Sorry for the late update guys! To make it up to y'all I've written a slightly lengthy chapter. Enjoy reading!

And, this song is not related to the chapter. But it is by one of my favourite singers, who will always be a true source of inspiration to me.

Christina Grimmie, we love you and you'll forever and always be in our hearts.

#CGForever

Chapter 8

Ryan's POV

"How did this happen?" Tristan scratches the back of his neck in confusion.

Ignoring him, my eyes scan the place, or what is left of it thereof. From all the furniture to books, everything lay broken and smashed to smithereens. The ground is littered with shattered pieces of glass, which crunch beneath my boots as I step over them. Looking around, I only manage to deduce one thing:

Whoever had been here, wanted this place to be entirely demolished. Destroyed. Not wanting to leave even the slightest bit of trace of anything. But the question is, why?

Verba Atramento is the largest library in the world. But since it's not known to the humans, the British Library in the UK takes the Number One spot in the official records.

As the name goes, the library holds handwritten books of knowledge and wisdom from many, many centuries back. The histories and information were preserved here so that they could be studied and researched and could help us in the times of need.

One of its unique features is that it is entirely made up of glass, which makes it more elegant and beautiful. It is located at the heart of the Enchanted Forest, a place which is forbidden to humans.

"Ryan?" Before I can contemplate further, Meredith's voice reaches my ears. Turning around, I see her standing in front of Tristan, clicking her fingers in front of his face for some reason.

"Something's wrong," I'm standing beside her within a second. She looks concerned. After having one look at Tristan, I know why.

"Tristan," I call out to him, but he doesn't move even as much as an inch. I grab his shoulders and shake him, calling his name a few more times. But it's of no use. Sighing, I do the one thing I swore I would never do.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath and let my mental barriers down. My eyes open wide as I'm immediately hit by his strong emotions, flowing through my veins and weaving in my blood, which forces me to lose balance and fall down.

"Ryan!" Clutching my head, I immediately fight his emotions and try to put my barriers up. Once they are up, I open my eyes, which had closed shut due to some reason. Breathing heavily, I look up at Tristan, who's still standing like a rock.

"What happened?" Meredith says in a concerned voice. Still looking at him, I answer.

"He's in shock. Completely and utterly in shock," I say, still feeling a bit shaken from his emotions.

A look of understanding crosses her features, as she looks back at Tristan. Just then a voice fills my mind, as I hear dad mind linking me to come to the Royal Castle as early as possible.

Heaving a deep sigh, I slowly try and get up with Meredith's help. I glance at a frozen looking Tristan, and cannot help the sigh that escapes me. Looking around for one last time, I know that the wizards will use some sort of time manipulation spells to get this place back to the way it was.

• •• • •• •

The Royal Castle. Also located in the Enchanted Forest, it is a few miles away from Verba Atramento.

Everyone present here stares at Tristan and think about the situation at hand. I had to carry him all the way here, who's still as frozen as the Antarctica, probably reeling from the shock due to some mysterious unknown reason.

"Why, is his right cheek starting to bruise?" My dad finally speaks up, trying to break the silence. I swallow and look at Meredith, who's staring right back at me. Looking away, she glances at him and wears a small smile.

"We, may or may not have slapped him once thinking that, maybe he'll come out of shock?" Her reply sounds more like a question than a statement.

"Once?" Dad turns his scrutinising gaze at me, while I quickly look away. He hums in response and looks back at the frozen wiz kid. Tilting his head to the side, I feel like he's in some deep thought. We awkwardly stand there, each lost in their own thought.

"Nice idea Bennett. Wasn't expecting that from you," Dad suddenly speaks up, as I look at them in confusion. He looks at someone, and I follow his line of sight and realise he's looking at Aunt Cora. Sighing, she walks over to us.

"Queen," Dad steps aside, so she could stand in front of Tristan. Glancing one last time at dad, she looks at Tristan and raises her palms. The next second Tristan is drenched in ice cold water, as he reels back from his shock-like state. Shivering violently, he looks at Aunt Cora with wide eyes, repeatedly blinking as water flows down his face. Stepping back, she claps once.

"Welcome back, Tristan LaGray." Everyone gets enveloped in thick silence for a moment, not even moving an inch while witnessing the whole scene. Slowly, we turn and look at Dad for an explanation of what just happened.

"Bennett just told me that we should try and test his elemental sensation. Maybe his subconscious mind will recognise his element and help him reel back from his shock. So I asked Queen if she could help," He finishes.

Aunt Cora happens to be the daughter of a wizard and a vampire; her mother being a pure water elemental wizard and her father being one of the warrior vampires, Bennett Thornton. Hence she's an elemental vampire.

A sneeze pulls me out of my thoughts. I look at Tristan to see him shiver.

He needs to dry himself, or he'll end up falling sick.

As if hearing my thoughts, he lifts his palm and suddenly soft wind starts blowing in his direction. He jerks his wrist and the wind starts blowing stronger. We all watch as the wind starts spiralling around Tristan, gradually intensifying. Huge tornado forms around him in record time, as he becomes less and less visible. We all shield ourselves from the harsh wind blowing around the room.

Slowly, when I feel the blow of the wind lessen, I lift my eyes and look at Tristan, who's soaked dry. With his palm, he reduces the intensity of the tornado he'd just created.

