I ate standing at the counter, the bracelet box sitting beside my bowl like a silent dare. Even though I absolutely was not putting it on, I still carried it with me when I left. “I’m going next door to work,” I announced. Perhaps the books in the library would have answers. Perhaps I’d head across the street to Gwen’s B&B for a change of clothes and some girl talk—the kind that involved eternal vows and mating marks. Although, how did you start a conversation like that? And while wearing yesterday’s clothes over far-too-expensive lingerie?
Belfry shrieked like a banshee at my announcement. I was halfway down the stairs to the back exit when he flitted past my head and barred my way by fluttering in my face.NO! You can’t leave! There will be consequences! I will breathe FIREBALLS if you go!He sounded like Luther when he was acting particularly bossy, minus the fireball part, of course.
I was pretty sure Luther had implied Belfry couldn’t actually do such a thing, but my recollection on the topic was slightly fuzzy. “Go ahead,” I said, stepping toward the door as I decided to call his bluff. I needed answers, and I wouldn’t get them by sitting around. “Show me,” I called over my shoulder as I pushed it open, it wasn’t locked. If I couldn’t have answers, at least I could bury myself in work. I was definitely not sitting around waiting.
Belfry inhaled dramatically, and then he coughed, hacked, and wheezed. The sunlight was bright and warm, even though it was still early morning. Luther’s backyard was neat and well-maintained, if a little plain. Belfry didn’t follow, but I looked at him just in time to see a tiny puff of smoke escape his blunt little nose. That had to be a trick of the light mingling with the darkness in the hallway. “Mm-hmm,” I said. “Terrifying.” He collapsed onto a shelf in embarrassment as I slipped out the door.
The library next door was bright, shockingly so, now that the windows had been repaired, but the brightness didn’t help with the lingering scent of decay. Luther had tackled the mold yesterday, and whatever he’d used to do it was magic. There was no sign of it now, but that just left damaged drywall, rotting wood, and warped floorboards. The books looked happier, and I knew my next task had to be setting up the temporary humidity controls. That mold wasn’t coming back on my watch. Finally, something normal, something I understood.
Placing the box with the bracelet on the large central table where I’d done triage on the worst books yesterday, I stood for a moment to survey what needed to be done. Answers, that had been the plan, either from the books or from Gwen. The lure of immersing myself in the mundane and normal for a momentwas just too great. I knew I was hiding; I knew I should be more curious, but each time I looked at the jewelry box or remembered the mark, I wanted to stick my head in the sand. So I did.
I spent the next half hour checking humidity levels, adjusting fans and humidifiers, and wandering the stacks for books that needed the most immediate TLC. And while I wandered… I looked. For the hidden basement. That I definitely couldn’t stop myself from doing. A hidden library, hidden books, I had to find them. Perhaps once I was confronted with shelves of magical tomes, I’d truly, fully believe. Okay, I already did. That’s why I was such a mess right now.
I was halfway through moving a step stool when Belfry swooped dramatically into view. “You!” I said. “Feeling better after your failed-fireball embarrassment?” I asked, almost cheerfully. Maybe I felt a twinge of guilt for poking fun at his attempt, but then again, he had tried to use fire to stop me from leaving.
I did not fail,he huffed.I merely… misjudged my timing.It had taken him almost an hour to get over this embarrassment and show up, when I was pretty sure Luther had instructed him to keep me company. The sun was still climbing slowly toward its zenith, the library sunlit through its restored windows. Belfry must hate being up right now, but he didn’t sound grumpy, just his usual cheerful self.
“Uh-huh, sure,” I said as I crossed my arms and gave him a once-over. He’d landed on a stack of books in the shade, but his eyes were huge. “Since you’re here, mind showing me the entrance to that basement you mentioned before?” While I had worked and searched, I’d kept looking for any sign of Gwen over by theB&B, but I had a feeling she was either sleeping late or running errands. I’d have to make do with fact-finding in the books and pumping Belfry for information now that he was here.
He stiffened, his big ears drooping and his tiny nose wrinkling. It was a look of distaste, of firm, confident denial. The kind of look that Luther did very well, and I was sure that’s who Belfry was emulating when he said,Absolutely not.
“Oh, come on, Belfry. Luther would show me if he were here,” I assured him. Luther could go either way, either telling me some bullshit about how I wasn’t ready, or showing me the way with veiled threats and promises. Truthfully, I was pretty sure he’d deny me access, because I barely believed he was a vampire, and I should take things slow. He might be right, but there was this niggling sense of urgency at the back of my mind that told me I might not have that luxury.
Would he?Belfry mumbled, fluttering his wings nervously as he considered that. He sounded dubious, with good reason, but close enough to being convinced. So I pushed a little harder.
