A sun and a star! What did this symbol mean?
I flipped to the last page, where there was a list of house symbols with their ancient meanings written in the common tongue. I ran my finger down the list. The house of Elfer-Sirundel, the house of Kiare-Edentren . . . I stopped at the house of Eos-Eirendil and began to read.
“The house of Eos-Eirendil, known in the common tongue as the house of the Star of the Morning.” I smoothed the page and read it again.
My heartbeat sped up as I pushed my chair back and stood up. The Star of the Morning! The Dawnstar! It had to be.
The Dawnstar must somehow be connected to the house of Eos-Eirendil. Maybe the Dawnstar had something to do with Illaria Lightbringer. This had to mean something. It was definitely too important to ignore.
I heard a shuffling at the far end of the corridor and my heart skipped a beat. Everything was so quiet, but within the eerie silence, I thought I heard a low growl. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, a chill scuttling down my spine. I didn’t wait to see what was moving out of the darkness; I turned and fled down the corridor.
I sped up, but my senses were all over the place as fear rushed in. I tried to feel the magic around me—something, anything—but I could not connect to it, and I bumped into tables and slid around corners as I ran. I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, because I ended up in a completely unfamiliar corridor with three more branching out in front of me.
I was lost, alone in the vast library. I turned to go back and froze.
From within the darkness of the library, a pair of glowing red eyes blocked my path and a flash of white teeth caught my eye. I didn’t wait to see any more—I spun on my heel and fled down the nearest corridor.
I calmed my racing heart and willed my lungs to breathe. I pulled off my amulet as I ran, calling up my magic and sharpening my senses as I sped up. I could hear the padding of footsteps behind me, occasionally clicking and scraping like claws grating on the stone floors.
Farther and farther I ran, down into the labyrinth that stretched out under the palace. My eyes adjusted to the darkness as I pushed myself to my limit to get away from that thing. I chose a corridor and sprinted down it, turning again into another longer and darker one, trying to throw the monster off my scent. I could still hear the creature, an angry growl echoing through the lonely tunnels.
I kept running, the muscles in my legs screaming to stop and my heart beating frantically, when I came to a crossroads. Which way? I couldn’t run deeper into the maze of tunnels. I would never find my way back.
The scraping got louder; the creature was coming.
“Take the first tunnel on the left,” said the deep voice in my head.
I didn’t have time to argue. I veered left, running as fast as I could, and emerged in what looked to be a massive cave under the mountain. I lit my hand, holding the ball of light up in front of me, casting shadows against the walls.
The domed ceiling curved overhead, and the walls were smooth as if they had once been a part of some fae-made structure. There was a door at the other side. I ran to it.
It was huge and made entirely of stone, carvings of vines and creepers etched into the rock face, creating what looked like a door—but there was no way to open it. In the center of the stone door was a sun within a star, the sigil of the house of Eos-Eirendil.
The Star of the Morning! I gasped as I ran my hands over the symbol.
The door would not budge.
I stepped back. I was trapped, and there was no way out of this cave except the way I had come in, back to the creature that hunted me in the labyrinth. I turned just as it came into the cave, blocking my only way out.
It was a monster straight out of a nightmare, with a long, gnarled snout and gleaming fangs that shone white in the darkness. Its body was a twisted mass of limbs and muscle, covered in coarse dark hair the color of shadows. Deadly claws snicked out from its massive paws, which scraped on the stone floors as it moved forward. Its red demon eyes gleamed when it saw me.
“Face the creature,” said the deep voice only I could hear, startling me into action and breaking the hold of my mind-numbing fear. “Show the werewraith what you can do.”
“But I have no weapons,” I said hurriedly. I had not been prepared for a fight when I came down to the library.
“Your magic is the greatest weapon of them all, Aurora Shadowbreaker.”
I willed my powers to surface as the werewraith snarled and pounced.
Raising my arms, I called forth silver fire that blasted out of my hands, slamming into the creature. The werewraith screeched, growled, and fell back, embers of silver fire singeing the hair on its back, but the flames were doused by the shadows the creature emitted. It had the same sort of resilience as a gorgoth, a creature made of dark magic, and it didn’t stop coming for me.
“You need concentrated power to defeat the werewraith,” said the voice, its tone still calm while I panicked. “A sword of silver fire should be able to cut though the creature’s defense.”
“But I don’t have a sword,” I screamed in my mind.
“Then create one,” said the voice with a touch of irritation. “You’re fae, aren’t you? Use your glamour.”
I had no choice but to follow the instructions of the voice. My palms sweated while the creature moved forward, warily this time, assessing me. It