When the wind finally stops blowing, we look at him in confusion.

"Why," Uncle Seb first utters, taming his hair down, "would you do that?"

"Exactly," Dad says, "You could've just used some easy and simple spell to dry yourself."

Tristan comes out of his victory stance, as he slowly realises that dad's true. Scratching the back of his head, he mumbles an apology.

Like Aunt Cora, Tristan is an elemental too. But he isn't a pure one. Since he yields the element of wind as well as water, he's a hybrid elemental.

"Tristan, what happened at Verba Atramento?" Dad asks the question to which all of us have been anticipating an answer for. Tristan doesn't speak for a while as if fighting some internal battle going on within him.

I spare a glance out of the glass window at the greying clouds covering the sky.

Something huge is coming up.

I don't know how I know it, I just do. I look back just in time to see Tristan bowing.

"King and all the respected personages present here," Tristan speaks, "with all due respect, I would like to talk to my father about this before I disclose anything. I would request you to please understand." With this, he walks away, without waiting for Uncle Seb's response. I watch his back until he disappears behind the doors.

What is up with him?

• •• • •• •

As I walk through the hallway of the Ridgeview High next day, my mind is occupied by yesterday's event. So it's justified that I fail to notice an overly enthusiastic Iris, who's waving her hands frantically in front of me. I almost bump into her.

"Hey!" Blinking a few times, I shake the thoughts of my head and reply her with a smile.

"Hi," Putting my hands in my jeans pockets, I rock back and forth on my heels. I'm never good at striking a conversation. But I try anyway.

"So, what's up?" I try to talk the way Bennett and Tristan do, in a cool and calm manner. Because according to Tristan, my style of talking is 'way too formal for my own good'. Iris' face immediately lights upon hearing my question.

"The sky, the ceiling. Heaven. Stars. The Universe..." She trails off. It takes me a few seconds to understand what she did. But when I do, I narrow my eyes at her. She just raises her hands from her sides, giving me an incredulous expression as if to say 'What? You had this one coming'.

Beside me, Bennett and Meredith chuckle at her response, while Tristan just offers a small smile. He's starting to concern me a lot.

"Good one," I hear Bennett say, and look up to see him high-five Iris.

Just then Caleb comes and slings an arm around a grinning Iris.

"Stop showing your 32 set of pearly white teeth, now will you?" She swat his arm away and faces him with a raised eyebrow.

"So Mr. Smarty pants. Think you're smarter than me?" He just meets her stare undeterred and steps forward as if challenging her.

"Of course I am Winters." She cocks an eyebrow at him.

"Oh really? So Mr. Smarty pants, how do you know I have 32 sets of teeths?"

"How do I know? Well, my dearest best friend, I know you inside out. So I obviously know that you have 32 sets of teeths. Also, you're the one who told me that once." Her eyes look from his one eye to another, as if trying to find something.

"Are you sure I told you that I have these many sets of teeths?"

"Cent percent sure you were the one to tell me that you have 32 sets of teeths." She watches him for a few more seconds as if he will deter. But when she's sure he won't she bursts out laughing.

"Oh God! You doofus, there is no such word as teeths but teeth," She manages to say between her laughter, "I'm so smarter than you." His mouth hangs open in shock, as he realises how Iris played him.

"You tricked me!" Caleb whines, but Iris just laughs it off.

"Remind me why I'm still best friends with you?" He huffs out, pouting and crossing his arms over his chest.

"Because," Iris wraps her arms around him, giving him a side hug.

"You love me! And you're stuck with me for your entire life." She lets out a devilish laugh. He just groans, but smiles nevertheless. Seeing him smile brings one on her face too. She quickly digs inside her bag and takes out her phone.

"Time for a selfie! I don't have any photo with my new friends." Everyone smiles for the camera, even Tristan is wearing a gentle smile. But I just blink, not knowing what to do.

"Ryan smile," Iris says with raised eyebrows. Slowly, but surely, I do. She clicks the picture and starts tapping away on her phone. Everyone then engages in some conversation excluding Tristan and start walking ahead, leaving me and Iris behind. I fall in step with her.

"Hey, I am uploading the photo that I clicked now. But then I just realised you're not there on any of my social media accounts," She says, without taking her eyes off of her phone, "Tell me your usernames. Fast." I just blink at her question and rub the back of my neck.

"I.... Don't have, one?" Hearing me, she stops dead in her tracks. Slowly looking up from her phone, she turns to me, all wide eyed.

"What, do you mean?" I shrug my shoulders.

"You know, I am not a huge fan of social media. Like, I don't even understand its purpose. Why would anyone waste their precious time on such useless things? And it's like their life depends on social media. They can't even imagine their lives without it. And..." I stop saying when I see Iris' eyes widen more and more with hearing my each spoken sentence. She just raises her eyesbrows and turns her head a bit sideways, as if to say 'You did not just say that'. I gulp.

Why does it feel like I'm going to regret ever telling this to her?

• ☆ • ☆ •

Hey guys! Thanks for reading. So what do you think of this chapter? Let me know through the comments.

And also hit the 'star' button if you like the chapter.

Dedicated to Heathen_xoxo as she was the one to suggest the Library's name. Thanks!

Also, make sure to check out her new book 'The Smell Of Moonlight'.