We were halfway through a session, so some of these would be the ones that had already been completed. I opened the folders—and bingo—assessments of the teams, and pros and cons of their performance during missions. That gave me the ones that were completed—which meant the other folders were those coming up.
Sure enough, they didn’t have the assessments. These were missions yet to come. But how would I know which one would be assigned to Team Dragon?
The folders all had colored tags, and I kicked myself. The Dires had told me that Ryan, a Sabre, had taken them on their mission. I’d had them run down the list of instructors, and the teams each had taken under their wing.
Team Dragon had gone with an instructor named Cody.
I backtracked to earlier in the term, and found the Dragon team mentioned in the assessments—and the name signed to it was scrawled, but I thought the first part was Cody.
He’d been assigned an orange tag.
The folders weren’t filed based on the teams, but rather the instructors. So when I went to the upcoming missions, I pulled the one with the orange tag.
I ripped off a piece of paper from Constance’s desk and wrote down the details. Then I pocketed it and closed up the cabinet.
The trickiest part of breaking and entering wasn’t either. It was leaving without being seen. I cracked open the door and peered out—the foyer was busy, but the hall was empty.
So I swung open the door as if I belonged there, and shut it, hearing the lock click behind me.
Then I sauntered off across the foyer and up the stairs.
I had accomplished what I came here to do, although I still had to take the info I’d gleaned to Slade. My hand dropped to the crystal on the cord around my neck—my ticket to the Richin market. But from what I’d seen on my trip here, the portals were guarded by Bellatis—the rather arrogant gray-haired warriors that I’d seen hanging around Victor’s strongholds.
To get where I needed to go, I had to get past them. I contemplated that as I wandered up the stairs to the second floor. Which was how I discovered the library.
Alibrary. At an academy that catered to students from all over the realms. My pulse raced. To survive in this new role, I needed more knowledge than what I could obtain at knifepoint. Could this place save my skin?
Don’t know about my skin, but some parts of me vibrated when the first thing I saw upon entering was Bree, sitting at a table with tall-dark-and-Frankenbrawny from her team.
I darted between the shelves and pretended to read while observing the two at the table. Hunched over books and deep in discussion, I didn’t think they’d seen me. And I’d only lurked for a few minutes when they both rose, picked up some of the books, and headed off into the shelves.
What had they been researching? I slipped over to the table, glanced at the two still open, used my fingers to mark the spot as I lifted them, and disappeared back into the stacks.
They came back to pick up the rest and return them to their spots on the shelves. Bree moved like sin itself, with a tempting sway to her hips that seemed totally unconscious. But tall-dark-and-Frankenbrawny had glared at me in the cafeteria, and by the way he hovered around her, she’d made friends in the short time she’d been here. Maybe more than friends…
They finished putting the books away and then left. I migrated to a cushioned chair in a corner and sat down to look at the books I’d snatched.
They’d been open to a section on swords. Not just any swords.Fascinante. I read the sections and then closed the books.
I left them beside the chair, dug through the shelves, and found out that it was the answer to my most essential need—to discover more about the realms.
I hadn’t intended to stay. In and out. Get the information Slade needed. Stay today, claim it wasn’t for me, and leave.
But if I wished to survive in the realms, I needed what this library offered. Knowledge really was power.
I had two days until Slade was going to nab Bree. Why did my mind sheer away from that reality? She had a destiny with Victor, and the sooner I accepted that, the better. I was here todo a job, and if I did it well, it would do nothing but improve my position in the underlord’s hierarchy.
If I failed—well, failure meant my days would be over, period.
Her belonging to Victor didn’t stop her from drifting through my dreams. Yet for some reason, I imagined I heard my grandmother’s disappointed sigh, and Nemi offered a little avian growl near my ear. It was all just nonsense. Lucy had been the most practical person I’d known.
Follow your heart, my son.
That organ clenched tight as I pushed her last words aside. I had practical reasons for hanging around. If I stayed, I’d have time to absorb what I needed. Enough, anyway, to get by.
If I truly wanted to make it to the top of Victor’s hierarchy, I needed more than ability—I needed information. And it was here—in spades. Staying would give me time to explore other mysteries, too.
Like, why Bree and herhombre grandewere looking up information on a legendary sword that had paraded through some very famous Earth mythology…
