“Maddi?” Ilia whisper yelled.
“Wait here,” I said to the guys before I stepped back to the other side. Ilia jumped a foot. “Holy fuck me,” she gasped.
I snorted before turning to stare at the same thing she was. All I could see was the guys standing there waiting for me. “What do you see?” I asked.
“A wall,” Larissa said. “Just the normal wall at the back of the library.”
Oddest thing ever.
“Okay, so it looks like this is an Atlantean-only zone, unless you can get the librarian to let you into this restricted section.” I looked around. “I can’t see Mab anywhere, but if I find her, I’ll send her out to help.”
Ilia narrowed her eyes on me. “Did you just say Mab?” I nodded, realizing I hadn’t actually mentioned her in my explanations earlier.
“Oh yeah, she helped me find the library. She’s been keeping it safe for years.”
Ilia and Larissa exchanged an odd glance, but I didn’t have time to press for whatever that was. We had to research. “I’ve gotta get in there, but I’ll send Mab out to you.”
I got a hug from them both before stepping back in with the guys.
“You know Mab is one of the most dangerous creatures to walk this world, right?” Axl said conversationally, curiosity burning in his eyes. “Are you sure you heard the name right”
I turned a look of disbelief on him. “Definitely not the same Mab. My Mab is only a few inches tall and has gorgeous gossamer—”
“Wings,” Calen interrupted, sounding incredulous.
I nodded, a strange feeling in my stomach. “Right. She’s a fairy.”
The silence was heavy. “She’s not a fairy, Mads,” Jesse said in his rumbly voice. “She’sthefairy. The first of her kind—she’s the queen.”
“A very old, very powerful, very, very scary queen,” Rone added from where he was bringing up the rear of our group.
“No way,” I said, shaking my head. “There’s just no way.” She had been kind and sweet, and sure, she was extremely old, but I felt a kindred spirit in her.
Like we’d summoned her, she appeared in the path, and immediately four supes stood between me and the tiny fairy.
“Holy fuck,” Calen breathed. “It’s Mab.”
I was attempting to push my way through, but the guys would not give an inch, and shelves on either side stopped me going around them.
“Maddison,” Mab said, and the power in my name sent the hair across my arms standing up.
“Back here,” I said loudly, trying to wave and jump, but of course, tall as fuck dudes were obstructing that too. “The guys are feeling a little overprotective of me because this place blocked my energy before and they thought I died.”
Axl hissed, and it was an odd sound from him. “Don’t give her our secrets, Maddison,” he said softly. “Fairies will take your secrets and use them against you.”
Mab didn’t reply, and I couldn’t see her to know what she was doing, which wasn’t an issue two seconds later when all four guys were jerked away from me, held immobile against the shelves. Mab drifted forward. “There you are,” she said softly.
I lifted an eyebrow at her. “You’re kind of proving their point right now.”
She shrugged, tiny shoulders lifting with her wings. “They wouldn’t move.” She released them in that next instant before she flew forward and settled onto my shoulder.
Four pairs of wide eyes locked on to us, and the disbelief in them was actually visible. “How in the fuck?” Calen said, rubbing a hand over his head, mussing up the brown strands. “Only Maddison James would befriend a scary old fairy.”
Mab and I ignored him, setting off again toward the library. “Can you fix it so my friends can enter?” I asked her as we walked. “Ilia and Larissa aren’t Atlantean, and the first barrier stopped them.”
She nodded, waved her hand somewhere behind us, her glittery wings catching my attention from the corner of my eye. “They’ll be let through shortly. The librarian was arguing, but she’s been set straight.”
Nice.I hadn’t really noticed this streak of authority in Mab the first time I saw her, but it was becoming much more apparent. Maybe by finally freeing her from watching the library, I freed something even greater inside of her. Strength and independence.
