Page 21 of Broken Destiny

I don’t close my eyes this time. I reach directly toward that glittering silver band. I want him here. I beg the library. He’s my guardian. I repeat the mantra soundlessly over and over. My fingers graze against metal, cold and writhing like a living being. I almost recoil when it shocks me, but I force myself to grasp onto the wrongness. Another growl rips from my throat. My fingers change before my eyes, lengthening and forming claws that look more like talons. They’re not really lion-like, but I’ve never seen a lion in person, so I don’t know. Also, nothing about a sphinx follows the customary rules of shifters or beasts.

I curl my lengthened fingers around the band, tugging on it with all my might. It refuses to budge, even though it seems like it’s wrapped around nothing. I can’t really feel Kodi underneath, just the static charge that seems to accompany him, like he’s nothing more than a mass of vibrating atoms. I guess that’s all any of us are, but he’s in the rawest state.

My gasp fills the tension in the room. “Kodi,” I whisper. “Flow through it while I’m holding it - like you do a wall. Float through it like it’s a barrier.” He starts to object, but I growl again. “Do you want to stay or not?” I demand harshly, and he bares his teeth back at me. I feel him trying to move under the collar, his energy buzzing louder and more frenetically.

“Try harder,” I command through clenched teeth as the collar tries to slip from my grip and move with him. My fingers burn from holding onto the biting cold metal, but I don’t let go. I won’t let him go.

Suddenly, with a pop, he zips across the room, hovering through the air, and the collar is in my hands. I throw it to the ground, cradling my aching fingers to my chest. The unnatural tether sinks into the wood grain of the library floor, fading into nothingness as the library absorbs its magic.

“I’m free!” the ghost crows as he hovers near the ceiling, and I waver as a surge of dizziness smashes into me. Avery flies across the room in a snap, his arms gently lowering me to the softness of the bed I haven’t slept in yet. Kodi glides back to me, his face mere inches from mine.

“Zo? Are you okay? Are you hurt?” Anger rings through his voice, and I know why. He’s mad that he still can’t touch me even though he’s free.

The desire to sleep pulls at me, but I can’t surrender yet. “The book,” I whisper. Duggar somehow hears. The massive book lands with a thump next to me. I can’t read the print because my eyes are blurring, but there are only a couple sentences, whereas Avery and I both had a page or more of a contract. Kodi glances at the page, looks at the goblin, and shared understanding passes between them. My friend nods once and Duggar hands him the pen. I force myself to remain conscious, watching with fascinated horror and hope as the ghost manipulates the pen with no issues. He plunges the tip of the peculiar writing utensil into his arm and presses it to the page. There’s no blood. His signature glows silver upon the page; it’s the essence of whatever makes him visible to me and a few others.

As soon as the last letter is drawn and the link snaps into place in my chest, I submit to the darkness.

Chapter Ten

Avery

The woman I’ve known for mere hours collapses in my arms, and I study her aura. She’s only sleeping, exhausted from whatever magical feat she just performed, but I’m still worried she’s not well. The smudgy blue color I associate with the magical goblins wavers closer to her subdued amber, and he confirms my assumptions.

“She’ll need some rest. That was difficult for her.”

I squint as if that will help me discern the inanimate energies of the blankets. I can’t tell if she’s covered or not, but the blue smudge does something. I assume he’s taking care of the needs that I can’t fully attend to. How she thought I’d be suitable for this role is beyond me, but I endeavor to be the best guard for her. That duty at the moment includes my new fellow guardian, a ghost.

His silvery-white aura isn’t as dull as it was before Zosia snatched the gleaming piece of magic from around his neck, but it’s still not as stable as a live person’s, or even the goblins’. I look back down at the glowing woman in my arms, wanting to trail my fingers across her face to learn her features, but it seems creepy to do so while she’s sleeping. A cleared throat also reminds me I have an audience. I rise slowly from beside her on the bed, facing the new guardian.

“You’re feeling better?” I assume he floats because his aura hovers several feet off the ground. I follow him and the goblin from Zosia’s private apartment, reluctantly leaving her behind to rest. The brighter blue of the female pops in as we exit and my shoulders relax. She won’t be alone. Her scent still clings to me: the smell of books, strawberries, and shifter magic. The power has a distinct odor, musky and wild regardless of the supernatural’s beast form.

When we re-enter the main library, I’m again reminded that my life has changed. I’m no longer subject to the whims of my cruel, petty master. I’m free. This building is magical. The beauty of its essence pours and flows through everything that ever had a spark of life at one point. All the wood glows, making it appear as if I’m walking through a starry landscape. Even the floor beneath me hums with residual magic. I’ve always loved the library because of its quiet, sentient power; now I get to live and work here. I owe that extraordinary woman everything and resolve to prove myself worthy.

“I feel just as I did before we came to this place,” the ghost, Kodi, grumps. His voice is wistful. I hate to compare, but I wonder who has it worse. The man who can’t see the woman he wants to get to know better with every fiber of his being? Or the one who can’t touch her? If I weren’t one of those men, I might find it funny. A momentary pause stretches between us. Kodi hovers near one of the tables in the front of the library. “Avery, right?”

I bow, falling back on the manners that were drilled rather forcefully into my head my entire childhood. “Avery duClair, fellow library guardian, at your service.”

The wispy essence studies me, and I let him. If we’re going to serve the same woman, we need to form a truce. “You’re a blind, born vampire,” he states blandly. I don’t know if it’s because he’s a ghost that makes him what others might consider rude, but I find his directness as refreshing as Zosia’s. I nod, pushing back my hair where it’s come free from the braid. I can’t see it, but I love the feel of it, and many women have complimented me on its color. I wonder what color Zosia’s hair is. Is it the same golden as her aura or tawnier like a lion’s mane?

“I am. And you’re a ghost. How long have you been a ghost?”

A shiver in his aura indicates a small gesture, perhaps a shrug. “I don’t remember anything before I met Zo at the orphanage. It’s like my life began the moment I met her.” His voice trails off. I imagine if he were flesh, he might be blushing. “That sounds really corny,” he finishes, and I share a small chuckle with him.

“Maybe, but I know what you mean. I was raised to be a slave and have been my whole life, until earlier today when she pulled me from under my master’s nose with a simple word.”

“So she chose you the moment you walked through that door?” Kodi asks curiously.

I shrug. “I’m assuming so.”

Duggar snorts, a strange animalistic noise. I arch an eyebrow in question. His aura stops at my waist, and I assume that’s where his head is. So far, I haven’t met any creatures whose visible energy doesn’t encompass their whole body. Also, his voice and breathing originate from below me, confirming my suspicions.

“The library chose you both or neither of you would have been able to enter until it reopened. The more time the librarian spends within these walls, their wishes become one and the same.”

“No offense, but how are a blind vampire and a ghost supposed to guard a building this important?”

I share Kodi’s worries, but Zosia has faith in me. If I don’t share the same faith, I mock her wisdom and wishes.

“They know what they’re doing,” Duggar answers without a shred of worry in his voice. “And you are here to guard the librarian. You know that from the contract you just signed.”

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