Valerie immediately emails me back, but I’ll have to answer her later. I’m sure she’s asking for me to snag her a pic of Kayden, but I’m not going to. One, I’m not a creeper. Two, I’m also not going to fall all over the guy because he’s hot and funny and sweet. I have way more important things to worry about than to be fawning over some guy.
Like heading to the library.
A few other students are here, but they don’t look up at me, their noses buried in their books. Most of them seem to be third years, and I wonder if they’re studying for finals. Already, though? The semester has only just started.
The librarian is a sphinx. A real life sphinx. No sand, of course, but she has the lion's body all right. Her hair is long and black, curly, almost like a lion's mane. Her eyes, though, they contain so much wisdom and knowledge. They have tiny specks in them like the stars in the galaxy. After I told Logan I spend a lot of time in the library, he told me to be careful not to stare into Hata's eyes too long or deeply. Apparently, one time after the sphinx gave a student a riddle so he could check out some books, he stared into her eyes too long and turned to sand. A pillar of sand. How that happened, I don't know. Thankfully, Hata tends to give easy riddles if you're asking for help to find a certain book. To check out, though, that's when she gives the killer ones.
There's a reason why I strive to go to the library just about every day. I'm too ignorant yet to even want to attempt answering one. I'll just study in the library, thank you very much.
Even though I have no reason to, I look up spriggans and then succubi for good measure. Only spriggans who were cursed long ago were grotesquely ugly old geezers with the heads of children. Just the pictures make my stomach churn. It does make for fun to tease Kayden, but I’m glad he won’t grow up to look like that.
As for the succubi, most of them are actually witches who can master enchantments like no other. I’m glad they aren’t all demonic. No matter how many times I’m told that not all demons are evil, that’s too foreign a concept for me to accept.
But that’s some of the reason why I’m trying to study so much. I don’t want misconceptions to cloud my judgment. I might end up having a class with a demon, and it will hardly do for me to treat him or her badly. What if someone hates witches? What if a witch killed a student’s parents, and that’s why he or she wants to become a hunter? It’s far better to learn more about the various paranormal creatures and beings and their capabilities rather than freak out over what TV shows and movies and books would have us believe.
I’m so absorbed in a passage about one of the first demon hunters who went on a killing spree and for good reason. Several angels had fallen and were trying to destroy the entire world. Many other hunters tried to join the demon Ogran on his quest, but almost all of them fell until it was Ogran against a slew of angels. He fought them off with a huge scythe. This was eons ago, and all of the rumors and mystic about the grim reaper is all because of Ogran.
Wait. Grim reapers have evolved to become their own separate paranormal species. Ah, yes. They’re a type of demons, just like spriggans are a type of fairies.
Okay. Stop keying in on spriggans. Forget about Kayden. The library has to be closing soon.
And that's not the only thing closing. My body is severely beaten up, and the added time spent with my tutors makes me more fatigued than normal. My eyelids keep drooping, but I do my best to hang in there, to read a little more, to study about witches and hunters—two topics I actually need to learn for my courses.
I’m not at all surprised when I next open my eyes and realize I drifted off, using the book as a pillow. Thankfully, I didn’t drool. I only do that on rare occasions.
With a yawn, I gather the books and put them away. One more to go. I’m pretty sure it goes on this shelf. No. Wait. Over there?
The library is a maze. Hundreds of rows of bookcases are filled to the brim with handbooks, grimoires, guides, manuals, and more. The wood of all of the shelves is a deep cherry oak, and the ceiling is domed, painted a bright blue with clouds and the sun during the day, transiting over to a dark, starry scene at night. I've never seen the moon on the ceiling before, but at the pinnacle of the dome is a swollen moon, all silver and glowing.
There’s no one else here at any of the small tables dotting every few bookcases. I almost wonder if Hata forgot about me, if the place is locked up for the evening.
Wide awake now, I wander the library. On the walls of the library, the shelves reach nearly toward the ceiling, requiring the use of ladders to reach them. I almost wonder if I’ll be able to use magic to cause one of the books to come down, but I don’t dare try. Maybe one day but I would hate to raise a clatter just in case the sphinx is lurking about somewhere. If I’m caught, I have a feeling she’ll give me the world’s most difficult riddle in order to get out.
As I wander along the perimeter, I spy a mantel I never saw before. No fire, no logs, just the fireplace. The hairs on the back of my neck rise, and I’m tempted, so very tempted, to start a fire, but all of the wooden shelves, the flammable books… I better not risk it.
An ornate Greek-looking urn rests on the mantel. The design of a woman with wings draped in armor makes me realize it must actually be Norse inspired instead. Just what is she fighting?
Carefully, I twist the urn, not picking it up, and I spied a beautiful horse with dripping hair. The sound of rushing water fills my ears, and I take a step back, splashing in a puddle.
Water is seeping out of the fireplace.
My heart begins to pound. What is going on? Some kind of trick or riddle left by the sphinx? An enchantment?
A horse with a dripping mane… live in water…
As I desperately try to think, a rush of icy wind blows my red strands into my fce.
“A kelpie,” I say. “A kelpie!”
I whirl around. More water is rushing into the library, rising up to cover my ankles. The books on the bottom shelves are going to be destroyed, but I can’t bring myself to be concerned about them, not when I hear the roar of thunder.
Trembling, I turn back to the fireplace. A shadowy form in the shape of a horse is there, pawing at the water, kicking up a spray. His tail strikes the water, and the thunderous sound repeats.
“You can’t drown me,” I claim, hoping that’s the truth. I do have limited control over water, after all.
Very limited.
I gulp as the kelpie paws the water once more and then advances toward me.
How can you tame a kelpie? I know there’s a way… A bridle. You have to put a bridle on its back and—a piece of leather is unmistakable in the kelpie’s mane.
A kelpie already wears a bridle! I just need to grab it, and the kelpie will be mine to control, to command.
I lunge for the leather strap of the bridle and miss, nearly touching the side of the kelpie’s head. I can’t risk touching him. His cold body will cause my hand to be stuck to him, and he’ll dissolve into the water, drowning me. Kelpies aren’t actually horses. They’re watery spirits, and most tend to be maleficent.
But why is there a kelpie in the library? To guard something?
The kelpie lowers his head and charges me. With a shriek, I race away between two bookcases, slogging through the still-rising water. It’s almost up to my knees now. The kelpie churns through the water as if part sea foam, and I reach the end of the bookcases.
I have limited command over wind too. Wind, water, and fire.
Normally, when I try to use magic, I close my eyes, but not this time. I stare down the kelpie, trying to conjure wind to blast his mane away from the leather strap. He’s galloping toward me, his mane flying every which way despite being soaking wet, and there! There’s the strap!
The kelpie rears, front legs kicking and churning the air. He drops onto all fours, his front legs landing where I stood a moment ago, but I shift off to the side and blow away his mane and grip the leather strap of the bridle.
The kelpie jerks his head, but I hold on fast.
“Now, you listen here. Get rid of the water. No water damage to the books, you hear? And go back where you came from. Please. I don’t want any trouble. I—”
The kelpie’s gone. The water. The books?
I drop to all fours and touch the lowest books. My fingers tremble as I take a few off and scan the contents. The pages are all dry.
An illusion after all?
Curious, I head back toward the fireplace. Instead of being a normal mantel, a regular rectangle, it’s growing wider, bigger, almost like a black maw…
And I can’t say why, but a burning desire of curiosity overwhelms me until I feel like strings are pulling me, forcing me forward, compelling me to enter.
And suddenly, after a bit of cold and then heat, I’m standing in another part of the library.
A secret part.
I grin.