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Her curses flood the air. My legs urge me to run. To flee. I imagine shooting down the aisle to safety. He’s distracted. It’s not like he’s going to eat her—
“Tasty thing,” a deep, booming voice comments, the sound like two boulders smashing together. “I will crush your head like a grape and crunch your tiny bones between my teeth.”
Oh, hell.
Mustering the remnants of my courage, I jump out into the open. “Hey, Ugly! Let her go.”
The orc’s olive-green brow furrows, deep lines converging. “You.” He sniffs again as if confirming something. “You,” he repeats.
With a growl, he tosses Ruby aside and lunges for me. I dart left and make a break for the door.
I make it two whole freaking feet before fingers like stone wrap around my waist. The ground disappears—he’s lifting me! I twist in his hand enough to face him. Hot, rancid air blows over my face as he appraises me with a hungry look. “Can’t eat. Must take to him. Can’t eat, but want to eat.”
Oh, God.
Ruby appears, Shimmer bless her. She buzzes around his head, pricking him with her toothpick-sized blade. He bellows and swats at her. She ducks his blows, sending balls of magic into his beady black eyes. they’re gone, I throw on my jeans and my old Dallas Cowboys hoodie.
I’m pretty sure when Mack suggested I get out and have fun, she didn’t mean going to the library. But that’s exactly what I plan to do as I summon poor Ruby and slip out the front door. The frigid wind assaults me the moment I shove open the heavy mahogany door.
With a yelp, Ruby dives into my hood.
“I think . . . I might be . . . sick,” she moans.
“Maybe next time don’t steal my candy and gorge yourself on it,” I scold.
She gives an aggrieved scoff. “You left it out. Right in front of me. What was I supposed to do?”
Rolling my eyes, I start down the path toward the main academy building. A deep, unsettling cold has taken hold of the campus grounds, and I shove my hands into my jeans. If the cold becomes too unbearable, I’ll slip into my gloves.
By the time I make it to the main campus, I’ve lost all feeling in my nose. It’s not much better inside. Like most weekends, the fires are low, the corridors dark and empty. A chilly draft permeates the halls.
“Ruby,” I say. When she doesn’t answer, I call louder. “Ruby!”
She jerks awake from where she curls, snoring, in my hood.
“Find the library.”
She drunkenly swirls around my head, her arms crossed over her chest and tiny face twisted in annoyance. “Hmph. Do I look like the Fae version of Alexa?”
“Please?” When she refuses to help me, I sigh and add, “In addition to my eternal gratitude, I’ll throw in a thimble-full of brambleberry wine.”
Her eyes brighten, and I know I’ve won.
My footsteps ring hollow against the wood-paneled walls as I follow her through the corridors to a stairwell. After plunging ten stories, at least, we’re greeted by a locked gate. She waves her fingers over the lock and it springs open.
Man, that lock-picking magic would have come in handy in my other life.
On the other side of the gate is a collection of the oldest books I’ve ever seen, housed in rows of tall metal bookshelves that look like they haven’t been touched in a thousand years. A copper chandelier resembling the clawing branches of a tree, complete with leaves of orange and red, hangs from the domed ceiling, providing a pittance of sputtering amber light.
Cobwebs and dust cover everything.
“Why would the library be down here?” I say, holding back a sneeze.
“This isn’t the student library,” answers Ruby. “This is the library for forbidden books.”
My gaze slides from the broken lock to Ruby. “We’re not supposed to be here, are we?”
She snorts. “My, aren’t you a clever one? What gave it away? The locked gate or the word ‘forbidden?’”
