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She gently shoved me away. “Just go. We have a ton of books to go through and not much time.”
Aylia was right about that. There were so many books. I didn’t realize how deep the library was until I was at least six rows away from where we were sitting. The lighting also got darker since the windows were all on the other side. I tried to clamp my over-active imagination, but I couldn’t stop thinking about someone stalking me around the library. Every sound had me jumping. The place was just too creepy, making me think it could be haunted. Granted, I felt bad for whichever poor soul was stuck stalking a library.
Didn’t seem that fun to me.
I read titles after titles, wondering which ones would most likely have the potential to tell me what I needed to know. I didn’t realize how vast history could be until I saw all the different topics. Granted, some rows would all be on the very same subject matter, while sometimes there was only one book on one particular issue. My eyes blurred as I pulled down books, stared at the table of contents, and then moved on. Any books about mates and dragons I obviously piled up on a nearby table.
Once I finished going through the entire aisle, I brought all the books back with me. They were heavy, and I could barely see over them, but somehow I managed to get the massive stack back.
Aylia’s eyes bugged when she saw everything I dropped onto the table. “Did you bring the whole shelf back with you?” she asked, looking over the titles.
“I’m not going back and forth. It’s creepy back there.”
She snorted as she grabbed one of her books and opened it. Her stack was a lot smaller than mine. I looked over at a nearby shelf, and could see spots missing in them. She really only had to go like three feet to put the books back.
Hours dragged by, and I kind of wanted to cry. We weren’t finding anything, not even a whisper about the story she heard as a kid. At least Aylia remained determined because I definitely wasn’t. Frankly, staring at books for so long made me want to sleep. I was a person used to being on the go constantly from working on the farm. Reading was something I did for pleasure at night until I fell asleep, which wasn’t all that much time nightly, considering how exhausted I’d be after working all day.
So being idle ended up feeling more exhausting than working. I’d rather be lugging things around, trying to fix broken fences and machinery or chasing after escaped livestock. Not sitting in a library all day.
My stomach growled, letting me know it was definitely dinner time.
“One more trip, then we’re calling it for the day,” I said, standing up and staring at all the books I’d have to put back.
“Fair enough,” Aylia said.
I sighed, grabbed the books, and worked my way to the back of the library, trying to not psych myself out with made up horror stories. I just put the stack of books down on a side table when rustling caught my attention.
I looked around but didn’t see anyone. I strained my hearing and didn’t hear anything either. Frowning, I kept looking around. There was definitely someone nearby, and while the chances were high that it was another student just looking for a book, it was hard for me to shake that feeling of being stalked.
Again, there was a shuffle of someone nearby. Just around the bend of bookshelves that I was between. I tried to see in between the books and shelves to see on the other side, but I wasn’t seeing anything.
I grabbed a book, trying to shake the feeling that someone was there. I reached up to put it back on a shelf just above my head, when a shadow fell over me and grabbed the book. I let out a little scream and jumped back into them, ready to ram my elbow into my potential attacker.
“Rayna, calm down. It’s just me.” Philit grabbed my arm, stopping me from hitting him. He slid the book into its spot and turned me to face him. He frowned, looking over me slowly. “You look exhausted; what are you doing?”
“I could ask the same thing. Where did you come from?” I looked around. How did I not sense him? He was my mate, so I should have known. That upset me more than I liked.
I should have felt him this close to me.
He touched my face, forcing me out of my thoughts. At least where he touched me tingled, even if I couldn’t pick up on his emotions like I should have been able to.
“I thought we would be too late in finding you,” he whispered.
“You were looking for me?” I asked, warmth flooding me.
“It’s been too long.” He leaned forward and rested his head against mine, releasing a soft sigh as his body seemed to relax against me. I closed my eyes, loving being so close to him. His wings ruffled and he grimaced. “I’ll never get used to not being able to move my wings.”
“Does it hurt?” I asked, worry slipping into my question.
“I’m mostly used to it now. It’s just restraining at this point. Come on.” He dropped his hands and grabbed my wrist gently, pulling me deeper into the library. Philit weaved through stacks, stopping every so often as he checked to make sure no one was around.
“Aylia is going to realize I’m missing.”
“It’ll be fine. She actually helped us find you.”
“What?” That surprised me.
“Yeah. She slipped another dragon a note to send to me. He delivered it.”
