32. Thea
Thea
Well That’s Ominous
The sun is setting as I leave my dorm, freshly showered, hair braided tightly and Fable’s gloves covering the skin on my arms. I cross into Otherfell and make my way to a building I’ve never been in before.
There’s a sign on the wall giving directions. I go down a flight of stairs and then turn left.
The double doors are closed. I take a steadying breath before pushing them open and stepping inside. Small tables are scattered in the middle, with the walls lined with bookshelves.
There are half a dozen goblins staring at me in horror. I scan the room and don’t see a librarian so I approach the first goblin, who recoils from me.
“Where’s the librarian?” I ask in a whisper.
His swallow is loud.
“W—we don’t have one.”
“Oh.” My face falls but then I plaster on a smile. They’re already scared of me, don’t want them to think I’m upset. “Could you point me to the section on gemstones?”
He points a finger towards a section in the back and I make my way there.
Stopping to drop my bag on a table. The bookshelves are almost empty, only three shelves filled on this one.
Almost all of the books are in Graven so it might be a bit more difficult than I thought.
I grab a few that look promising and the only one that’s in English and set them on my table.
I sharpen two pencils and then start to carefully turn the pages, hoping to figure out what kind of stone it was in the dream I had of Jerimiah.
I can feel eyes on me the whole time I work. All the goblins moved their seats so that they didn’t have their backs to me and I’m sure they aren’t able to focus.
After I get everything I can from the book in English I move to the second. It is slower because my Graven really is rudimentary. I sigh and look around the room, the goblin a few tables away from me jumps. I stand and walk towards him, putting my hands behind my back again.
“Excuse me, can you point me to a Graven dictionary?”
He shakes his head no.
I nod and go to the next table, there are two goblins sitting there and one stands and rushes away.
“Hi, can you—”
“I heard,” he cuts me off. “Over there.”
I follow his directions and find the dictionary.
I spend the next two hours translating what I’m working on.
My phone vibrates and I check it. The boys are done with soccer practice so I take note of the page I’m on and then neatly stack the books on the table.
I place the cleansing spray I bought beside them and pack all my things.
I approach the goblin that helped me with the dictionary knowing that they’re all going to be listening.
“I’m sorry, I had expected a librarian. Do you want me to cleanse and re-shelve the books or leave them on the table?”
His eyes dart around the room. “Table.”
“Perfect. Thank you guys for your hospitality.”
I can practically feel the collective breath of relief when I step into the hallway.
I probably should’ve warned them that I’d be back tomorrow.
I didn’t find what I was looking for. It takes me most the walk to get the gloves off my hands, putting them into my bookbag as I get in line at the cafeteria and grab some food.
Zair, Benson and Dylan are already at our usual booth. Why is Zair sitting next to Dylan? I swallow deeply and take a seat next to Benson, who smells like a mix of sage and shower.
Dylan’s eyes jerk up, his nose wrinkling. Fucking shifter smelling.
I bury the panic and arousal.
“Who were you with?” Dylan asks. My ears heat up.
“No one,” I answer too fast.
He looks around the room then shakes his head.
“Well someone in here smells like a threesome between a shifter, a demon and a goblin.”
The three of us all turn to look at him, my eyes blinking as I try to process.
“What?” Benson asks.
Dylan shrugs.
“No, seriously,” Zair protests. “We need more explanation.”
“Maybe a goblin had sex with a demon and a shifter,” he suggests, looking around the room and coming up blank.
“Why did you think that was me?” I ask as a laugh bubbles out of me.
“What are you fantasizing about Dylan?” Zair asks, his dimple flashing. “There are only Goblin men, I thought shifters didn’t swing that way.”
We all laugh as Dylans cheeks heat up. Poor prudish shifters. Maybe Fable has a demon boyfriend that made her gloves smell that way. Would also explain why she doesn’t stay in the shifter house.
“I borrowed someone’s gloves.” I offer Dylan my hand who grabs it and smells it. Then inhales deeply and I cock my eyebrow.
“You like that smell there buddy?” Benson teases.
