Library Of Ruina Novels & Stories

The fire cracked softly between us. No one spoke. Not me. Not Kael. Not even Lena, who now looked like she regretted saying anything at all. But it was too late. The words had already settled inside me like poison. The last Queen of Ruin didn’t die. She was reborn. I stared at the flames, trying to steady my breathing. “That’s impossible,” I said finally. Lena shifted awkwardly near the doorway. “It’s just a legend.”

I growl, happy that my distraction was here but feeling slightly off about it too. A few minutes later, the elevator is opening, and Reina is strolling toward me dressed in a trench coat, which I’m almost certain isn’t hiding clothes beneath. “What?” She asks as I eye her. “Aren’t you going to get up and greet me?” “Have I ever been one to do that?” I ask, getting more comfortable and waiting until she is climbing on top of me. “Are you mistaking me for one of your other men?” “How could I?” She murmurs, getting comfortable. “No one can make me scream quite like you.”

"The library." "The Alpha said—" "The Alpha said I could go anywhere with an escort. You are my escort. So escort me." She stares at me for a moment. Then she opens the door. "After you," she says. The library is empty. Books line the walls from floor to ceiling. Dust motes float in the sunlight. The air smells like old paper and forgotten stories. I walk to the back corner. The section where I found the prophecy book before. Rina follows. "You read a lot," she says.

“We’re going to get her. I promise you that.” Elena met us in the private room with her laptop already open. Damien plugged in the drive and the screen filled with lists of places and times and names. My hands shook while I watched her work. “Six possible spots,” Elena said. “But based on the time of the blackout and the traffic patterns, two make the most sense. One is an old office building on the south side. The other is a warehouse near the river, different from the Kessler one.” “Which one first?” I asked.

If I have to make her understand myself… I will. I repeated those words to myself until I almost believed them. Then I walked toward the hidden room. The shattered biometric scanner had already been replaced. The new lock blinked blue as I pressed my thumb against it. The bookshelf slid aside. I stepped inside. The room looked different. The photographs were gone. The desk had been cleared too. Only the monitors remained. I walked over and looked at the largest screen. Drisana. She was pacing back and forth in the bedroom. Her lips were moving. She was talking to herself. I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

"I suppose we both need to learn that rebuilding isn't a race." By midday, the entrance to the library had finally been cleared. The heavy wooden doors had long since rotted away, leaving only the stone archway standing. Nova, Kieran, Lyra, Kael, Lysandra, Ava, and several Guardians gathered as Cassian stepped inside. Dust floated through the shafts of sunlight pouring in from the broken roof. Rows of shattered shelves stretched into the darkness. Most of the books had turned to dust centuries ago. Even so, the room felt... alive.

The St. Jude’s Architecture Library was a cathedral of glass and old oak, a place where whispers carried like shouts and the scent of floor wax was heavy enough to taste. Usually, this was Ethan’s sanctuary. Today, it felt like a cage. "You’re doing it again," Liam murmured, his voice a low vibration that seemed to bypass Ethan’s ears and go straight to his spine. Ethan didn't look up from the translucent tracing paper. "Doing what, Rossi? Existing? I’m allowed to do that."

MAYA The house was too quiet. It had been six months since the metal of the car crumpled like paper. Six months since the world I built out of lies fell apart in a spray of shattered glass and screaming tires. I was the one who survived. I was the one who woke up from the coma. But sometimes, when I look at the empty space in our bed or the way Liam looks at his phone, I think the wrong person died that night.

she asked. I turned my focus to Runa. My heart thudded against my ribs as I remembered her earlier words. "You said you rewrote the books in my father’s library," I said, keeping my posture stiff. Runa’s expression went solemn. She let out a low, steady breath. "Yes. I wrote the books for every library in the territories, but only one true set remains." Her hand swept over the messy piles surrounding us. "The fake ones were spread everywhere outside that island house where your father hid you. Once Selene told me you were real, I gathered the true history here."

Behind her stood Jax, bleeding, his back to her, facing down someone cloaked in shadow with eyes like burning coal. "Stop it," Nova whispered. "Stop. Stop. Stop please!" The woman in the veil spoke finally, but her voice was layered dozens of voices speaking as one. She sounded possessed. Her eyes turned black and face turned to look like a corpse. She gave Nova an evil smile and Nova screamed. Nova shook her head, heart racing. "What am I supposed to do? Just tell me!" The pool's surface shimmered again, showing four identical books—Ruins texts, all open, pages turning by themselves in the wind. One page glowed gold, one bled ink, one turned to ash, and one remained blank.