The lycan king’s regret
Somewhere above me a window was letting in a thin slice of afternoon light, and dust hung in it, turning slowly.
Then one book caught my eye. It was older than the ones around it, the spine cracked in a way that meant it had been pulled out and put back a hundred times, by a hundred different hands, over however many years the library had stood there.
The Legend of the Lycan Kings.
I said the title out loud, mostly just to hear my own voice do something normal, and pulled it free. It was heavier than it looked, the cover soft and a little sticky with age.