CHAPTER EIGHT #2
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 the stacks. 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 know The 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 are to 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.
We settle back into work, time flying as I skim one fascinating book after the next.
There’s so much to learn about witchcraft here!
No wonder all the books I ordered through the human library system failed me when I researched Hannah and Autumn’s powers.
The dragons recorded so many things ignored by human historians as “hysterical female flights of fancy.” What I’m reading now is the lore of women like me I never knew I was missing.
It’s been erased from human history because it was never recorded to begin with!
But no matter how much I read, nothing I find matches my power.
A loud growl breaks my concentration several hours later, and I blink at Luke blearily.
“It wasn’t me,” he says.
My stomach growls again, and my cheeks heat. When I check my phone, I see it’s after seven pm. “Oh, we missed lunch, and it’s time for dinner. Do you have food here? Or we could go into town…” I trail off at his scowl.
“This is all horribly inefficient. We won’t get anywhere if we’re constantly interrupted by mundanities. There’s only one answer. You will work for me as we discussed.” Luke spears me with the full force of his gaze.
“And you will live here at my castle.”