Two Blazing Hearts (Accidental Alchemy #2)

1. Paige

Paige

“H e’s gone,” I choke out. “Hoc is gone. Forever. I belong to this place now.” Emotion consumes me as I stare down at the new tattoo on my wrist. A tattoo inked into my skin through no choice of my own by a magical library who has apparently just chosen me to replace the man just sucked through a portal by a monster intent on destroying us all.

Hoc’s terrified expression is burned into my memory, even as I can barely comprehend what my new status means.

“What the hell do you mean you belong to this place?” Aries demands.

Before I can answer him, the room around me begins to spin. Shapes blur together until everything looks as though someone squeezed paint onto paper and ran the colors together with a large brush.

Nothing makes sense, nor do I have any clue what world I’m in anymore.

When the landscape stills, I stand in a white room that seems to go on forever. I spin, adrenaline surging through my system again as I search for the source of this reality. It has to be Constantine, and the very knowledge of that has me clenching my fists in response.

“Come out, asshole! Let’s do this!” I scream.

“Asshole?” A soft, feminine yet somehow robotic voice fills my ears.

I turn and am struck with the sight of a transparent woman glowing a soft blue just behind me. Her hair is pulled up in tight pins, the dress she wears something from a different time altogether. “Who are you?”

“I have heard that word muttered occasionally, though I am still unsure what it means." She cocks her head to the side. “Can you elaborate?”

“It’s a derogatory name,” I snap. “Something you call someone you do not like.”

She considers. “That makes sense. Though I cannot imagine why you would be calling me that as we have never met.”

“I’m not calling you that.” I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Who are you, and where are we?”

“We are in the library,” she replies. “I am Athenaeum.”

I gape at her. “I’m sorry, you are Athenaeum? But that’s the name of the library.”

“Yes.” She smiles. “It is me, and I am it.”

“You’re the library.”

“The essence of it, yes. I am what makes up this magical place. Who chooses the guardians to protect its secrets.” Her gaze drops to my wrist. “And I am who chose you as its next head librarian.”

I stare at her a moment longer, processing all that she’s telling me. Then, I rush forward. “Take it away, and bring Hoc back.”

“I cannot.”

“What do you mean you cannot? He’s gone into one of the books of this library—of you—and you can’t find and bring him back?” Tears blur my eyes.

“Even I have my limitations, and tracking the portal he went through is not something I can do.” Her words are spoken softly, but her expression remains flat.

Unfeeling.

“But you have to,” I insist. “I’m not ready for this. I didn’t even make it to being a keeper.”

“I chose you,” she replies. “And now I will make you understand.” She steps toward me, and I stumble back.

“No. You can’t choose me. Pick Blossom. Or Mag. Either of them would be a better choice. I—”

“You are the one I chose. You are who will protect this place.”

“They are never gonna believe this when I tell them,” I mutter, shaking my head.

“You cannot tell them about me.”

“Why not?”

“I am the heart of the library. Only the ones who bear my true mark may know of my existence.” She takes another step toward me, and this time, I do not back away. “You, Paige, Protector of Worlds, will be all I hope for…and more.” She reaches out and presses a translucent palm to my forehead.

The touch is cold, but warmth slams into me, and my body gets far hotter than I think it’s ever been. The room around us swirls again, changing with each passing second, until the scene surrounding me is completely different.

A man has his back to me as he stands amongst the stacks, facing another who is far older, his silver hair down to his waist. He wears amethyst robes and smiles softly at the first man whose familiar broad shoulders and towering height bring tears to my eyes.

Hoc. I can’t see his face, but I know, without a doubt, that it’s him.

The sting of grief is so powerful and sudden that I rush forward. A hand reaches out and closes around me, and I meet the cool gaze of the Athenaeum.

“They cannot see or hear you. We are in a memory,” she explains.

“A memory. Who’s?”

“Hoc. It is the day he was chosen as a replacement for his predecessor.” She nods, and I turn back as the silver-haired man begins speaking.

“Do you vow to protect this place from all threats?” he asks.

“With my life,” Hoc replies. The sound of his voice is a bandage to my broken soul. Even if I know it’s only temporary.

“Do you vow to uphold what is good and right, no matter the cost?”

“I do.”

“Then I freely give you my responsibilities as head librarian, Hoc. And, with them, all of the knowledge that I possess.” He steps aside, and Athenaeum appears beside him, blinking into existence just as she did to me.

“This is your replacement?” she questions.

“It is,” replies the silver-haired man.

“He has taken the vows?”

“He has.”

She steps forward. “Then bow your head, young librarian.”

Hoc does as requested, and she touches her hand to his forehead.

