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Bash rests his hand on the small of my back and presses himself against me. “Nobody can see us, remember?”
“Right. I—”
He kisses me, and I don’t stop him.
The door to the library bursts open. Two guys exit, discussing complex math equations.
Bash pulls away from me and sticks his hand just in the doorway, making the door stop just shy of closing. Once the guys are out of sight, he slides in and holds it open for me. I race into the library, and the door closes behind us.
I struggle to breathe, but am quickly overcome by the sight. The tall bookcases seem to go on forever. Many of the books are old and brown, and if they were on land, no doubt they’d be covered in dust.
“Where do we even begin?” I whisper.
“From the rumors I’ve heard, the oldest books are in the back. Don’t know if that’s true, but let’s find out.”
I nod. It’s not like we can ask the librarian for help. We wander through the silence darting from one row of books to another, and another. We go so far, it feels like an optical illusion. But we finally reach a wall. We’ve come to the end of the shelves.
Bash turns to the right. “I’ll look through these. You take those.”
“Okay.” I turn to the left, not even sure where to begin, so I study the spines directly in front of me. They don’t list authors, but the titles are at least in alphabetical order. Until they aren’t. It goes from L to Q, then after U, moves straight to B. “This makes no sense.”
He turns to me. “It’s alphabetized by subject. Look for ancient history or legends. The books here seem to be the sciences. What do you have?”
“Not sure. I was too busy paying attention to the order to notice subjects.” I run my finger along some of the books and I freeze in place.
Ancient legends. Forgotten history.
I grab the book. No index, so I flip through the underwater paper, searching for anything on Queen Sirena. Then I see it. A drawing of her—she looks shockingly like me. Or I look like her, or whatever.
Bash gasps. “That could be you.”
“I know.” I struggle to read the words, but can hardly make sense of what I’m reading.
He grabs the book from me and his face pales.
“What?” I exclaim.
“Shh! We’re not supposed to be here, remember?”
I reach for the book. “What is it?”
He pulls it close and shakes his head. “You don’t want to read this.”
“I have to!” I reach for it but he moves back. “What does it say?”
“Just because Queen Sirena had to do something doesn’t mean you’ll have to do it. Keep that in mind.”
“Give me the book before I tackle you for it!”
He frowns. “Normally, that would sound fun. Promise me you won’t think of this as your future. This is an ancient story. Maybe not even real.”
I hold out my hair. “Pretty sure it’s real.” Then I yank the book from his grasp and scan the page. I come to the part he was talking about. “No!”
Bash puts a hand on my arm. “It isn’t necessarily your destiny.”
I read the passage again. Then I drop the book. “It can’t be. It just can’t.”
