Chapter 5 #2
We step into the hallway, which is dimly lit by period-appropriate sconces along the walls.
It takes me a minute to realize they’re not actual candles but fancy LED bulbs.
I suppose it makes sense. If this place was built two hundred years ago, of course they’d update it for modern times as the years passed.
The library is several yards down the hall, behind large wooden double doors.
Marie looks up and down the hallway, then turns to me with a sly smile.
“It’s usually locked,” she says, “but I happen to know the incantation to get in. Since it’s my favorite place in the whole Covenstead, I have to at least show it to you before we leave.”
Another rush of excitement goes through me, and I stay close as she quickly crosses the hall, whispers something in Latin, and waves her hand over the doors.
There’s a sharp click. Then they slowly creak open. She conjures another ball of energy, using it as a light, and tosses it into the air. It illuminates the room just enough for me to look around in awe.
I’ve always liked libraries, but it was hard to check books out with how much we traveled from job to job.
You couldn’t exactly tell a library in another state you were returning a book three weeks late because you were busy hunting ghouls out of state.
But this library is like nothing I’ve ever seen before in real life.
It’s huge and filled with modern couches and lounge chairs.
Yet somehow, it’s still warm and inviting, and I can tell there are ancient books in here filled with knowledge the Order would’ve forbidden me from ever knowing.
The library opens into a lounge with a beige L-shaped sectional in the middle.
Multicolored throw pillows cover the entire thing, and it looks like the kind of couch you could sink into with a good book and stay there for hours.
Behind it is a display of the students’ favorite books for the summer.
“Wait.” I look at Marie. “It’s summer. Is this a year-round school?”
“About thirty percent of our students stay for summer school,” she says. “But that only runs until July first, and it’s mostly for older students who want to catch up or get ahead before applying to college.”
“Oh.” I mentally wonder how you put a school like this on a college application.
I take a tentative step farther into the library, my eyes going to another colorful display to the left of the lounge.
It’s filled with young adult books, and there are cushions and large pillows scattered across the floor.
Large cartoon images cover the walls, probably characters from some book I’ve never read.
Everything is warm and inviting and exactly what I would’ve wanted when I was a child.
It’s what I want for Gia, even though she’s not a witch.
This is what she should have. A school she can call home.
Classmates who are her friends. Kids she can actually get to know and who can get to know her because she isn’t moving every few months.
“The first floor houses what you would call normal books,” Marie says as she holds up her hand, bringing the ball of light higher with it. “The magic section is upstairs, and the farther toward the back you go, the more mature the books get. Only eighth grade and above are allowed up there.
Since everyone here has the ability to cast spells, we don’t want the wrong information getting into the wrong hands.” She makes a face and shakes her head. “Or the right information getting into the wrong hands. You know what I mean.”
“I do,” I say, still fascinated by all of this. Life would’ve been so different if I’d grown up with my birth family.
How cool would it have been to go to school somewhere like this?
What would my life be like? What would I be like?
I suppose this goes back to the whole nature-versus-nurture thing.
Would I be who I am today if I’d grown up differently?
In some ways, of course not. Growing up as a demon hunter changes you.
I probably know things a lot of the witches and warlocks here don’t even know. According to Marie, my family went against the grain when it came to using their magic to hunt demons.
How much of who I am was shaped by the Order? I guess there’s no way of knowing unless someone invents a time machine or casts a spell that can take me back. And even still…there’s part of me that’s scared to change anything. Because despite all the shit I’ve been through, I like who I am.
I might not have made the right choice every single day, but I did the best I could without hurting people. Except for right now—I push that thought away, shaking my head at myself.
“This place is incredible,” I remark, taking one last look around before Marie extinguishes the ball of light and closes the doors behind us.
“It really is,” she says. Then she looks at me. “This is where you belong, Wren. This is what your parents would’ve wanted for you. And if you want it for yourself, you can have it.”
I stand there, unmoving, looking at her in disbelief for a moment. “It just seems too easy,” I blurt, deciding not to filter my thoughts for once.
Marie actually laughs out loud. “I wouldn’t say anything you’ve been through has been easy, dear.”
“Well, I know.” I try to figure out how to say what I mean without stumbling over the words.
“I know my life has been difficult. I know what I went through was unfair. I know what the Order did was wrong. Like, I know all that.” I sweep my hand toward the closed library doors and the hallway that seems to stretch on forever.
“But this? You’re just giving it to me after what I just did…
” I open my mouth, but I can’t get the rest of the words out.
“Like I said, the universe has a way of working things out. You’re used to having to fight tooth and nail for even the bare minimum of normalcy,” she says as we start walking again.
“I have access to this, and I’m offering it to you.
Sometimes good things really are just that simple.
Sometimes things do go right.” She looks at me.
“Stop looking for a reason for it to go wrong, because if you don’t find one, you’ll make one. ”
“I agree,” I tell her. “I’m still having a hard time accepting this.”
“Just like you’re having a hard time accepting that your vampire husband acted out of love and not selfishness.”