“In something other than a book or movie?” Aurora challenged.
I did not appreciate her attitude. “I know things. Haven’t I already proven that?”
“You’ve proven that you can commitDatelinedetails to memory,” she replied.
I jerked my gaze away from her and focused on Galen. “She’s being purposely difficult.”
“I know, baby.” Galen sounded legitimately sympathetic but I knew better. He was enjoying Aurora giving me a hard time. “She’s been that way since the day she was born.”
I wasn’t going to get sympathy from this lot. I focused on the book. “Let’s just get it open. If it’s not going to eat us, there’s no reason to drag this out.”
Galen’s hand rubbed my back and nodded.
I reached for the book. My first inclination was to try to open the lock. Weirdly, there didn’t appear to be a keyhole. “What sort of lock is this?” I asked after I’d flipped it over to look no less than six times. “Where does the key go?”
“Do you have a key?” Booker asked. He acted as if he was being reasonable but I knew better.
“No, but perhaps I can find one if you tell me what sort of lock this is.”
“We don’t know,” Galen replied. He held out his hand for the book. “May I look at it for a second?”
It wasn’t that I felt proprietary about the book. It wasn’t mine, and I felt no connection to the dhampir. But I balked all the same. “Are you sure this book can’t eat you?” I asked.
His grin was so wide it dwarfed his other features. “I swear it.”
Grudgingly, I handed it over.
Galen ran his fingers over the metal contraption, keeping the book closed, his eyes fixated on the seam. He flipped it over, just as I had, then frowned as he flipped it again. “It is a weird lock,” he acknowledged.
“But did you feel as if the book wanted to eat you?” Booker pressed.
Galen skewered the cupid with a glare. “Stop giving her a hard time.”
“Sometimes I can’t help myself.”
I didn’t need Galen to stand up for me. I could do that easily enough on my own. The book definitely felt off, however. I couldn’t put into words how it made me feel.
“Let me see it.” Booker took the book before Galen had a chance to respond. When he tried to force the book open with his hands, I snatched it back.
“Don’t ruin it,” I admonished. “You’ll rip it apart.”
“At least we’ll know what’s in it,” Booker shot back.
“We need to be able to read it,” I reminded him. “Besides, how do you know it won’t protect itself?”
“Oh, so now the book has feelings,” Booker drawled.
“Do you not feel the emotions emanating from this book?” I challenged.
Booker continued smiling before it slowly started to dissipate. “Are you saying you feel emotions emanating from the book?”
“Don’t you?”
Booker looked at me, then down at the book, then back up at me. He was an air elemental. His mind magic was fierce. If anybody should have picked up on emotions, it was him. Yet I was the one feeling it.
“Do you feel anything?” Lilac asked him a few seconds later.
“No, but if Hadley does … .”
