“Hello? Lex?”
I exhaled heavily upon hearing Dr. Ramirez’s deep, familiar voice. “Hey, Dr. Ramirez!” I took a deep breath to calm my frazzled nerves. “Sorry to keep calling you, but texts haven’t been getting through on my phone lately,” I lied. “And, well . . . it’s a long story.”
“It’s alright, Lex.” I thought I could hear a smile in his voice. “I’m on a conference call right now, so . . .” Such a simple explanation as to why he hadn’t answered the first time.
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry! I’ll make it quick, then.” I relayed my request for the change in meeting locale and let him know that I had a bit of an entourage with me, and when Dr. Ramirez agreed to the new plans, we said our goodbyes so he could return to his call.
Practically giddy with relief, I turned around to grin at my companions. “So that’s good news.” I looked from Nik to Dominic and back, knowing they’d heard everything Dr. Ramirez had said on the phone. “Right?”
They might not have been overly enthusiastic about it, but they did both nod. Eventually.
“Okay, so . . . we’re good, right? We can head down to the library and get settled in for the meeting?” My stomach grumbled. “And eat.”
Again, Nik and Dominic gave their reluctant nods. They moved so similarly it almost appeared rehearsed.
“Good,” I said with a heavy exhale. After tucking my phone back into my bag, I linked my arm with Kat’s and started toward the sidewalk that led to the stairway down to Red Square and across the expansive brick plaza, to Suzzallo Library. My spirits were the highest they’d been all day, and I didn’t want to waste a minute more of our oh-so-rare free day now that we’d banished most of the dark clouds.
“So where we’re going now is one of my very favorite places on campus,” I told Kat, squeezing her arm to hug her a little closer as we wound around a roundabout and headed toward the school’s main flagpole. “It’s just so . . . I don’t know.” I tossed her a sideways glance, meeting her bemused eyes. “I remember the first time I came here—it was for a middle school field trip, and my mom was my group’s chaperone.”
As we reached the broad cement stairs leading down to Red Square, I leaned in closer, like I was going to share a secret. “She was a Husky, too,” I said, then straightened. “So she had all kinds of stories that made this place seem magical. It was like getting a chance to glimpse into her past.” I snorted. “Ironically enough . . .” I shook my head. “But anyway, Suzzallo was the place she was most excited to show me, because she knew how much I’d love it because it basically looks like an old castle.”
We reached the bottom of the stairs and stepped onto red bricks whose color had been dulled by the span of dry heat we’d been having. Passing between aluminum bike racks and a row of alternating purple and gold flags boasting the benefits of attending the U to new and prospective students, we made our way into Red Square. A few moments later, I pointed ahead to where part of the grand old library was coming into view behind Kane Hall, made only more majestic in comparison to Kane’s blocky cement colonnade and overall general hideousness.
“And there it is,” I said quietly, “dear old Suzzallo.”
“You know,” Kat said, “I have been here before. Like every year we’d take a field trip here and learn about all the history and stuff.”
I looked at her, shaken out of my nostalgic reverie, and grinned. “Of course you have, but you’ve never been here with me, and that’s an entirely different thing.”
She looked at me, a single eyebrow raised. Lucky girl to get that gene when it had passed me by without a second glance. “Why’s that?”
“Because I’m not going to tell you the history.” A little bounce entered my step as we drew nearer to the library’s arched doorways, the central figures in Suzzallo’s elaborate Gothic façade. “I’m going to help you feel the history of this place. And it’s so much more than that—it’s the beauty of knowing how much knowledge has passed through its doors, transported in the minds of students and researchers, the appreciation and awe that comes with understanding just how purposeful each and every piece of architecture and decoration is and how each element represents not only academia and discovery, but this crazy unique place we call home.
“I mean—” I stopped in the middle of the nearly empty brick plaza and gestured to the stairs that led away from Red Square to the south end of campus. Tree-lined brick buildings bordered a wide walkway leading to a large, circular fountain surrounded by a sea of rose bushes. Beyond that, the horizon was decorated with two staples of the Puget Sound area: never-ending evergreen-covered foothills and majestic Mt. Rainier, grand as ever against a backdrop of clear blue summer sky. “There’s nowhere else in the world like this.”
There was a reason Marcus had chosen to establish his line’s main complex in the Puget Sound despite his propensity to grumble about the prominent damp chill that lasted full-on half of the year—it was so damn beautiful. And I could see in Kat’s rich brown eyes that she understood, maybe better than either Marcus or I ever could, because she was from here. This place was in her bones, in her blood. It was her home.
