A Song Of Ice And Fire Leatherbound の小説・ストーリー

The world collapses down to one truth: He will never touch or hurt anyone again. I don’t stop when he goes down. I don’t stop when he curls in on himself, hands coming up too late, blood at his mouth. I stop only when a sound cuts through the fog. A sob from Libby. I turn and see Libby is on the floor behind the counter and curled in on herself. Her arms are wrapped around her head and she’s rocking slightly like she’s trying to disappear into the tiles. “No, no, no,” she whispers. “Please—please—”

Dani tells him. She hands him the journals. “We wanted to go all in and take our journals to the next step by making actual journals. We used leather and thread to bind our books. We sewed on the pockets and stuff for the ink powder and the quill. It was all done by hand, hence the shoddy work.” “Wow, these are impressive. Clearly you and Asher made a great team. I look forward to reading your journals. Great job on presentation.” He praises and she smiles proudly at him.

“One of them includes references to Umbra-binding and soul-shadow entanglement. Rare, but I remember it mentioning corrupted twins of the spirit.” That caught my attention. “Show me,” I said. For the next hour, we leafed through brittle pages, deciphering archaic text and half-crumbled annotations. Some books were written in the old tongue. Others in runes I hadn’t seen in over a century. And then we found it. A thick leather-bound tome with a sigil of an eclipsed moon pressed into the cover. Maledictum Lux. Inside, it was there—Tenebrae Vinculo. The Shadow Bind.

The shelves seemed to breathe, wards hissing against my skin. And then I saw it — a tome unlike the rest. Bound in blackened leather, scarred by claw marks, its edges sealed with silver thread. The spiral thorn was burned into its cover. My chest tightened. “This should not be here,” I whispered. The keeper appeared at my side as if the shadows had carried him. “It should not. But it is. No hand has opened it since his banishment.” “Why not destroy it?” His laugh was without humor. “You think they did not try?”

A book sealed by blood, only to be opened by the heir who had both fire and forgiveness. “You must go alone,” the priest said. “Only one may enter the Vault.” Jian stepped forward. “She’s not going without me.” Chaewon touched his hand. “This is mine.” He held her gaze and nodded once. The door hissed open. Inside, the vault pulsed like a heartbeat. And there it was, on a pedestal of scorched stone…a book bound in dark leather, etched with fire-glyphs that moved like liquid under her gaze. As she stepped forward, her hand brushed the surface—and the book opened on its own.

Avina. The woman who once destroyed empires, who bent kings and warriors to her will, who walked through fire and left kingdoms in ruin. I had not seen her in this life, not truly, but in my blood there was memory, and in those memories her face was carved like a flame into stone, my hand trembled as I reached for the book that bore her mark, the crest of fire and ash burned into its leather cover. I opened it, and the past bled into the present.

One I learned as a child, hidden in the back of a witch-thief’s tent under moonlight and fear. The doors groaned open, revealing a forgotten vault of knowledge. Books bound in scales. Scrolls sealed in bloodwax. Shelves bowed under the weight of secrets too dangerous to burn. My fingers trembled as I sifted through them. One text caught my eye—an iron-clasped tome titled: The Bloodbound Legacy: Curses and Coronations. Inside, something waited. A single folded parchment was tucked between the brittle pages, ink faded to the color of old wounds. There was no title. No scribe's name.

The door clicked shut behind her, and I was alone again with my Birkin. I lifted it in front of me, admiring the way the light hit the leather. Power in the form of a handbag. Proof that Rowan—married, powerful, disciplined Rowan—still bent when I wanted him to. Did I care about him? About Liam? About the mess I’d left behind? No. I leaned against the mirror, the Birkin dangling from my arm like a trophy. My lips curved into a satisfied smirk, but the longer I stared at myself, the heavier the silence became.

There was another round of laughter and I tried to open my eyes all the way but the lids wouldn't move past the swelling around them. The musky scent of the damp cellar walls made me want to throw up,but when I gagged, nothing came out. “We should untie her and take turns….” The second voice suggested,excitedly. “Perhaps that'd take her out completely,” another said and although I couldn't fully process what they meant at that point,my mind wept. One of them roughly fondled my chest and the silver chains on my chained up wrists— sizzled deeper into my already burnt flesh as I tried to pull back.

“Is it this one bound with leather made from Human skin? Or the one that’s barely bound and falling apart at the seams?” We look at each other, the answer already clear. “The one that’s falling apart,” I say. “Then the one with the Human leather,” August says, shuddering as he put it down. “Our ancestors were batshit.” I just let out a laugh as I flick through the pages of the one that’s falling apart. The paper is so thin that I can feel some particles sticking to the pads of my fingers. I try to rub it off my jeans, a little disconcerted at how quickly this thing seems to be disintegrating.