Everything shifts again, leaving me standing in Hoc’s office. His head is bowed as he reads a paper on top of a stack. I move in closer so I can make out the words on the paper.

“These are shelving request forms.”

“Yes. There was a time when computers were not prevalent.”

I smile softly, watching the way Hoc signs his name at the bottom of the paper.

It’s such a simple action, but it brings tears to my eyes.

I never had the chance to go to school. Hoc taught me everything, and there were so many times he would sit beside me, patiently guiding me through writing in cursive.

So many things I took for granted.

I swallow hard.

“This is painful for you.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

I look up, anger burning through me, but when I note the curiosity on her face, I realize she’s not meaning to be offensive. “You must see everything, do you not?” And then I realize what that must mean. Has she seen me and Aries? My cheeks heat.

“I see most things, yes. But I do not lurk in private areas,” she adds, which only makes me even more uncomfortable. How did she know what I was thinking?

“I love Hoc,” I tell her. “He was—is—like a father to me.”

“Then I am sorry for your loss,” she replies. “I, too, have suffered a loss with his absence.”

“Do you feel it?” I question, my own curiosity taking over.

“In a way,” she explains. “I do not have emotions as you do, but it’s as if a piece of me is missing.”

“Why haven’t I seen you before?”

“I do not show myself unless a new librarian is chosen.”

“What about everything that comes next? What if I fail?”

“That’s what the council is for.”

“The council—you need to tell me how to reach them. They need to know what happened.”

“They will in due time, young librarian,” she replies. “We have more to see.” She touches my forehead again, and the scene changes.

Another dozen times, at least, I’m ripped through memories of things that Hoc has experienced over his time as head librarian. It’s like living his life through his memories. Each time has me suffering the loss that I felt the moment he was ripped through that portal.

We come to another stop, and I am overcome with impatience.

“You have to send me back. We have to look for Hoc.”

“You must see what needs to be seen before you can return,” she replies.

Frustrated, I cross my arms. “I can’t waste any more time,” I insist. “Don’t you understand? Constantine is out there!”

“You must see what needs to be seen before you can return,” she repeats.

Groaning, I turn to look in the direction she is staring. Hoc kneels before an infant, barely able to stand on her two feet yet, with tears staining her pink cheeks. Short dark hair, dark chocolate eyes…I recognize myself from an old photograph in his apartment, and I stiffen.

“Oh, sweet child, where have you come from?” he asks.

The baby lets loose a wail.

“That’s me,” I tell Athenaeum.

“Yes,” she replies. “

“But—” I face them again.

“I will call you Paige,” he replies with a smile. “Do you like it?”

The baby begins to cry, and power snaps in the air around her. Hoc’s eyes grow wide with worry, and he reaches for her as books begin to fly off the shelves, shielding the child with his large body.

Finally, the power stops. “I see we will need to protect you from yourself,” he says with a soft chuckle. “My name is Hoc,” he says softly. “And if you let me, I will help you.”

I want to scream at him, beg him to teach her rather than hide it, but before I can open my mouth, the room shifts again, and I find myself standing in the library once more, only this time, Aries, Mag, Blossom, and the gnomes are there, too.

Though they are frozen in place. Unmoving. I stare at each of them, studying Aries’s worried expression, Mag’s anger, Blossom’s grief. Then, I re-focus on Aries.

We were supposed to leave today. Start a new life far away from this place.

I look down at my tattoo. Once upon a time, it was all I wanted. To be a keeper of this place. Now, the ink feels like shackles.

“Do you vow to protect this place?” Athenaeum asks.

I turn to face her. “Please pick someone else.”

“I will not,” she replies. “Do you vow to protect this place?” Athenaeum repeats.

“With my life,” I choke out, repeating Hoc’s vow. He protected this library, and it cost him his life. What will it cost me? Even though I’m terrified of the answer, I can’t do anything but make my promises to this place. It’s what Hoc needs, and I can’t fail him now.

“Do you vow to uphold what is good and right, no matter the cost?”

“I do,” I repeat.

Hoc was good. Straight through to his soul. He was a beacon. A shining light of all that was right in this place.

“Then I pass the responsibility of head librarian to you, Paige.”

“Wait! There’s still so much I don’t know.”

“Let his memories guide you,” she replies then disappears.

The world around me comes back into focus, and time picks up where it left off.

“Paige?”

I turn to Aries. He’s watching me carefully. “What?”

“What do you mean you belong to this place?”

Tears burn in the corners of my eyes as I stare at the ink on my wrist. “I am bound to the library. It is my duty to keep it safe. My vow to protect it.” The words are far more painful than I could have thought they would be.

And as I speak them, I picture nails being hammered into my coffin. “My life belongs to Athenaeum now.”