The Blood Heir

Chapter Six: Birthright

     Cullen scanned the books, bored at all of the historical titles. One would expect  the royal library of one of the greatest kingdoms to have a larger selection of genres. "The Great War. Expanding Territory. History of Keylon." He muttered to himself, reading through the bindings sitting on the shelf currently in front of him. He sighed. The castle was so boring to him. At home in Wilind, there always seemed to be something happening, even if it was just a farmer complaining of the sekine that we're terrorizing their livestock. The pesky little beasts. He couldn't even find anything in this cursed castle about keeping the sekine away. Cullen's fingers bounced from one book spine to the next, skipping over a couple duplicates that he found. The faded titles started to blur and after a while of looking, Cullen found himself just meandering through the stacks. He would stop here and there to look at a certain title that caught his attention, but they all ended up the same, boring, history book. Cullen diverted his attention to a woman walking towards him, her blonde hair flowing behind her in waves. "Hello, Duke Aster." She politely greeted him. He bowed in response, "Good evening, Your Highness." He turned back to the shelves. She slid a couple books back into their places and her gentle movements caused a flash that caught his attention. A diamond ring sat delicately on her left hand. Cullen fought the urge to snarl at her. That ring did not belong to her. She noticed his attention, "It is so lovely, isn't it?" She asked, holding her hand up so the light caught her ring. He gulped and nodded, "Very lovely Your Highness." Seraphine smiled, her graceful lips curling upwards. She strode off back towards the main part of the library and Cullen couldn't help but wonder what had happened almost seventeen years ago when the sisters were born. Seraphine and Nyla were such different creatures. Seraphine was elegant and tender. She was very charming on the rare occasion that she spoke a full sentence and her movements reminded Cullen of a wraith. While Nyla was all seductive lines and sensual motions. You could see as well as sense the difference between the sisters. One blonde as a newborn baby, the other hair as dark as night. One with soft blue, the other with sharp emerald eyes. Even the way they smiled was drastically different. Seraphine's mouth was nicely curved, but made for polite smiles and quiet laughs. And it was nothing compared to the Cupid's bow of Nyla's lip that struck a man directly where it mattered. And when she thought nobody was looking, she would chew her bottom lip, sucking the skin between her teeth. To Cullen, it was cute. But he knew that it would send any other man onto his knees. He snorted to himself, Nyla was the polar opposite of Seraphine, but they were twins. A bright silver caught his eye and Cullen snapped out of his thoughts. A book peeked out of a crevice in the very end of the grand bookcases. Cullen glanced around and realized that he had arrived in some forgotten corner of the royal library. Shivers swept across Cullen's arms and he shook it off. He was just psyching himself out. Cullen reached for the book and pulled it out with a little bit of struggle. The exposed part of the spine was covered with an inch of dust. Cullen was surprised that he could even see the color beneath. The entire book cover was made of silver, which made it slightly heavy for a book of such a small size. Cullen wiped it off with his forearm and traced the engravings on the front of it with his finger There wasn't a title. Intrigued for the first time since he'd entered the library, Cullen flipped the little silver book open. 

"Explain to me why you are here." 

"Because I have something very important to tell you." 

"You couldn't have found me at dinner?"

"You don't understand, it's detrimental to the crown."

"Enlighten me then, Duke."

"I was in the library and I found an old book tucked away in a forgotten corner."

"Yes? And?"

"I don't know how to explain it. I just think you should see for yourself." 

"Well, do you have it?"