His entire face lit up. “Strewth. I’ll see if I can find something else with pictures!”
“I wouldn’t mind the graphic novel version of realm politics,” I admitted.
Alas, it was not to be. I rooted through several massive tomes and embraced my inner Matt when I ended up thoroughly distracted by a couple that offered color drawings of realm highlights. Matt, sitting beside me, leaned close to examine them with his usual infectious enthusiasm.
His mobile features were alight with interest. As his arm brushed mine, his musky scent enveloped me. The blood raced through my veins, and I found it hard to breathe. With that lopsided smile, he was so damned handsome. And much more distracting than chocolate.
For me, that was saying something.
One of the librarians dropped by the table. “Did you find everything you needed?” he asked me with a smile. “We’re still shaking out the kinks.”
A low growl from beside me had me shooting Matt an astonished look. His eyes gleamed a brilliant emerald. “We’re fine, thank you,” he stated. The words were so hoarse they were barely decipherable.
I turned back to the librarian. “Yes,Iam fine.”
The library attendant had taken a significant step backward. “O-oh, that’s g-good then,” he stammered, before hurrying off.
“That was rude,” I told Matt. “Why did you growl at him?”
Matt’s eyes slid away from me. “I didn’t growl.”
“Yes, you did.”
He still wouldn’t look at me, so I wrote it off as the latest in mysterious Dire behavior and went back to my fascinating book that described realmian critters. After a few pages, Matt leaned in again.
“Look at that one.” He pointed to a creature with six legs and a long trunk. “What do you suppose it uses that for?”
No trace of a growl in his voice now. He was his usual cheerful self, which made it impossible to stay annoyed with him. I sighed as he grabbed the book from me.
“Ah,” he exclaimed. “Says here it uses it to reach high branches. Like a pachyderm.”
My lips twitched as I stared at him. “You do know that a pachyderm is anything big with thick skin. That includes a rhino, which most definitely does not have a trunk.”
His gaze slid away, and then back. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
He shrugged and admitted. “I don’t know the Aussie slang for elephant.”
“Do Australians even have a slang word for elephant?” I asked.
“We have a slang word for just about everything,” he said, and smiled.
As it once again lit up my world, I realized that I no longer gave a damn about politics. As the deadline loomed, I resigned myself to being a realmian ignoramus. We rose, re-shelved the books, and left the library.
When we got to the hall outside the coliseum, they directed us to a series of rooms. Phoenix’s distinctive pictogram sat on a long table in the second one. Talakai was already there, and we took our seats beside him. When Darius and Aaron showed up, they took the end two past Mari.
Constance handed the pages out, and I did the best I could with the questions. It helped that so many of the other students spent a lot of time chewing on their pencils. I wasn’t the only one with huge question marks above their heads.
Or maybe Dires just liked the taste of wood.
I finished up and handed the stapled pages to Constance, who smiled at me.
Mari was already outside with Matt. I caught a glimpse of Talakai, weaving through the students as he walked away. Darius and Aaron were already long gone.
I smiled up at Matt. “There was a question on Dragons.”
He offered another heart-stopping grin. “Yeah. That was bonza. Know I nailed that one.” He ran fingers through his hair. “Kinda think it was the only one, though.”
