Angelo groans and slaps his hand on the table lightly. “Pleasefocus. My lil’ bro’s wet dreams about librarians aside, we have a mission here. Missing people, a reborn bird, world chaos… all the things, right?”
As if he doesn’t know this would be a hot as fuck scenario, especially if we grabbed some old uniforms.
“It’s notmyfault you don’t think learning is sexy,” I mutter as I turn a page. “Don’t be a dick.”
Archie snickers, and I look up at him, seeing the twinkle in his blue eyes. “Smart girlsandguys are hot, D. Ang knows it because our mate is sharper than a well-honed samurai sword.”
“Okay, okay. Enough stroking my ego.” Rogue shimmies in her seat as if she’s trying to get something off of herself, and I smile. She handles compliments about as well as I do, but she covers it far better. “Has anyone found anything worth discussing yet?”
“This book on the realms is… lacking,” I admit. “It discusses them, but it focuses on Hell, the surface, and does a minimal dive into Faerie. The others are skimmed through, though the author obviously intended for it toseemlike they were doing a thorough job. The info is basic at best, repetitive, and filled with… mostly guesses and generalizations. I don’t think it can be trusted with regard to any places that aren’t those first three.”
Angelo picks his book up and shakes it, making my eyes widen. “This thing is useless. It glosses over the history of Hell pre-current royalty, romanticizes the Games, and gives almost no information on what actually happened in them.”
That’s fucking fabulous; the books that aren’t behind serious magic are all written by the victors to hide shit.
“Not surprising,” Rogue says as she, too, stretches and distracts me. “Even up there, history is often written by the winners and tends to gloss over the bad things they did in their efforts to take power. The humans are theworstabout it; look at all theirturmoil in their world. They never learn, and they erase the shit they need to learn from.”
Pushing up my glasses, I grin. “He’s right, Sparkles. Youaresexy when you’re being a smarty pants.”
She winks at me and points to the page she’s on. “I’m willing to bet this book on human shitherehas more accurate facts in it than half the ones up there, even the non-fiction works. Conversely, Ang’s book about here is full of garbage. I’d suggest we look at the opposing books at home, but since the humans don’t know shit about supes and the Society doesn’t give a shit about demons…”
“We’re pretty fucked unless we get into the stuff that’s locked up,” Archie finishes for her. “I wonder if that stuff is more realistic or just filled with dangerous shit? It’s a toss-up in my head.”
My twin sighs as he rakes his hands through his hair. “We won’t know until we get in there, unfortunately. My theory is that there will be a lot of magic and demon lore shit, but if we look hard enough, we may find books that were banned by the current royals. The librarians here have to be like the ones back home, right?”
“They are,” I chime in. “If books were banned or instructed to be destroyed, they’d want to preserve them, even if in secret. I don’t know how good Discordia’s secret stacks will be, but if we don’t find everything here, we’ll find a fuckton of stuff when we hit the capital’s library. Those archivists willdefinitelyhave saved every scrap of knowledge they could muster.”
Rogue closes her book, blowing out a long breath. “So we’re wasting valuable time up here, then. Time to sneak downstairs to the entrance to the basement and give it a go?”
“Yes.” Angelo rises to his feet, collecting the books on the tables before he hands them to me. “You’ll be able to shelve these faster. I’d prefer we didn’t leave any clues as to what we’re looking at if possible.”
Snorting derisively, I mumble, “You prefer not having to remember where they all go, but fine.”
My twin grins evilly at me. “Am I wrong about your speed and skill?”
No, he’s not, damn it.
“Whatever,” I retort as I walk to the looming shelves with the pile. I love my brother to death and back, but his dislike of everything school-related will always be his biggest shortcoming. However, being twins, I more than make up for it, so I guess it works out.
“You’re going to give him an eppy,” Rogue says, her voice carrying from the other side of the bookcases. “Don’t abuse your brother, Angelo Gemini. He’s an important part of our family, and his contributions help immensely.”
“Iknowthat, Princess.” I can practicallyfeelhis smirk as I look for the spot where Archie grabbed this book on hybrid demons. “But he’s my brother, and that’s how we roll. You and Reb have given each other shit from the moment he arrived. You’re no saint, either.”
Her voice is low as she murmurs, “I miss him, Ang. I know I hadn’t mated with him yet, and we still had things to figure out,but this sucks fucking balls. I have to keep all that… emotion… locked down so we can do what we have to, but deep down, it hurts.”
“Aw, Wheels, c’mere,” Archie says.
I hear movement as I re-shelve the other three books, and I know they’re comforting her. Angelo might drive me up the walls, but I can’t imagine how much she’s hurting. Rebel was raised like a sibling, and she’s definitely also in love with him—a complicated mix of emotions paired with him being in danger. Balancing it has to be eating her up inside, but she’s been keeping the mask up like a pro.
I have no idea how she’s doing it.
Once I’m done, I emerge from the tall shelves, my expression soft as I approach our mate. “Rogue, he’s going to be fine. Reb is tough; he’s well-trained, and he’s a pain in the ass. He’s got the stones to survive whatever people throw at him and come back hard. We’re going to find him.”
She wipes a tear off her cheek, and my eyes widen in surprise. “I know. But being here, snooping around, and trying to get intel is something I’ve been doing with him for years. We don’t have a charge yet, so most of our Guardian duties are training and mission support for agents and other active Guardians. I guess it’s making me ache more than I expected.”
I nod, taking her hand and squeezing it. “We get it.”
“And if you fuckers tellanyonethat I leaked in this stupid, useless library, I’ll make you pay.”