“Probably,” I lied through my teeth. I straightened my shirt and gave him my firmest look, as if I knew exactly what I was doing. After that fiasco with the fireballs, he was clearly not as sure of himself as he’d first sounded, poor little guy. Honestly, it was kinda cute that he truly thought he could breathe fire, as if he were a dragon, not a bat. Huh… if talking bats and vampires existed, did dragons too?
He sighed the sigh of a creature deeply burdened by responsibility—and also by the need for gossip.Fine. But I am not responsible for anything that happens.There was a glint ofexcitement in his beady black eyes, which told me he was too much a fan of a bit of mayhem to let Luther’s actual wishes stop him from having fun.
He darted to the far wall, one of the few sections of shelves that had not been affected by the damp and the mold, and tapped a particular book spine with his foot. The entire shelf shuddered, shifted, then slid aside. It made a groaning, squeaking noise as it revealed a narrow stone stairwell descending into darkness. “Wow,” I breathed. “Secret library. Classic.” It was the kind of stuff straight out of a children’s book full of magic and adventure.
Don’t go,Belfry begged as he hovered by the dark door opening and was struck by a sudden attack of responsibility.These books don’t need help. They don’t even want help,he explained, hovering in front of the opening as if his small body could block my way.
I rolled my eyes as if I could stop myself from going down there now that I’d seen the way. The call of a secret library and hidden books was too strong a lure. Pulling out my phone, I flicked on the flashlight option and headed toward that dark opening. “Everything deserves help. Even creepy magical literature.”
The stairway led into a small, circular space framed by stone columns and granite walls that looked thick and ancient. It was definitely another library, but older. Much older. Books with runed spines and gilded edges lined the shelves, while glass cases held strange objects: crystals, rings, and even a feather that pulsed faintly with a golden glimmer, magic.
I stepped closer, awe blooming in my chest, and a childhood dream fulfilled. Belfry wasn’t wrong, nothing down here was damp; in fact, the humidity was perfect. All of these books were pristine, their leather covers uncracked and shiny with health, as if they had been made yesterday instead of having been hidden in the dark for years without care. No, these books didn’t need me at all.
I swallowed roughly and nodded. “Okay. Fair enough, Belfry. Maybe this is too advanced for rookie paranormal archivists, anyway.” But I could still sniff around to see if I could find anything on vampires and sudden, permanent mating bonds. I needed to figure out if there was a way to undo this, to find out what it meant, even if those thoughts kept making my stomach twist in ways I couldn’t explain. Was it anger, sadness, distress? Did I want to keep this weird mating bond thing with Luther? The man had barely graduated from enemy to obnoxious neighbor to lover.
I stepped deeper into the strange library, my eyes trailing over the spines as I sought answers to a question I couldn’t seem to form. Much I couldn’t read, and some I could, though my Latin was a bit rustier than I would have liked. Vampire, vampire, where was it?
One shelf seemed dedicated to dragons, so that meant they were real. There was even one dinner-sized golden scale set in a holder on one shelf between the books. Another shelf was all about lycanthropes and other assorted shapeshifters, and I stared with fascination at a book embossed with a beautiful griffin. That was not an uncommon symbol; I’d seen it on plenty of old books. The griffin was a favorite among medieval nobility,but I had a feeling this book wasn’t some boring treatise or history of a royal family.
I was deep in this ancient, mythical place when the fine hairs on the back of my neck rose. My pulse spiked as a shot of adrenaline rushed through me. I turned, searching the dark library, my flashlight dancing around. Someone was watching me.
Jade!Belfry shrieked from nearby, but it was too late. A shape lunged from the dark stone stairs, as if it had followed me down here. I had a moment to see the flash of teeth, claws, and more darkness. Then everything dissolved into a rush of terror and blackness.
Chapter 22
Luther
Worry was an old companion of mine, but this, this tight, clawing sensation beneath my ribs, was something sharper. Galamut. The name clung to me as I crossed back into town from Mr. Peters’s farm, boots striking the dirt road harder than necessary. So Thorne had been right all along, not that he’d begun to make a point of this until yesterday. We needed to find out what a Galamut was—and fast—because if Chardum’s ancient memory stirred at that name… it had to be a threat too dangerous and real to be ignored.
I should have gone straight to the library, that had been the plan, and it was a desire pulsing through my veins. Jade would be there, because I knew there was no way she’d have stayed safely in my home. Not when I hadn’t actually gotten around to telling her there might be danger, like I had planned to last night.
My hand went to my ribs, where the mating mark now sat on my skin like living ink. I should have been there when she woke, to remind her of the passion between us, to stake my claim, and to make it clear she was everything in the world I’d ever desired—the one thing I had never been able to find: a soulmate all my own.
