“She’s going to show up sooner or later. She and Yemi have to be hiding somewhere around here, avoiding you,” Kyzen says hopefully.
The thought of the two of them hiding behind books, giggling, has my own chaotic sound slipping through my lips.
Amick twirls around and I seal my mouth shut with the glare on his face.
“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with the three of you but snap out of it. The longer it takes you to accept the truth, the longer it’s going to take to find her. Her going off on her own is normal, yes, but nothing about this is sitting right. She. Is. Not. Hiding. She is gone. Someone took her. Acknowledge it.”
Kyzen’s and Creed’s powers swell.
My head twitches and my fingers shake.
It’s the truth we’ve all been avoiding.
Unwilling to accept.
I can’t accept that.
Not in here anyway. I’ll destroy all this shit.
According to him, it’s been a couple hours now that he sent her on some scavenger hunt for six books. She only made it to book four before he went looking and found the mess he blamed on me.
A few hours in Thayla time are nothing.
She goes on strolls and takes naps as long as that sometimes.
“Where are you going?” Creed asks as Amick walks away from us.
“To look at the spot she was taken.”
The three of us follow along behind him and I force myself to hold in my laugh at the mess laid out across the floor on the row he stops at.
If my angel did this, I’m very proud. This is top-notch work.
“What do you expect to find, Amick?” Kyzen asks.
“I don’t know. Something. They retrieved the first three books on my list. Those are right there.” He points to a pile to his left. “This is the fourth. All these others, I don’t know how they ended up on the floor.”
“If we’re moving forward under the assumption she’s been taken—”
“It’s not an assumption, Creed,” Amick fires off, glaring daggers at him.
“Fine, say she’s been taken. These books could’ve been knocked over during the fight. You know she’d have fought. Did anyone in the Athenaeum, the Attendants, or Guiders on rotation hear anything?”
“No. None claimed to be in this area around that time frame.”
“Obviously. Whoever is assigned to this area does a shit job cleaning. I can’t believe you sign off on this. Look at all this.” My not-so-soft puff sends dust flying all over the spines of pristine books.
“Move,” Amick demands, shoving me out of the way.
One more time and I’m going to punch his handsome face in.
He examines the shelves with keen fascination, then bends back down to the books on the ground.
I gasp, laying my hand to my heart as he drops two of them unceremoniously back on the floor.
“There’s no dust on those and these shelves were in perfect order yesterday when I was walking around, making my list for her.”
Creed swipes his finger across a shelf and when he pulls it away, it’s white. My eyes widen when he brings it closer to his face.