“Well, come on,” she said, tugging on my arm and dragging me onward toward the library. “Now that you’ve got me all excited to feel the history, let’s get this show on the road already!”
I laughed and, more than willing, let her tug me toward Suzzallo. Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted Nik hanging back several dozen yards, seeming to watch everything and nothing at the same time, but I didn’t see Dominic anywhere.
At spotting my quizzical expression, Nik nodded toward the library, and I understood. The other half of my minimal guard for the day had gone inside to scope out any potential dangers before I stepped through the front doors. Duh.
Once we were inside in the foyer, the muffled echo of voices surrounded us. A buzzing tour group huddled together further in the library where the 1970s addition joined up with the original 1920s structure, and people sitting in clusters in the cavernous café to the right of the foyer shared hushed conversation over iced coffees and laptops.
Kat had been in the library before, but never as a Nejerette, and I couldn’t help but wonder if that added to her rapt expression as she took it all in. She was especially intrigued by the shallow grooves worn into the travertine steps of the split grand staircase from thousands upon thousands of library-goers ascending and descending the twin curving, carved stone stairways over the past century, though she also “oohed” a bit at the elaborate leaded glass windows stretching high overhead in the walls sheltering the staircases.
“I think I get what you mean about the ‘feel’ of it,” she whispered. “It’s like I’m at Hogwarts or something,” she added with a giggle, placing her hand over her mouth when the sound echoed more than she’d expected.
Dominic stood at the top of the stairway, his back to us as he waited for us to finish our ascent. I touched his arm as I passed him, offering a quick smile before moving on. He nodded, his deep-set eyes filled with secrets but his face stony. “Ah, Lex?” he said quietly.
I paused and turned around partially to face him, motioning for Kat to continue on.
“The Reading Room is safe enough, but please don’t venture into the stacks at all.” He tilted his head minutely toward the newer portion of the library, an aisle running between bookcase after bookcase in a seemingly endless optical illusion. “Too many hiding places for my comfort.” Though his words had sounded like a polite request, I knew them to be much more. Don’t go into the stacks. Noted.
“No problem,” I told him, flashing him another smile, tighter this time. “Thanks.”
I found Kat standing in one of two doorways to the Reading Room, which was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and relaxing places to research in the entire world. It was one of the few places I’d ever been where the rule of quiet was obeyed universally, as though even raucous coeds could sense the volume of knowledge and wisdom that had been absorbed under its vaulted ceiling.
I stopped beside Kat in the doorway and leaned my shoulder against the wooden doorframe. “So what do you think?” I asked her in the barest whisper. “Worthy of a sketch or two?”
She nodded, eyes wide as she took it all in. “It reminds me of those cathedrals in Florence,” she whispered, “except warmer, like here they actually want me to sit down and stay for a while.”
I smiled broadly, having felt exactly the same way about this room from the moment I first set eyes on it as a young teen. When my phone buzzed, I fished it out of my bag and glanced at the screen; it was Dr. Ramirez.
Before answering, I pointed to the carved wooden bookshelves bordering the room and whispered, “Check out the friezes on top of the bookcases.” At Kat’s confused look, I amended, “The carvings—they’re all of flora native to this area. It’s pretty cool.” I watched Kat’s face brighten with understanding as I backed out into the landing and answered my phone.
“Hey, Dr. Ramirez,” I said, still keeping my voice hushed. I hurried past Dominic and the staircase and into an off-shooting hallway that led to the restrooms, where I could speak above a whisper without bothering anyone.
“Ah, Lex, so glad you answered,” he said. “I don’t, by any chance, suppose you’re already on campus?”
“Actually, I am.”
“Well then, I’m heading to Suzzallo right now. Think you’d be able to move our meeting up a half hour?” A muffled laugh made its way across the line. “This is the last thing on my calendar today, and with the rest of the day unexpectedly free, I thought I’d take advantage of the sunshine and head home afterwards to get a full afternoon of gardening in.”
The mental image of big, burly Dr. Ramirez rolling up his shirtsleeves and getting dirty in a flowerbed was enough to make me grin. “Yeah, of course. I’m actually already here. I’ll meet you in the café in a few minutes.”
I emerged from the hallway to find Kat and Dominic waiting for me at the top of the nearest staircase. And for some strange reason, that eerie sense of waiting had a resurgence. Or maybe it had been there all along, but wanting to enjoy at least part of the day, I’d been too stubborn to acknowledge it. It’s just the weirdness in the At, I told myself. And the dream and my hormones and, as much as I hated to admit it, being away from Marcus. It was a perfect recipe for a crappy day.
I took a deep breath, then forced a smile. “Who’s hungry?”