Read Online Ice Burns by Charity Ayres - Free Book Online Page B

of them had any writing on the cover and most were like the other she had taken, with no spine binding. Chandra had no idea if any of them would be useful.
    "I think it is a gray book, with a worn binding," she called out to Andre without lifting her head. She saw him turn to glare at her out of the corner of her eye. That only narrowed the pile down by one, and it happened to have been the only book he had pulled from the shelf. Chandra reached over and grabbed a tiny book that caught her eye. The cover was a cracked animal skin and written on with a flowing, curved print like she would imagine a woman of high standing to create.
    Andre had wrestled three books from the shelves, and Chandra was rapidly running out of time. She tucked the tiny book in her tunic with the other and grabbed another book at random in the hope that one of the three contraband would hold something that could help her.
    Andre brought the books over, and Chandra opened each, skimming through them. She picked up the thickest of the stack and set it aside.
    "This one," she told him. "Carry it back to my room, and be careful of the binding."
    Chandra lifted her stack of books and started off ahead of him. She could have given him time to put the books away, but she didn't want him to have the opportunity to look too closely at what she held in her arms. It also meant that he would not be at her door for a while because he would have to come back to clean Master's study. Knowing him, he would polish everything she had gone near as though she were some disease sullying Master's spaces. It was a good thing that Master had so many books, or Andre would have likely caught her with his obsession for keeping Master's things in order.
    The bookshelf behind Master's desk would never be a worry, though. Even Andre didn't touch it unless Master had cleared it off which he only did once he had gone through all of the books there and made notes about them. After that, they would be put away and the space cleared for new books to come in. Chandra had no idea where they all came from, but it was a bit of an obsession for Master, as though he thought he, like Chandra, could find the answers to what they wanted in a book.
    When she returned, Chandra was relieved to see that Frostwhite was not in her room because Andre followed her in to drop the book on the table. She imagined that it would have been more of a startled mistake rather than an angry retort if the hawk had been in her room. She fought a smile at the expression she imagined on Andre's face were he to come face to beak with Frostwhite. It almost made her wish her friend had returned.
    Andre lifted his eyes to her for a moment, and Chandra saw the pure hatred there in the smoky blue depths under storm cloud eyebrows. Even though she knew that Andre didn't like her, and she had used that to her advantage to get to the study, the intensity of that look made Chandra's breath catch in her throat, and her heart pounded a little harder. Something in her froze as though prey sensing a hunter.
    Andre didn't say anything, but offered a sharp, quick bow and turned on his heel to leave. He didn't slam the door this time, though the click of the lock on the door seemed oddly pronounced.
    A chill ran down her spine and Chandra took a deep breath to calm her mind and slow her heartbeat. She turned away from the door slowly, almost unable to do even that with the wrenching fear of Andre. It was as though she thought turning her back on him, even with a closed door, was dangerous.
    She had barely sat down at the table when a gust of air and rain rushed into the room as the window blew open as wide as the tie on the latch would allow. Frostwhite angled in and then up as he tucked his massive wingspan into somewhat ungracefully drop onto the table. Chandra scurried over to move the books away from the hawk who was now dripping on the table. It was a good thing since Frostwhite chose the next moment to ruffle his feathers and