She opens her eyes, then reaches for my phone. “We need a list of all the local hospitals and hospices. Maybe we should check out newspapers and commercial printers too? There was alotof paper in there.”
I crack up. “Carly, not that I don’t respect your craft as aclairvoyant witch, but you know there’s a much easier way, right?”
Carly blinks up at me, equally annoyed and confused.
“Grab your things, Frenemy.” I flash her a wicked grin. “Time to go find out what that crazy, two-faced bitch is up to.”
Thirty-Eight
STEVIE
Once we’re out of the coffee shop, it’s not hard to figure out where Trello’s heading. In this part of the campus, there’s only one place that makes sense, given Carly’s visions and the direction of Trello’s path.
The library.
Despite Janelle’s absence and the cancellation of classes, the Academy decided to keep it open after several graduate students through a fit about losing precious hours of research time.
“There’s storage in the basement,” I explain as we head inside the massive building. Even on a holiday, the library is no ghost town, with several dozen students situated at various tables or roaming the stacks. It’s better for us this way; if we get busted at any point on our misadventure, I can easily claim we got lost looking for some obscure manuscript.
Wouldn’t be the first time.
There’s no sign of Trello yet, but I can sense her energy. She’s definitely here, and definitely close.
I’ve never been down to the basement, but Kirin pointed it out once—a heavy metal door at the end of a long corridor behind the elevators on the main floor. He told me they dump a lot of old scrolls and unbound manuscripts down there—mostly donations or purchases from private auctions. It’s a treasure trove of knowledge and lore, but with no assigned staff to catalogue the stuff, it usually ends up in the basement graveyard, forgotten.
I lead Carly there now, scanning for Trello as we pass by the stacks. Just before we reach the elevators, I spot her at one of the tables, consulting with a student over a stack of manuscripts.
“Let’s go,” I whisper, quickening the pace.
We head down the corridor, passing supply closets and custodial offices until we finally reach the big metal door. I’m just about to open it when Carly points up at the ceiling.
“Look. The cameras are busted.”
I follow her line of sight, and sure enough, two white security cameras that were probably aimed at the door are now bent at odd angles, wires protruding from both. I have no idea how long they’ve been that way, but it’s obvious their current condition is not an accident.
“We need to keep moving,” I say, opening the door and heading to the staircase. When the door closes behind us, we both take out our phone flashlights, slowly making our way down the concrete steps to the basement level.
The room is a lot like Carly described in her vision—a dark gray box about the size of a lecture hall, with high wooden and metal bookcases jam-packed with scrolls, file boxes, books, even paper grocery bags full of stuff. But other than the shelves and a couple of abandoned metal desks, there’s nothing of note down here. No jars or bottles—not unless they’re shoved in a box somewhere. No keypad. And certainly no hospital bed.
“Keep looking,” Carly says. “I know this is the place. I can feel it.”
“Yes, itisthe place. The place where they store old manuscripts, just like you saw in your vision.” I sigh, realizing what a waste of time this was. She already agreed to help out with Baz—that’s all I really wanted from her.
A wave of exhaustion rolls over me. Suddenly, all I want to do is go home to Ani, make some tea, and fall asleep in his arms.
“Stevie, there’s more. There has to be more. I don’t get visions of random places just for the hell of it. They come with, like, mojo.”
“Define mojo.”
Like, I saw Trello outside the café, right? And then all of sudden this icy cold feeling washed through me, and the images started popping up. Then I got the tugging in my chest, which is my sign for, ‘Bitch, some shit’s about to go down, so pay attention.’ It’s the same thing that happened the night I saw you with Professor Phaines.
My stomach lurches, but I nod. She saved my life that night—thanks to her vision, she was able to alert Baz, and the guys were able to find me before I bled to death in the Forest of Iron and Bone.
“Okay,” I say. “Let’s keep looking then.”
We each take a side and walk the perimeter, shining our lights along the walls, searching for something—anything else. I come up empty, but Carly’s gasp from across the room suggests she just hit pay dirt.
“Stevie! Here!”
