“If you’ll excuse me, ladies,” I said. “Official library business.”
Rosemary stood to let me out. All eyes were on me as I gracefully slid over and stood to my full height. Heels put me eye-to-eye with Silas. Maybe it was time to invest in a slightly taller pair so I could look down at him, see how he liked that.
My seat-mates all but forgotten, I stared into the unflinching eyes of Silas Huxley. I hated that I’d chosen my elastic skirt. I hated that he could see the mess I’d left on my plate. I hated that he could know something about my situation that I did not. I refused to blink or move first.
Quick as a cat, he reached for my face. I moved to slap him away, but he dodged and ran a finger across my cheek.
I wanted to scream. I wanted to flinch from his mockingly-tender touch.
I ground my teeth together. “What do you think you’re—”
He lifted his palm, offering me the dollop of something on his finger. “You had a little ice cream, sweetheart.”
I wanted to punch him square in his smug face.
Instead I narrowed my eyes, grabbed his wrist, and pushed his hand to his face. Instead of getting the ice cream on his nose, like I’d intended, he took his fingers between his lips. They were really nice lips.
A wave of heated frustration built up through my system. I was poised to explode. Better to leave first. The last thing I needed was to break his face when we were headed to see the boss.
I strode confidently but quickly toward the restroom, where I used the golden chain on my wrist to create a channel.
“I see why your companions call it a potty portal,” Silas said from behind me. “You have a penchant for opening your portalsbeside toilets. Are you feeling self-conscious? Need to freshen up before travel?”
Ugh. I hated Silas so much it hurt. How had he followed so quickly? I’d expected to get through the portal before he could catch up. Here he was, once again.
“You can’t comprehend pictures? The little stick figure with the dress is meant forladies,”I told him. Then I hopped gracefully through the portal before he could get another word in.
CHAPTER 4
In my twenty-two years as an active-duty librarian, I had met the boss only once. It had been after my first mission, a search-and-destroy task for a nest of burus in the Tibetan mountains who had been tormenting a secluded sect of monks. Since burus were magic-seeking creatures, I’d grown up defending my mother from them. Burus were as common to me as rats on the filthiest of city streets.
When I’d returned to the library, easily victorious, the boss had sent for me. Nervous and excited, I’d expected to be commended on my performance. Except when I’d entered his office, he wasn’t actually there. Instead, he was on the telephone’s speaker.
There was no congratulations or comment on my mission at all. He’d asked only two questions of me before I’d been dismissed. Both were about my mother.
Now, I knew exactly where I was headed, and I had no illusions of a positive interaction. In fact, I expected this meeting would go quite poorly for me. If I was lucky, my demerits would be given over the telephone rather than in person. After being pummeled with sour luck, I was due for a touch of better fortune. However, I would not hold my breath.
I strode with purpose through the main library hall, a white room filled with books. Two risi—tall, thin, bald “men” in white suits—stopped reshelving the tomes in their hands to watch me go. Did they know something I didn’t? Likely. Was it juicy for them and terrible for me? Impossible to tell from their expressionless faces, but also, likely.
I used to believe that the risi knew everything, as the library was a compendium of all knowledge, and therefore its keepersshouldknow everything about everything. In practice, I found myself questioning if that principle was entirely true. If the library knew everything, how had they not known I was a phoenix? If they knew everything, how did they not know I was trapped in crystal forseventy yearswaiting to be freed and reborn? A tight knot formed in my chest.
The alternative was worse—the library had known exactly where I was and what was happening as I suffered. They activelychoseto abandon me. How could they do that? Why wouldn’t they send help? My lungs turned to lead. I couldn’t catch my breath.
Silas sidled up next to me, matching my stride. He raised a brow at me. “Don’t you want to ask mewhyyou’ve been summoned?”
Suddenly my lungs filled with air, suddenly the panic subsided. I never thought I’d be happy to see Silas, but my hatred for him provided the perfect distraction.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want to speak with you at all.” Chances were he didn’t know for certain why I’d been summoned, and was only trying to bait me into showing vulnerability. And even if he did have information, I’d have it soon too, straight from the source.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?” I asked. “Some little piggies to torment or a grandmother to swallow?”
We rounded a corner.
“You think I’m the big bad wolf?” He put his hand over his chest. “Why, Lily, you wound me.”
“I think you’re not just bad, but the absolute worst,” I told him as the boss’s office came into view. “And you love every minute of it. Now get out of here and leave me alone.”
I lifted my chin and placed a series of three curt knocks against the door.