“Got it,” I said, nodding far too many times and scrambling back to the main stairway.
He led the way up to the third and highest floor, these steps creakier and needing more maintenance than the first flight. On this level was a wide open space, filled with broken furniture. A hole in the floor on the far side led downward, and I realized they were more intentional than accidental. They were perfectly sized for Abraxas. This one must have met the hole in the living room, creating a path through the house that didn’t involve stairs. No curtains covered any of the windows up here, but there still wasn’t much light. All the windows were small, and the glass was frosted.
Er… dirty. Not frosted, upon closer inspection.
“No one uses this room, because no one wanted to clean it up,” Kirin said. “Abraxas occasionally sleeps up here because he likes the dark. Waylon practices his abilities here sometimes. The main draw of the third floor is the library.”
I didn’t have long to wonder about what Waylon’s abilities were before the library was brought up. I perked up, following behind Kirin as he led the way to a set of oversized double doors off to our right. The distance between us may have decreased a bit in my excitement. When he pulled both doors open at the same time with a loud creak of the solid wood, I gasped.
Beyond the doors was a whole different world than the rest of the third floor. Book cases towered above both of us, reaching to the ceiling with sliding ladders to reach the top shelves. Skylights shone down on a cute lounge and a plain, empty desk in the centre of the room, brightening everything. The musty and comforting scent of old paper hit me, and I huffed it like an addict.
I missed the Grand Library of Enchantments so much. This was a better substitute than I’d ever hoped to find here, and a good place to search for clues too.
Glancing back out to the decrepit living area, I noticed the ceilings were much lower. If I pictured the house from the outside, this library didn’t make sense. There had been skylights, but this was far too tall. The simple explanation was magic, which either meant Felix had hired someone to warp the room, or had more magic of his own than I’d originally assumed.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” Kirin asked, his lips pulling up into a smile that highlighted his fangs.
“Absolutely spectacular,” I agreed, hesitantly slipping past him and into the room.
We were nowhere close to touching, still half a metre between us, but I felt his presence more heavily. Large. Intimidating. I held my breath, but my heart calmed when I ran my hands along the spines of a shelf of books. “Is there a list of all the books in here?” I asked.
A list would be helpful for finding anything related to the seal on the house, but I was more interested in knowing which books I wanted to read first. For the moment, my attention had shifted away from my life-threatening situation and toward my literal dream room laid out in front of me. If I was going to die, here was probably the best possible place.
“No. It’s a pain in the ass to find anything specific, but fun to browse. I swear sometimes the books move on their own or new ones appear, but it could be Waylon playing a trick.”
My escape plans would have me in here often, perusing and cataloging everything in the search for a way to break a seal with my minimal magic skills. Had Uncle Felix known how pathetically low magic I was? If he’d been watching me my whole life, I would hope so. It hadn’t been a secret.
“I’ll go through them and make a list while I’m here. Lists are my specialty.”
“There’s no need. Everyone here is used to not knowing what’s in the library.”
“Oh, I’ll enjoy the process.”
I glanced over my shoulder at him, finding his forehead scrunched in confusion. “Have at it,” he said, shrugging. “Are you hungry? The kitchen is off of the living room on the ground floor, in case you didn’t see before.”
The books tempted me, but my stomach rumbled. Mentioning food had reminded my body about its need for sustenance. My last meal was… I counted back the hours. Over twenty-four hours ago. I’d grabbed a quick snack for dinner before getting on the train leaving Asteria. Not even a whole meal, because I’d been planning on finding a local restaurant after dropping off my suitcases.
“Do you all eat normal food?”
My mouth blurted out the question before my brain caught up. I cringed, face flushing bright pink. Kirin snorted. “We may be monsters, princess, but it’s not like we don’t enjoy your human food. The options are basic, but you won’t starve here.”
I bit my bottom lip to avoid saying something else stupid, waiting for him to lead the way from the library. He watched me for a few seconds longer than was necessary, then started back downstairs. By the time we reached the bottom I was winded from trying to keep up. For the tour he must have slowed himself down on purpose, because he was taking steps four at a time. No one was in the living room, the house quiet around us. Was it sound proofing, or were four men truly this quiet?
“We have oatmeal and pasta,” Kirin said, pulling open two cupboards. “Plain sauce. Dried meats. Rice, but not much to go with the rice.”
The list stopped there, and he gestured to the nearly bare cupboards. Only one small tub of each item he’d mentioned sat on the shelves. “Aren’t you all starving? This food can’t be healthy.”
“I’m fairly certain their goal isn’t to keep us healthy, funny enough,” Kirin said, teasingly sarcastic. “The ingredients magically replenish when they’re used, so we have limitless amounts of everything I mentioned. We just don’t have anything else.”
So bland. I pointed to the oatmeal and filled the kettle with water, setting it to boil over the stove. The fire runes created a much stronger heat than my kitchen in my old apartment. When Kirin tossed me the small tub, I fumbled it and it fell to the floor. None spilled. His breath caught when I bent over to pick the package up, making me pause. My ass was facing him, which I hadn’t thought about. He was too horny to handle. The tunic I was wearing covered my ass, not showing off my curves.
Didn’t matter to him, apparently.
I stood to my full height again to find him backing away, out of the kitchen and into the adjoining living room. His pupils were enlarged, a bulge tenting his pants. “Enjoy your food. You know where to find me if you need anything else.”
Sure did. He’d be in his room jerking off. I tried to avoid being proud of myself, fighting the blush rising to my cheeks. This had nothing to do with me specifically. All he was responding to was my gender. I was at least convinced now that he wouldn’t do anything more than flirt. He’d had the opportunity to force me further, and he hadn’t. “I’ll probably head back up to the library after, if anyone wonders where I am.”
He nodded shakily before sliding through the doors and out of my sight.
