Feidhelm grunted and started up the closest staircase. “Sit.” He pointed again.
Obeying his command wasn’t something I could do. Not unless I wanted it getting out that the pack librarian was more alpha than me. Which he wasn’t.
I leaned against one of the tables. “I’ll wait here.” As soon as he started piling books in front of me, I started reading.
Hours later, I finally gave up and sat down. The mountain of books surrounding me was so tall I couldn’t see around them, and I still hadn’t found one mention of Bhrunyz. I was starting to wonder if this Feidhelm was helping or just bringing me random books.
“This should hold you for a while.”
It would hold me for a decade. “Thanks.” The word was sharp, but he didn’t seem to notice or care. I waited until he turned his back before saying, “You know, the whole card catalog thing is really outdated. You could get computers for that. It would be much faster.”
He glanced back at me with a haughty look. “We have a computer, but it’s only for pack members. Which you are not.”
The library door slammed behind him, leaving me in perfect silence.
What an asshole. Not a pack member? I would be soon, and then he and I were going to have a serious talk.
But honestly, I was glad he was gone. Having him stare over my shoulder had been getting on my nerves. And now that he’d left, I might actually be able to find something. Only, it would take me forever to go through all these books on my own.
I didn’t trust Feidhelm. Not one bit. And not just because he was rude. It was almost as if by giving me too many books—and maybe not even the right books—he was covering something up.
I stood, taking a stretch, and moved toward the stacks. If only I was at St. Ailbe’s. They had an extensive library, and all the books were listed on the intranet and tagged by subject. I picked up one of the books on top of the pile. “Healing the Soul by Ty Bannon. How in the hell was that supposed to help me?” I threw the book to the side. Feidhelm was a jerk.
After three more books that were clearly off topic, I called Adrian. Maybe I couldn’t get to St. Ailbe’s to do my research, but he could. He was still on campus, except he wasn’t answering. When I looked at the time, I realized why. He was probably starting his evening patrol.
But there was one other person I could try. She was still at St. Ailbe’s while it was officially closed. I put my phone on speaker while the call tried to connect.
“Claudia!” I said as soon as she picked up.
“Is everything okay?”
I winced. “Uh, kind of not really, but I’m alive so, it’s all good.”
“Yeah. Alive is good…”
“I’m sorry to ask, but I need help.” I gave her the quick version of what’d happened since I got to Ireland. “Any chance you can look up some stuff for me about Bhrunyz? I know you’re taking off for Peru soon, and I don’t want to keep you. I just need book titles. I probably have copies here, but I can’t sort through everything, and I have no idea how to use this card system or if it even has an index as extensive—”
“Yes,” she said, cutting off my rambling. God, I was getting tired. “Of course. I’m up now. I’ll go straight to the library.”
I sighed as I slouched into the nearest chair. “Thanks. I owe you one.”
“I’ll add it to your tab.”
I laughed. “Let me know when you find something.”
“As soon as I do, I’ll call you. Or I guess if it’s late your time, I could email?”
“No. I don’t have any internet access here. Just call anytime.” I needed the information as soon as she had it and not a second later.
“Okay. Talk soon.”
“Bye.” I hung up and went back to the table with my mountain of books. Eenie, meenie, miney… I grabbed a random book from the third towering stack. The Fey Courts: An Introduction to Fey Policies and Politics.
Yeah. Not helpful, library douche.
My phone vibrated on the table. I answered, putting it on speaker. “You found something already?” I switched over to my notes app, ready to take down names of books.
“Not exactly,” Claudia said. “Lucas knows of Bhrunyz.”