I sure don’t hate it.
Over three-hundred years old, I remind myself, shivery excitement filling me at the thought of how much knowledge and power he has.
Luke pulls me over to where two bookcases meet and points to a crystal imbedded in the wood. We’ve walked past dozens of these—I assumed they were nothing more than decorations—but it glows now with a golden light. “Touchit.”
The second my fingertip brushes the smooth surface, I stand in the reading room. I spin around just in time to see Luke step from the golden glow of the arched window. “What was that?”
“I restored the library’s doors.” He gives a shrug, his wings lifting and dropping with his shoulders. “You are correct that the library is too huge to make walking back and forth to the reading room a good use of time. If you touch any such crystal, you will be transported here.” He gestures to the glowing window. “To get back to the stacks, all you have to do is think of where you want to be in the library and touch the central door.”
I step closer, squinting to peer through the glass, but I can’t make out anything past the golden light—there’s no view of the forest outside. “It’s not a window at all.”
“Indeed, it is not.”
“This is amazing.” My hand hovers over the surface of the glass, feeling the hum of magic waiting to take me anywhere in the library I want to go. “It makes your library even more perfect than it already is.”
He grunts, but it’s his pleased grunt, and there’s that tiny lift to the left side of his lips. Praising his library makes him happy. My friends are right—I’m learning how to read resting grumpy face.
He clears the central table right in front of the magical door. My tingling awareness of him only gets worse as he settles into the seat beside me. The wisteria all around us creates a cozy reading nook for two.
“Oh, look here!” My finger traces over the lines of the latest book. “This says Frau Herlitzer made books fly.”
Luke leans over, so close I can feel the heat radiating from his skin, and his smoky sandalwood scent fills the air.
Focus, Skye! The only way you’re going to impress him is if you find something useful. My eyes keep racing ahead. “It says her familiar was an owl with a busted wing, and she gave him back the gift of flight. That’s sweet and all, but it means her power wasn’t tied to books. It turns out her power was she could make anything fly.”
I slump back in my seat, blinking hard to refocus my eyes. We’ve been at it for hours, and we’ve found nothing to help break my spell. I pick up another candy and pop it into my mouth, but the yummy burst of cinnamon can’t make information appear out of thin air.
“This one is a dead end as well. Time for more books,” Luke growls, shutting the volume he’s been reading. Once on his feet, he steps up to the portal door and gestures me forward. “Come. Think of your desired destination in the witch collection.”
I let out a breath and nod, then yell within my mind, “Witch collection.” With one step forward, I’m back in front of the bookcases, exactly where we stood last time.
Luke joins me and leaps into the air, not even using his wings. Magic pulses from him, lifting him easily up into thestacks. He snags several books from a shelf a good ten feet up, then drops back to the floor.
“What about me?” I ask. “How am I supposed to see the higher bookshelves?”
“This library was built by dragons for dragons. We have the magic of flight.” He frowns down at me. “How do humans usually handle such things?”
“Rolling ladders.” The Ferndale Falls library is too small to need them, so I pull out my phone and search for photos. I hold out the screen so Luke can see what I mean. “They attach to tracks that make them easy to move from shelf to shelf and keep them from falling.”
“As you wish.”
I suck in a shocked breath. His words sparkle through me like electricity, lighting me up inside. God, he can’t knowThe Princess Bride, so he has no idea what that phrase does to me.
Spreading his hands and wings wide, a powerful pulse of magic explodes outward, washing the world white.
When my eyes return to normal, there’s a wooden rolling ladder waiting for me, stretching into the distance overhead.
“I went ahead and imbued them with a spell that will prevent falls. If you slip, you’ll be placed back on whichever ladder you’re on.”
“Whichever ladder?” I ask.
He frowns down at me. “I’ve placed ladders throughout the entire library.”
Oh. Tears prickle my eyes. First a translation crystal and now this! Does he have any idea how amazing these gifts areto a booklover like me? And the fact that he made sure I’ll be safe on the ladders is the cherry on top.
“Thank you.” I grab his hand and squeeze, trying to convey what my simple words can’t. “It means a lot.”
“Of course,” he says, his tone gruff, but his hand tightens on mine for a second before gesturing me to the door crystal. Once we’re back in the reading room, he shuffles the new pile of books, giving me half, and retakes his seat, plucking up several cinnamon hearts. Luke, it turns out, is an impatient candy eater. He doesn’t suck on them until they melt into nothing like I do. He instead crunches his way through them. It makes me smile every time—I enjoy knowing he has foibles just like the rest of us. It’s like a little secret bit of knowledge about him I can hoard close, like his half-smile.
