“Let’s break in,” Kerralyn said. She lifted a small golden key. “I just so happen to have access to the library. We could?—”
Lexie’s eyes went wide and sly at the same time. “Why do you have a key to the library? Did you bribe the librarian or do something more scandalous? Please tell me it’s the latter.”
Kerralyn flushed a delicate pink, her hand clenching around the key. “I, um… I have it for research purposes.” She sounded innocent yet secretive, and I wondered what liaisons had earned her privileges like that.
“How in the world do you know so many people?” I asked, theword “know” taking on a heavier meaning. “We haven’t been here long.”
“My mother visited the castle often. I know a lot of people in the area.”
That made sense.
“When we’d visit, I’d come here to study,” she said.
“Study, huh?” I echoed, raising an eyebrow. “Interesting choice of words.”
“Don’t ask.” Kerralyn’s voice held a warning, but her eyes sparkled with mischief.
She inserted the key into the lock with the reverence of someone unlocking a vault of treasures.
The subtle click rang out like a death knell.
47
ISI
Kerralyn pushed the door inward on silent hinges, and the library exhaled its secrets into the night.
Lexie snorted, bouncing lightly on the balls of her feet. “I can’t wait to snoop around the library when no one’s here. Do you think there are ghosts?”
“I hope not,” Derren muttered.
The library breathed at us like a sleeping giant. Cool, dry air scented with paper and ancient leather wrapped around me as I followed my friends inside, my boots sinking into a plush runner. Towers of shelves rose up like the pillars of a cathedral, vanishing into a darkness pricked with soft gold light. Floating fairy orbs hovered in the air, drifting lazily along the aisles, casting a warm glow that made the spines wink like jewels.
Books whispered secrets in languages older than kingdoms, and the air itself felt heavy with possibility.
Derren let out a low whistle. “And here I thought the ballroom was the most decadent room in this place at night.”
“This is better,” Kerralyn breathed. “Ballrooms are for show. Libraries are for secrets.”
In the center of the room, a spiral staircase wound upward to a balcony, where every bit of available space had been lined with full stacks of books. Ladders rested along the rails, and far above, the painted constellations winked.
Something moved at the edge of my vision. I turned in time to see a thick tome floating past an aisle, its pages fluttering in a breeze that didn’t touch my skin.
Derren froze mid-step. “You mentioned wards but… Tell me the books here aren’t alive.”
Kerralyn tilted her head, studying the drifting volume. “Not alive, exactly. As I said, the wards keep everything in order.”
“How?” Lexie asked.
One of the carved statues, a male in a robe and twice my height, stepped down from a pedestal near the central desk. His eyes glowed a faint blue, and when he spoke, his voice rumbled like stone grinding on stone. “Identify yourselves and your purpose.”
Pherin’s claws dug into my shoulder. The little minxpip’s weight was reassuring, though her feathers were puffed and twitching as if she’d like nothing more than to flee.
Kerralyn swallowed. “We’re here to conduct research.”
The statue’s head tilted with the slow inevitability of a glacier. “Authorization?”
Lexie took a step back, whispering. “Please tell me you have that.”
