Never Yours ✔️

Ch. 46

 "You think we should stop for a snack break?"

Lara rolled her eyes. "We did that 30 minutes ago."

"Yeah." Kryssa huffed. "Thirty minutes ago."

"Stop bickering and keep searching." Velicity snapped as she set down another pile of books in front of Arysa who had her head in her hands.

"We've been at this for days." She breathed.

Velicity rolled her eyes and stepped in front of her, hiding her from Lara and Kryssa who bickered in the background.

"We're going to find something, princess. There's not a lot of information to work with, but there is some. And some's got to be enough, right?" She tossed her a crooked smile.

"What if it's not? What if we're all wasting our time?"

Velicity set her palms down on the table before Arysa.

"Then fighting this war is a waste of our time."

Arysa shot her a sharp glare.

"You know I'm right." Velicity pulled back. "We're all just trying to delay an inevitable end." She picked up a book from her stack and dropped it in front of the princess. "So get back to it, princess."

Arysa groaned but opened the book and began to scan the records.

Ever since she'd learned about the objects her parents had hidden away, she'd been buzzing with the need to find them.

That book, that little tale of their history, it was one of many.

She remembered the dedication in the book, that small note to her mother.

May you bring us the power our ancestors couldn't control.

What had her parents been up to?

What were they trying to achieve?

She recalled what the king said about her mother, about her trying to take his crown. She wondered if this had anything to do with it.

All the records surrounding the Rosewoods were vague or missing, thanks to her uncle. She didn't have a lot to go off of. They'd been searching days for any clue or hint of where else Arysa's parents could have hidden those objects, but they'd found nothing. All of Aelyn Rosewood's connections had been erased.

Arysa glanced behind her at Kryssa slumped against the bookshelves, flipping through another records book.

All but one.

She picked up her book and went to sit on the floor with Lara, Velicity, and Kryssa, and it wasn't long before their positions turned from collected to sprawled and behind them, they'd built up another pile of books that'd proven useless.

Arysa lay on her stomach, propped up on her elbow, knees bent and ankles crossed in the air, flipping through page after page of a book of eulogies, looking for any written about and by her relatives when someone cleared their throat behind her.

She flipped over and sat up, eyes widening when they landed on Sorven Witherrose standing on the other side of the book pile.

Velicity, Lara, and Kryssa all glanced between themselves then back at the general.

"General." Arysa got to her feet, dusting herself off. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was coming to pick up Weslor's Book of Strategic Advantages, but I see that shelf has already been demolished." He chuckled.