Page 148 of A Legacy of the Light

Sleep doesn’t come easily to me that night. I lie tossing and turning, wondering what we might discover tomorrow.

I wake with the sun and make myself toast and coffee, watching the light break across the mountains and a fresh coating of snow lies over the Seelie realm. The peace of its quiet beauty calms my turbulent mind. We are going to find something today, I can feel it.

It’s barely past seven thirty when I hurry down to the library but I know Finneus will be here.

He lifts his head from his desk when he hears me approach. At first his eyes glisten with concern, but surprise lines his smile when he sees my brighter complexion and the purpose in my stride.

“Good morning, dear,” he greets me. It almost sounds like a question.

“Good morning, Finneus. How was your weekend? Your daughter?”

“She’s quite well, thank you. Left for home this morning. The house will seem quiet without her and the children now.”

“I’m glad,” I say, smiling kindly. I glance around me to make sure we’re alone. “I found something last night,” I tell him, gesturing to the journal tucked under my arm, partially hidden by the flowing blue shirt I’m wearing this morning.

Finneus lifts a brow in question and I nod in the direction of the chambers.

“Not here.” I will not risk anyone else hearing this information, especially a certain someone who might be spying.

He nods and rises from his desk, his long amber jacket trailing behind him as we head to the back of the library.

I approach the smooth stone and place a palm flat against it. The magic responds to me instantly and forms the stone doors only we have access to.

Finneus is smiling down at me when I turn to him. “You seem different today,” he comments.

“Yes, I . . . I told Reyne on Friday.”

Finneus pauses mid-step, fear crumpling his warm expression.

“I trust her. She doesn’t know the whole truth. Just that I’m Seelie. I didn’t mean to. I sort of broke down and it came out.”

He places a hand on my shoulder, turning me to face him fully. He searches my face for a moment. “Then I’m glad you told her. I could see you falling apart and didn’t know how to help you.”

I place my hand on top of his and give him Granny’s journal.

“What is it?” he asks, peeling his eyes away from mine reluctantly.

“A journal. Màiri’s. Her last while she was still in Elfayne, I’m assuming, from the dates.”

He greedily opens the pages and I watch as he skims through entry after entry.

“Look at the last one,” I tell him. I point out the part where Granny says she found books about a dark power rising so many years ago.

Finneus’s breath exhales sharply. “This is just what we need.”

We look around the chamber at the same time, our gazes settling on the doors. There are eight in here and Granny mentioned the third. It could be third from the left, or right.

I incline my head behind Finneus. “I’ll check that one and you check the other?”

He agrees.

I open the chamber for him and the moment the doors are wide enough for him to fit through, he takes off at a pace that surprises me for a nine-hundred-year-old librarian.

I waste no time and open the third chamber from the right, understanding Finneus’s impatience. Waiting for the heavy metal doors to open is painful.

When I step into the stone chamber, the lights flicker on the sconces between the shelves. I take off in a jog, light after light following me as I delve deeper into the mountain.

It takes me a good fifteen minutes to reach the final shelves. The chamber inclines downward the further back I go, and the temperature plummets with each step. The books get older and dustier, and anticipation coils tight in my stomach.