
We walked through the castle's winding corridors until we reached the east wing. It felt older than the rest of the castle, colder somehow. Dust covered the floors, and cobwebs hung in corners. Clearly, no one came here often.
Mira stopped in front of a heavy wooden door. "I'll wait out here. Some things are meant to be discovered alone."
I pushed the door open and stepped inside.
The library took my breath away. Shelves stretched from floor to ceiling, packed with ancient books and scrolls. Ladders on wheels allowed access to the higher levels. Windows let in dusty streams of afternoon light. But what caught my attention was the portrait hanging above the fireplace.
A woman stared back at me from the canvas. She wore a flowing white dress and had flowers woven through her dark hair. Her face was delicate and beautiful.
She looked exactly like me.
My legs felt weak. I moved closer to the painting, unable to look away. It wasn't just similar features. It was like looking in a mirror, except this woman had lived centuries ago. The nameplate at the bottom read: Selene, Beloved of King Rael.
"Gods," I whispered.
This was the woman Rael had mentioned. The one who betrayed him. The one who caused his curse. And I was apparently her identical copy.
I removed my gaze from the portrait and started searching the shelves. There had to be more information here, something that would explain this impossible coincidence. I pulled down books about lycan history, about ancient curses, about the Moon Goddess and her judgments.
Hours passed as I read. My eyes grew tired, but I couldn't stop. I learned about the wars between humans and lycans. About how Rael had been a fair ruler once, before tragedy changed him. And finally, I found a leather journal tucked between two larger books.
The handwriting inside was elegant but hurried, like someone had been writing in secret. I flipped to the first page and saw a name: Selene's Journal.
My heart hammered as I began reading.
The entries started three hundred years ago. Selene wrote about meeting Rael at a peace gathering between humans and lycans. She described him as cold at first but honorable. They began meeting in secret, falling in love despite the rules against it. Her words were filled with passion and fear, she knew their relationship was forbidden, but she couldn't stay away from him.
Then the entries grew darker.
Selene's village was being attacked by rogue lycans. People were dying. The human elders came to her with a desperate plan. They knew she had access to King Rael. They wanted her to poison him during the next full moon when his powers were strongest, when he would be vulnerable. Kill him, and the rogue lycans would scatter without their king to unite them.
I read her tormented words about the impossible choice. Save her people or betray the man she loved. In the end, she agreed to the plan. But something went wrong.
Rael survived the poison. He flew into a rage when he realized what she'd done. In his fury and heartbreak, he slaughtered everyone in her village, including Selene herself. The m******e was so brutal that the Moon Goddess intervened, cursing Rael to hunger for souls as punishment for his crimes.
But there was more.
The final entry, written in shaky handwriting, said that Selene had discovered something the night before she died. The rogue lycans attacking her village weren't random raiders. They had been sent by someone inside Rael's own court. Someone who wanted to start a war between humans and lycans. Selene had been manipulated, used as a weapon against the man she loved.
She never got the chance to tell him the truth.
I closed the journal, my hands shaking. This was why Rael killed her. He thought she'd betrayed him out of hatred or ambition. He never knew she'd been protecting her people from an attack that was orchestrated by someone close to him.
"Did you find what you were looking for?"
I spun around. Rael stood in the doorway, watching me with those intense silver eyes. I hadn't even heard him enter.
"How long have you been there?" I asked.
"Long enough to see you reading Selene's journal." He walked into the library, his footsteps echoing on the wooden floor. "So now you know the whole story."
"Not the whole story. Did you ever find out who sent those rogue lycans? Who manipulated her?"
His jaw tightened. "No. In my rage, I destroyed everything. Everyone who might have known the truth died that night. By the time I calmed down enough to think clearly, it was too late."
I looked back at the portrait of Selene. "She loved you. Even at the end, she loved you."
"Love means nothing when you're dead."
"It means everything." I turned to face him. "She didn't betray you because she wanted to. She was trying to save innocent people. And you killed her without knowing the truth."
"I am aware of that." His voice was cold, but pain flickered across his face. "I have spent three hundred years aware of that. Do you think your judgment is worse than what I've done to myself?"
"I'm not judging you. I'm trying to understand." I took a breath. "You said I might be your salvation or your destruction. What did you mean?"
Rael moved closer, stopping just a few feet away. "Every generation, Selene comes back. Reincarnated with the same face, the same blood, the same pull on my curse. I have found her seven times over three centuries. And every time, I fail. Either I kill her when the hunger becomes too strong, or she dies trying to break the curse. We are trapped in an endless cycle of death."
The weight of his words settled over me like a heavy blanket. "So I'm the eighth version of her?"
"Yes."
"And you think this time will be different?"
"I don't know. But for the first time, I want it to be." He reached out slowly, giving me time to pull away, and touched my cheek. His hand was cold but gentle. "When I'm near you, the curse quiets. The hunger fades. You are the only thing in three hundred years that has given me any peace."
I should have stepped back. I should have been terrified. But all I felt was that pull again, stronger than before, drawing me toward him like gravity.
"What happens if we can't break the curse?" I whispered.
"Then you die, and I wait another lifetime to fail again."
"That's not good enough. There has to be another way."
"If there is, I haven't found it." He dropped his hand and stepped back. "The full moon rises in two hours. I need to lock myself away before hunger takes control. Stay in your room tonight, Elara. No matter what you hear, do not leave."
"Will you be okay?"
Something like surprise crossed his face, as if no one had asked him that in a very long time. "I've survived three hundred moons. I'll survive this one."
He turned to leave, but I called out to him. "Rael, wait. I want to help you. Let me try."
"You can't help me. No one can."
"Then let me try to break the curse. There must be something in these books, some answers we haven't found yet."
He looked back at me, and for just a moment, I saw hope flicker in his silver eyes. Then it was gone, replaced by that familiar coldness. "Read all you want. But don't get your hopes up. Better people than you have tried and failed."
Then he left, and I was alone with the books and the portrait of the woman whose fate I was apparently doomed to share.
I wasn't going to let that happen. I refused to be just another version of Selene who died without answers. If there was a way to break this curse, I would find it.
I had to.
- Writer
