Chapter 25 #3
I grip him around the back, burying my face in his shoulder and breathing in the scent clinging to his safe and familiar black denim jacket.
Once I’m calm and steady, I lean back. “Did he get a chance to practice?”
Leo nods. “For most of the day. He’s a natural.”
Of course he is. Doesn’t hurt that he has eagle-eye vision, too.
“Would it help if I told you he didn’t particularly enjoy it?”
I manage a wobbly smile. “Actually, yeah.”
He winces like he’s being shouted at. “And neither of us expected it to be so loud.”
We share a grin. I want to ask him if he took a turn firing, but I’m not sure I want to hear the answer.
“It’ll be okay,” he assures me, in that overconfident, tempting-fate way of his. He takes my hand and tugs me along. “Come on.”
We stay alert as we pass by the stacks of science books and turn down a hallway of cool, dark computer labs.
At the end of a perpendicular hall of study rooms, we find another stairwell, a mirror to the staircase we all went down just a few minutes ago.
Only this one has no door and no steps to the basement.
Leo and I sigh and go back out into the hall, peeking into every crevice and entryway, hoping for another yellow door. Alas, none appear.
My phone buzzes on our way back to the lobby. I wave Leo closer so we can both read the message.
Aaron: Looking for service entrance or freight elevator.
I mutter, “Damn, he’s smart.” Am I the only one who’s noticed it’s always Aaron who has the brilliant ideas?
“Hey.” A voice has both Leo and me looking up. “Find anything?” Avery and Rime hustle across the lobby toward us.
“No,” Leo replies.
“Yeah, we didn’t either.”
Rime rests his hands on his hips. “None of the other staircases go all the way down to the basement.”
Perhaps because no one uses it? It’s not like this vast three-story building doesn’t have plenty of space to offer. Why use an old, damp, musty basement if you don’t need to? Leather, parchment, and paper would rot down there in a matter of a few short years, anyway.
I’m about to ask Avery if she saw Aaron’s text when both our phones go off.
“They found something!” she exclaims.
Sure enough, Aaron’s message reads: Jackpot. Meet us at circulation.
We dash to the main entrance to find Aaron and Topaz waiting beside the book-drop box. Aaron points to an alcove just beyond the AV center and the restrooms. “The freight elevator is back there.”
“Can we get to it?” Avery asks.
“Yeah, but we’re not supposed to be in that area.” His eyes flick to the bored work-study student behind the circulation desk, scrolling on her phone.
I ask, “Do you think she would even care?”
Aaron shrugs. “Maybe not, but it would help if we had some sort of distraction.”
I look over at her just in time to catch her sneaking a glance at Leo.
All of Leo.
How about I knock her out? Problem solved.
Topaz grabs Rime’s arm. “Go talk to her.”
“No.” Avery holds out a hand to stop him. “Leo, you go talk to her.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. Trust me.” She nudges him toward the desk. “Tell her you have some books on reserve. You have a card, don’t you?”
“Of course.” He takes out his wallet. “As soon as she goes in the back, I’ll join you.”
Glutton for punishment that I am, I watch phone girl lick her lips as he approaches her. Somebody find me a big, thick book. An atlas or the Oxford English Dictionary.
Avery pushes me towards the alcove. “Focus, witchling.”
Traitor.
As the rest of us reach the restricted hallway, Leo comes around the corner, breathless and a little shame-faced.
“Nothing came up on my account,” he confesses to Aaron and me. “But she was willing to go back and look anyway.”
Of course she was. Welcome to the human world, where not all of us are beautiful, but those who are can get anything they want.
Beside a heavy door marked Staff Only, a printed sign under plexiglass reads: Service Entrance and Elevator.
Surely this door is locked.
One tug by Rime proves it’s not.
We all file into a cold, concrete space. A cold, dark, concrete space.
“There has to be a light switch around here,” Topaz mutters.
I hit the flashlight button on my phone and shine it on the cinderblock walls. Aaron and Leo do the same. None of us can find a switch.
“We have enough light,” Rime says once Avery turns on her phone light and shows him how to use his. “Let’s find the elevator.”
Enough light, my ass. I almost trip over a large metal cart.
Rime snorts and steadies me, nudging me onward.
We pass three dollies and another cart before we come upon the elevator.
No one could miss it. It’s huge and old—no, ancient—and it’s closed off with one of those collapsible iron gates, a padlock and chain hanging from one side.
Leo grabs the handle and yanks. To our surprise, the gate opens in one pull, the chain rattling as the metal joints stretch vertically and the diamond lattice shapes collapse into bars. Topaz inspects the padlock and shrugs. It’s locked tight, but only around one link of the chain.
Avery leans cautiously over the gap between the floor and the bottom of the elevator. “Does it go down?”
Leo is already inside, studying the panel. “Yep. Let’s go.”