“Smells familiar, but I can’t place it.”
I steal my hand back and smell it, but don’t smell anything. I smirk. “That makes sense, it smells like female arousal, you wouldn’t know that smell.”
Zair and Benson don’t even hold in their laughter for five seconds.
“Why are we friends with you again?” Dylan asks, his whole face red.
“So, where have you been?” Zair asks as I take a bite of my sandwich.
“At the library. How was practice?”
The conversation is successfully derailed, I listen to them give me a play by play on their training for the day and excitement for the game against Cromwell on Friday night.
“So Zair tells me you’re coming to my Halloween party,” Dylan says. “Dress code is there must be more skin than fabric. I hear XXXmart has some good choices for maid or nurse.”
I glare at Zair and realize that’s probably why he isn’t sitting next to me. I kick at his shins and miss. He grins.
“I’m going as a zombie, because the only way that’d happen is if I was dead.”
“Oh that hurts,” Benson says through his laugh.
“Kinda like it when your insulting someone other than me.” Zair smiles and I shake my head. Thankfully the group and the joke finally lets me relax. Benson is my friend, Zair is my friend. They’re both hot, neither are Lazlo.
It’s not even nine when I say goodbye and head to my dorm. Benson says he’s headed that way too and falls into step beside me.
“You okay, Thea?”
“Yeah, why do you ask?”
“You weren’t yourself.”
“What are you talking about?” I ask. I thought I’d done a good job.
“You were acting like yourself. But something’s bothering you.” I stop walking and turn to face him. He offers me a small smile. Something about him makes me want to tell him the truth.
“I lost someone.” I pause, trying to put my feelings into words. “And I’m scared I don’t miss them enough.”
He studies me for a moment then opens his arms. I look down and make sure my skin is covered before taking the hug. It’s warm and comfortable and feels like safety.
“My mom has cancer, and so she talks a lot about grief,” he whispers. I offer condolences but he waves me off. “She says that missing someone doesn’t require you to be lonely.”
I inhale his scent one more time and pull away. “Thank you.”
We walk the rest of the way in silence, but I feel better.
When I get inside I take the potion I made the first class with Zair, dreamless sleep.
I wake the next morning refreshed and ready to take on the day as I add the thirty-second tally.
The day passes by quickly and once classes are over I head to the goblin library. There are almost a dozen here today.
My books are still sitting on the table I left them on with the cleansing spray. Putting my bag down I resume my work.
“Thea?”
Percy is in the doorway, he comes over to stand across the table from me.
“Hi Percy, how are you?”
“Fine,” he looks down at my notes. “What are you doing here?”
“The dream where I was writing Ril et Thren had a large stone in it.”
All the goblins in the room swivel to look at me, eyes huge.
“What kind?” a goblin sitting two tables away asks.
“That’s what I’m here trying to figure out.”
“Describe it,” another goblin says. No one is even pretending they weren’t eavesdropping.
“I drew a picture of it, but I’m not an artist.”
I dig in my bag and pull out the awful sketch. I stand and put it on the edge of the table and then walk back to where I was sitting.
Half the goblins stand up and approach the table cautiously. Looking over the picture.
“A premonition?” Percy asks.
“No, I’m not a seer. It’s a memory from when I was a kid.”
“In Graven?” one of the guys studying the picture asks.
“Yes, Jerimiah usually said something in Graven, then repeated it in English.”
“A goblin?”
“Yes.”
“What colors was the stone?”
“It was green and black.”
The rest of the goblins stand up and approach, looking at the picture.
They go back and forth. Talking about different stones it could be. One brings me a book that has better pictures than the one I’d been going through. I flip through it to look at the stones as they suggest them, attempting to narrow it down.
“Did it have red?” a blue haired goblin asks. I try to recall but can’t. I shrug.
“What are you thinking?” one asks him.
“Ruby Zoisite.”
I flip to the index, then quickly to that page.
“That’s it!” I exclaim looking up excitedly. All the goblins stare at me in horror.
“What?”
“You dreamed of a death stone.”