Silence greets me from every direction. I peek both ways around the corners before turning my back and rushing toward his door. My steps stay light as I pass the other Chancellors’ rooms.
Tremors pass through my hand as I hover it over his doorknob, searching and sensing for any sort of deterrent.
Now or never.
With an exhale, I grip the handle and turn. To my relief and shock, it swings open and I race inside.
My heart thunders in my ears as I shut the door behind me and press my back to it. The new twitch tattooed on my chest ticks in the same erratic rhythm and I grit my teeth.
I regulate my breathing to ease that uncomfortable sensation and to calm the familiar yet different adrenaline coursing through my veins.
Get moving…
My power pushes out across the whole room and I speed through the mess and the shelves. I’ll say, it isn’t as much of a cluster fuck as it was when Amick and I were in here, but it’s still atrocious.
I get all the way to the back of his office and maneuver my way to the far corner like Doren advised.
The tall, intimidating shelf, absolutely crammed full of books, stares back at me.
Fuck. Where do I even remotely begin?
Bottom to top, I suppose.
I slide books in and out of their spots, hoping I find a scroll shoved between them. It takes me around a minute per five rows to pull on the spines and premature defeat tries its damnedest to strangle me. It’s even more disappointing when I have to stop what I’m doing and locate a ladder to reach the next row.
Come on, come on.
My face scrunches and a slew of muttered curses slip through my lips when I jerk a spine too hard and the next probably ten books go cascading to the ground. Each one slaps the ground with a thundering pop.
I slide down the ladder and gather as many as I can in my arms. Only to drop them once again as my eyes land on a piece of black ribbon poking out from under the shelf.
My fingers tremble when I grip the corner of the parchment and pull it, plus the book that fell under there with it, out.
There’s no way a small fall like that flattened it so completely.
The creases in the folds are too defined like they’ve been smushed for much longer than the seconds since everything hit the ground.
As carefully as I can, I tug the ribbons knot free.
A surprised laugh belts out of me as my gaze skims over the exact title I’m looking for.
The Law of Doppia Disaccord.
My power blasts out of me as I shove the scroll in my back pocket and quickly retrieve the books. I don’t have a fucking clue the order they go in, but as long as they seemingly resemble the spots they were in, that’ll be good enough for me.
I fly back down the ladder and return it to exactly where I found it.
Six minutes. Not too bad if I say so myself.
My laugh instantly silences as voices outside the door pierce my ears. I haul ass to the mound of books beside Harriseen’s desk and crouch low as I suck every drop of my power out of the air.
“Don’t speak to me as though I am crazy, Ellian.”
“How else would you propose I speak to you, Gulliver? You dragged me away from my duties because you, quote, heard something.”
“I did hear something. I’m not a fool. Show yourself,” Chancellor Gulliver hollers as he stampedes a few more feet into the room.
I duck down lower, keeping my eyes on both of them.
